Former 'Comfort Women' who were forced to serve Japanese troops during…
Senso Daughters
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- Transcript
During World War II, 140,000 Japanese troops may have died in Papua New Guinea. Only 11,000 returned to Japan. Considered the 'Forgotten War,' neither the war nor its veterans received public recognition in Japan.
But SENSO DAUGHTERS (DAUGHTERS OF WAR) investigates another unacknowledged tragedy of that campaign: the army's mistreatment of New Guinean women and 'comfort girls,' military prostitutes conscripted believing they would clean and cook. Since women, excepting nurses, had no official military status, 90,000 comfort girls were shipped to battle sites as 'military commodities,' without names or identities, without records to be traced by.
As the women testify, even as Japanese who were there make startling denials, SENSO DAUGHTERS provoked considerable controversy in Japan because Sekiguchi, a Japanese, not only exposes a shameful episode in her nation's past, but indicts the culture which fostered it.
' * * * * [4 out of 4 stars]! Highly Recommended!'-Video Rating Guide for Libraries
'SENSO DAUGHTERS reveals a shameful chapter in Japan's military history, and Sekiguchi has risked considerable disapproval in her country by producing such a powerful indictment. Documentary at its best: stark, honest and uncensored.'-Anne Markowski, New Directions for Women
'A tour de-force of investigative journalism, a frightening meditation on amnesia and history and a personal historiography in the best tradition of Shoah. In the face of incontrovertible evidence, Japanese soldiers and nurses alike continue to pretend ignorance of the real conditions inside the brothels.'-Cineaste
'Chilling! [The film] attains its most subtle brilliance precisely by allowing the New Guineans to speak for themselves.'-David Desser, Education About Asia
'Unforgettable! Never sensational or offensive; instead... [the film] uses interviews in which a common human desire for dignity can be seen. Through the contrasting images and voices of the Japanese and Melanesians, these memories become the stuff of history.'-David D. Buck, Editor, Journal of Asian Studies
'Excellent! Sekiguchi is undaunted by official evasion and lies, and the (willfully) incomplete memories or outright denials of Japanese veterans. She raises troubling questions about Japan's imperial legacy, the relationship between memory and history, between sexual and cultural colonialism and the role of women.'-The Guardian
Citation
Main credits
Sekiguchi, Noriko (film producer)
Sekiguchi, Noriko (film director)
Diai, Josephine (on-screen participant)
Goto, Yusaku (on-screen participant)
Asō, Tetsuo (on-screen participant)
Other credits
Director of photography, Chris Owen; editors, Les McLaren, Masato Koike, Chicko Shimizu; music, Hitosh Komuro, Blasius To Una.
Distributor subjects
Asia; East Asia; Human Rights; Japan; Sociology; Southeast Asia; Women's Studies; World War IIKeywords
Japan; Papua New Guinea; World War II; comfort girls; "Senso Daughters"; Icarus Films
WEBVTT
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[music]
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[sil.]
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[music]
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This is my last day of filming.
It was during the time
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that people came to pay respect to
the gravely ill Emperor Hirohito.
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[music]
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The Palace Plaza has had a special
significance in modern Japanese history.
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This is where young soldiers came to salute the
emperor before going to fight his Sacred War
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and this is where the Emperor broadcast
his speech of unconditional surrender.
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For people of my generation,
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born and educated since that
time, the names of World War II
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or the Pacific War of
Palmyra(ph) but the term
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Dai Tō-A Sensō the Great East Asian
War has been completely removed
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from our language.
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Filming at the plaza all
day, observing these people,
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so sure of their commitment, I felt
like a stranger in my own society.
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As a woman in Japan,
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it is difficult for me to review and
pass comment on our war history.
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War is seen as men\'s business
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but I know women definitely
had a role in the war
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and it was this story I
really wanted to investigate.
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However, I would have to
start this story with men.
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[music]
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These men are survivors of
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the Emperor\'s army, who more than 40 years
ago, occupied New Guinea as part of
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Dai Tō-A Sensō, the Great East Asian War.
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[music]
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He was attached to the headquarters of
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the Japanese (inaudible) 51st Division.
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(inaudible).
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In the 1980s as a university
student in Australia,
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I was shocked to find out how
strong we do in New Guinea,
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stamped (ph) on the public
memory of Australians.
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[non-English narration]
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By contrast, ex-soldiers like
these and the Japanese dead
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whose bones they have come to collect,
have no public recognition in Japan.
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[non-English narration]
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I was fascinated by this contrast and the New
Guinea campaign became the focus of my interest.
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And I realized if we can
ignore our own soldiers,
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how easy it is to forget
our women and the people
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whose homeland we turned
into a battlefield.
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[sil.]
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Five thousand kilometers south of Japan
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in the Bismarck Archipelago
lies New Ireland.
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Formerly a German colony, it was at
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the outbreak of World War II,
an Australian territory.
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In January 1942,
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Japan invaded New Ireland. The
(inaudible) people of this area
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were to be swamped by an
equal number of Japanese.
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This was the beginning of what
we call The Forgotten War.
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[music]
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[sil.]
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[sil.]
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To the south of the New Ireland,
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the main Japanese force overcame
a small Australian unit
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and occupied the volcanic harbor of Rabaul.
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Rabaul became a Japanese
city with 100,000 troops.
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It was to be the largest Japanese command centering
the South Seas during the Great East Asian War.
