More and more often we get to hear about “comfort women” – women and girls who were forced to work sexually by the Japanese army during World War II. However, the Korean perspective is the most common: we stock, for example One Left: A Novel by Kim Soom (trans. Bruce Fulton, Ju-Chan Fulton) or Trawa (eng. The Grass) by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (trans. Łukasz Janik). My Mother is More Than a Comfort Woman is a unique work as it is dedicated to Filipino comfort women called Lolas. It stems from the Philipine word for “grandma” since the first stories started to surface when the women were 50-60 years old.
Lolas began to open up about their experience only in the 90s, almost half a century after the war had ended. Because of that, very few lived to this day to tell their stories. This book was made not only to immortalize memories of four Lolas but also to show that they were sisters, mothers and grandmothers too, instead of only being victims as the media often portrays them.
My Mother is More Than a Comfort Woman is a story of four Lolas told by their daughters and granddaughters – and written in/translated into three languages: English, Japanese, and Tagalog. The stories are followed by illustrations and at the end of the book, you will find the most important information on Lolas (did you know that in Manila alone there were 17 “comfort stations”?) and short bibliography for further reading, both in Japanese and English.
