María Rosa Luna Henson or "Lola Rosa" ("Grandma Rosa") (December 5, 1927 – August 18, 1997) was the first Filipina who made public in 1992 her story as a

comfort woman Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese '' ian ...

(military sex slave) for the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Biography

Maria Rosa Luna Henson was born on December 5, 1927. She grew up in poverty in

Pampanga Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga ( pam, Lalawigan ning Pampanga; tl, Lalawigan ng Pampanga ), is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac ...

with her single mother, Julia. Born the illegitimate child of Don Pepe, a wealthy landowner, Henson saw her father sporadically throughout her childhood. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

started, Henson became a member of the

Hukbalahap The Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (), better known by the acronym Hukbalahap, was a Communism, communist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla movement formed by the farmers of Central Luzon. They were originally formed to Philippine resistance against Ja ...

, a Communist guerrilla movement resisting the Japanese invaders. In April 1943 while with her comrades, Henson was taken by Japanese soldiers and led the local Japanese headquarters where she was forced to be a “

.” In August 1943, Henson and the other girls were transferred to a larger building in Angeles, Pampanga where the rape continued. In January 1944, Hukbalahap guerrillas attacked the building and freed Henson. After nine months of being a comfort woman, Henson greatly suffered psychologically and physically. She eventually married a young soldier named Domingo and had three children: Rosario (August 1947), Rosalinda (September 1949), and Jesus (December 1951). Domingo died in November 1953. Starting in 1957, Henson worked in a cigarette factory for thirty-four years. In 1992, when Henson was 65, she decided it was time to tell the world about her experience during the

Japanese occupation of the Philippines The Japanese occupation of the Philippines (Filipino: ''Pananakop ng mga Japones sa Filipinas''; ja, 日本のフィリピン占領, Nihon no Firipin Senryō) occurred between 1942 and 1945, when Imperial Japan occupied the Commonwealth of the ...

during the war. Until 1992, only two people had known of her secret: her late mother and her dead husband. After coming out publicly with her story at a press conference in September 1992, Lola Rosa decided to write about her war-time experience in the book, ''Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny''. In ''Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny'', Lola Rosa discussed the silent and invisible existence of Filipino comfort women. Fifty Filipino women soon followed Rosa's example as they decided to reveal themselves and their personal stories for the first time—not only to the world but to their families as well. Other victims, including those from

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, joined the Filipino women to file a class action

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

against the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese government in December 1993. The suit sought a formal apology from the Japanese government; the inclusion of all the war-time atrocities committed by the Japanese into Japan's school

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

books; and monetary reparations. Manilajf0388 32

Initially the Japanese government denied legal responsibility, however they later responded to growing pressure and continued protests by the survivors and their supporters, and established the Asian Women's Fund (AWF) in 1995 to collect money from private Japanese citizens in order to create "atonement payments." Henson died of a heart attack in August 1997, a year after she decided to accept 320 million yen ($26,667) monetary reparations from the AWF.https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/27/world/maria-rosa-henson-69-dies-victim-of-japanese-brothels.html. Seth Mydans. Retrieved November 1, 2015

References

Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny, Maria Rosa Luna Henson: Woman of Courage, KASAMA Vol. 11 No. 3, Solidarity Philippines Australia Network, Cpcabrisbane.org, July–August–September 1997 and Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Manila
retrieved on: 10 June 2007

retrieved on: 10 June 2007 * ttp://mit.edu/activities/thistle/v9/9.08/5newsbits.html Comfort Women Slam Japan Apology, Newsbits Vol. 9.8, Reuter and MIT.edu, retrieved on: 10 June 2007
Maria Rosa Henson 69 Dies Victim of Japanese Brothels
retrieved on: 1 November 2015

Retrieved 1 November 2015.

External links

Comfort woman: Slave of destiny
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henson, Rosa Kapampangan people People from Pampanga People from Manila Filipino non-fiction writers 1927 births 1997 deaths Women in war in the Philippines Comfort women 20th-century Filipino women writers 20th-century Filipino writers

Biography

See also

References

External links