00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:28.000
[sil.]
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From this fortified base, air, sea,
and land attacks were made against
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Australian and American forces in both
mainland New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
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[sil.]
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These search lights once
protected another larger
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(inaudible)on the island of (inaudible).
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Our history books taught us nothing about
this battlefield but I was to learn
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that for the people living amongst
these relics, our war in the Pacific
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has not been forgotten.
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Emperor Hirohito still lies critically ill at the
Imperial Palace in Tokyo. In the name of the emperor,
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Japan\'s military leaders in the 1930s
embarked on a war of conquests.
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He was certainly not a puppet. He knew everything
that was going on. A chapter of history
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that saw the rise and fall of Japanese
military power in Asia and the Pacific.
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He was a very revered figure. A person
who links modern Japan with its past.
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To me, standing at the Palace Plaza,
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the Emperor represents
a barrier to the past.
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[sil.]
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Many have (inaudible) with
images of loyal followers
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but these images
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still do not tell us anything of
an era that was about to end.
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[sil.]
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It is a wall of silence around the emperor
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and his sacred war that
has part of our history.
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The story of New Guinea and
the story of women and war.
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Many people in Japan have
heard of military prostitutes
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or comfort women conscripted
for the sacred war
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but this story too has
been hidden by silence.
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[music]
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I decided to visit a New Guinea war veteran
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who lives in downtown Tokyo. I wanted to
hear about the Forgotten War from a soldier
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who was actually there.
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I have never seen so many books
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on the New Guinea campaign before. Most
of these are written by survivors.
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All of a sudden I realized that these
stories of hardship and suffering
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were only circulated among themselves.
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[sil.]
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In my research, I have discovered these books
which were not in Mr. Goto\'s collection.
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They were written by historians
and document the conscription of
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military prostitutes or Comfort Women
to service the emperor\'s armed forces
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during the war.
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[sil.]
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One that provided me was a name of
a military sergeant who had worked
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as a gynaecologist in China,
Raubaul, Papua New Guinea.
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I visited him on Kyushu
Island in the south of Japan.
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Dr. Aso\'s photograph of the poster
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confirms the (inaudible). The poster says,
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for Japanese military personnel only.
Pay two yen in cash at reception
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and receive a ticket and one condom.
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Give your ticket to the next available
comfort women. The time limit,
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maximum 30 minutes. Sex is
forbidden without a condom.
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Leave the room immediately
after ejaculation
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or face military punishment.
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Another of Dr. Aso\'s photos
is of a condom used by
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the Japanese Emperor\'s Army. It
is printed with a brand name,
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Attack Number One.
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[sil.]
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[music]
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It was Dr. Aso\'s photograph.
I went to find out
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more about the Cosmopolitan Hotel.
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
It is said to have been the largest Japanese
military brothel in the south Pacific.
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
I found that the Cosmopolitan
Hotel once stood
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close to the site of these trade stores.
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
All I could see now was evidence of the
most recent Japanese economic power.
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
[music]
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
I was anxious to find people
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
who could still remember the earlier time.
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
[sil.]
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This old photograph of the
Cosmopolitan Hotel where the Japanese
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women were living in it.
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There were hundreds and hundreds of them
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I don\'t know. I can\'t tell how many,
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but many of them.
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They usually coming down to the floor
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
nakedly in order to wash themselves
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
under the tanks. I did watch
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
those girls also but I
didn\'t think of anything
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because the law of
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the Japanese government was cruel
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
during the war but not in this time.
Peacetime is different from war.
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In war, if a man like me touching
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:10.000
one of those girls, cut his
throat off straight away.
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:30.000
[sil.]
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[sil.]
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[music]
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[music]
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:08.000
Didn\'t military men take
comfort women along?
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Japanese military nurses
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were trained to observe a strict
moral standard in their profession.
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
Ironically the nurses in this picture
are standing in the doorway of
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
a military brothel. The welcoming
signs on either side of them read,
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
\"Welcome, O heroic soldiers
of the Sacred War,
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
we patriotic Japanese women offer you
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:50.000
our minds and our bodies.\"
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:45.000
[sil.]
00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
The coastal areas in New Guinea
were the most severely affected
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
during the war.
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
[sil.]
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
I was lucky to come
across some village women
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:20.000
who were ready to talk about their personal
experiences of Japanese occupation.
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:30.000
[sil.]
00:35:55.000 --> 00:36:00.000
[sil.]
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:50.000
[sil.]
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:20.000
[sil.]
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:45.000
[sil.]
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:55.000
[sil.]
00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:30.000
[sil.]
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:35.000
[sil.]
00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:58.000
[sil.]
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
[sil.]
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:45.000
[non-English narration]
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:08.000
[non-English narration]
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
[sil.]
00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:30.000
[non-English narration]
00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:50.000
[non-English narration]
00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:10.000
[non-English narration]
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:30.000
[non-English narration]
00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:43.000
[non-English narration]
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:20.000
[sil.]
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:40.000
[non-English narration]
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:53.000
[non-English narration]
00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:15.000
[sil.]
00:48:55.000 --> 00:49:00.000
[sil.]
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:58.000
[sil.]
00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:13.000
[music]
00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:05.000
[music]
Distributor: Icarus Films
Length: 54 minutes
Date: 1989
Genre: Expository
Language: Not available / English subtitles
Grade: 10-12, College, Adult
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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