The Whores of War

Rape. It’s a great, feel-good topic of discussion, isn’t it? Sexual assault isn’t really considered dinner table conversation. While ‘Sex’ is everywhere, and talked about quite openly, sexual assault is that retarded cousin you go to school with but don’t acknowledge in the hallways. It’s embarrassing, a source of shame, and with it comes equal parts sympathy and revulsion. So much so that even victims of sexual assault don’t talk about it; and, sadly, in many cases, don’t report it either.

But how about incidents of sexual assault that everyone knows about but ignores? How about sexual assault as a policy of government? How about sexual assault used as a weapon of war?

Amnesty International report that rape is being used as a military strategy; and it was in Rwanda that acts of sexual violence against Tutsi women were legitimised by government backed, Hutu military leaders through organised propaganda. As a means in which to break the morale of their enemy and increase their own, loot their enemy’s prized possessions, taint the women’s standing in their villages and tribes thereby interrupting their social structures, and to spread AIDS and other STIs. These women were raped, in the most disgusting ways imaginable, solely because of their gender and ethnicity.

When these facts came to light, the world made like Helen Lovejoy and collectively gasped, flabbergasted by the indecency and the inhumanity of it all.  But this wasn’t the first instance of rape used in war. Rape and war have been linked since antiquity. Like most — if not all — cases of sexual assault, rape was used to exert dominance and power. This war is a silent one. And it continues well after the guns have been set aside, as women struggle to cope with their experiences.

In World War II over 200,000 women from South Korea and South East Asia were used as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers; “Comfort Women” was the euphemism used to call them. In one of the biggest incidents of trafficking in modern history, Comfort Women were moved across Asia to service the military; a vessel for men to empty their sins in and derive sexual pleasure from.

But there were cases where women were considered to have “consented”. Women who were in the employ of the Japanese occupying forces as “maids” continued to work for them even though they had allegedly been sexually assaulted by their bosses. But, of course, it wasn’t exactly an economic or social breeze to live in Asia during the war. I believe “exploitation” is an apt term to describe that situation.

So, while the people responsible for the sexual violence in Rwanda, Congo, and Uganda, are being put through the International Courts, 64 years later, the Japanese government have not apologised adequately. The U.S.A., U.K., the European Parliament, Taiwan, South Korea, the Netherlands, and Canada have called upon the Japanese government to accept responsibility. Australia remains one of the only Allied nations to stand on the sidelines, shrug and shake their heads unimpressed, and remain silent. Former Comfort Women don’t want to remain silent, however, and are actively trying to seek justice.

The 15th of August marks the Global Day of Action for Comfort Women. Amnesty International Australia is using that date as a launch pad to put a motion forward in the Senate, for Australia to join the global community’s cry to end impunity, or at least push the Japanese government into accepting responsibility for their past human rights transgressions and apologise for them.

Rape is not okay — and I’m going to get all humanistic here — for the simple reason that every individual deserves the right to autonomy over their bodies. One of the most important things is not only that it shouldn’t happen in the first place but that it shouldn’t occur with impunity, and that the semantics of “consent” doesn’t arrest justice from taking its course.

Because so long as we make excuses and allow acts of sexual violence to occur unpunished, whether it be by the hand of a sporting hero, a soldier, a passing acquaintance, or because she was “totally smashed and asking for it”, we are allowing this war against women to continue on the battelfields, in pubs and clubs, and behind closed doors. So, the question is: Which side are you on?

For more information about Comfort Women, and how you can advocate on behalf of Comfort Women, contact your local Amnesty office. Or, go to http://www.amnesty.org.au and do an “action”.