Former Philippine "comfort women" Estelita Dy (L), 90 years old, and Narcisa Claveria, 91 years old, present flowers to the new historical marker titled "In Memory of the Victims of Military Sexual Slavery and Violence During the Second World War" in Paranaque City in Metro Manila, the Philippines, Aug. 25, 2019. Sympathizers of the Philippine women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II have unveiled a new marker as a reminder about the wartime atrocities committed by Japan during a ceremony at a churchyard in Paranaque City in Metro Manila. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)
MANILA, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Sympathizers of the Philippine women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II have unveiled a new marker as a reminder about the wartime atrocities committed by Japan during a ceremony at a churchyard in Paranaque City in Metro Manila.
The historical marker titled "In Memory of the Victims of Military Sexual Slavery and Violence During the Second World War" was installed in lieu of a comfort woman statue "Lola" that is reportedly "missing" after it was taken down in Manila City in April 2018. Lola is the Filipino word for grandmother.
"The statue stands as a reminder that wars of aggression must always be opposed, and that sexual slavery and violence should never happen again to any woman, anywhere at anytime," reads the granite marker, adding the marker "symbolizes our collective action to remember, learn, respect, and honor a part that should never be forgotten."
Estelita Dy, 90, and Narcisa Claveria, 91, attended Sunday's unveiling ceremony. They were among the first batch of comfort women who came out in the open in the early 1990s to tell their harrowing experience with the Japanese military during the Japanese occupation.
The new marker is the third wartime symbol dedicated to Filipino comfort woman installed in the Philippines.
A seven-feet bronze "comfort woman" sculpture, which depicts a blindfold, grieving woman in Maria Clara traditional Filipiniana gown, was unveiled on Dec. 8, 2017 along the Roxas Boulevard in Manila City. In December 2018, a one-meter tall bronze statue of a girl seated on a chair with a vacant chair on her right was unveiled in San Pedro City, a province outside of Manila, on Dec. 28, 2018.
Japan protested the erection of the two statues, forcing the Philippine government to take the statues down.
"(Lila Pilipina) resists all efforts by Japan to eliminate markers pertaining to its wartime atrocities and supports efforts to establish memorials to promote historical awareness among the youth," Lila Pilipina spokesperson Sharon Silva said in a statement.
Lila Pilipina is an organization of Filipino comfort women and their sympathizers in the Philippines fighting for recognition, apologies and reparations from the Japanese government for its unaddressed sexual slavery crimes against Asian women.
It is estimated that up to 200,000 women in their teens from around Asia, mainly in South Korea, but also in China, Indonesia and the Philippines, were abducted and forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels during that period.
In the Philippines, there are more than 200 women who came out in the open in the 1990s to tell their tragic stories. There are only a few of them alive now, mostly in their 80s and 90s and sick.
Like the other Asian "comfort women", the Filipino comfort women also demand an official apology from the Japanese government, just compensation, and inclusion of the comfort women issue in Japan's historical accounts and textbooks.
