| Their Story
Account of Johana & RikaIt was about a month after the Japanese occupation of Java. Both Johana and her elder sister Rika had stopped work at a thread-making mill and gone into hiding, because their father learned that Japanes soldiers were looking for young girls. The soldiers were led to them by a procurer, who had been snooping around the house. 'Our father tried to conceal our existence, but to no avail. The soldiers searched from room to room and found us. They forced my parents to give us up: in return they would be paid. Failure to agree with these conditions would have meant instant death for them. Regretfully, with tears falling down from their eyes, they handed us over.' Rika and I were taken to the procurer's house. There were already dozens of pretty young teenage girls there. They were from central Java, Tasik, Garut, Menado and Ambon. I cannot remember all their names, but I can never forget the name of our mama-san, Mami Sakaenah, who later was constantly to force us to drink herbal medicine to prevent us from getting pregnant. After a month the procurer took them to Jakarta, telling them they were to be given jobs in a Japanese household. This turned out to be a household surrounded by barbed wires and watched closely by armed soldiers night and day. The girls were treated like prisoners. A week passed. Then Johana, Rika and the forty girls were taken by ship to Borneo. There they were put in a camp called Sakura, a high-walled fortress watched closely by Japanese soldiers. 'We were given a room each. Rika and I were in different rooms in the same camp. Each of us was given a Japanese name and each room had the occupant's name on the door. I was called Yoko-chan. We were given some clothing and cosmetics and told to dress up and beautify ourselves'. 'One night about 7 p.m. a soldier came to my room. I was forced to entertain him. I resisted at first, and he barked at him. I then squatted down on my knees to defend myself. He hit me and strip me naked. Soon I was to be stripped of every shred of pride and dignity as well. The same thing happened to Rika and the other girls ... We could not resist, nor could we run away, since the camp was so heavily guarded. In the end we had no choice but to accept our fate ... They should have been ashamed of themselves for robbing us of our youth. We had to service five to ten soldiers a day and would be hit or tortured if we refused. One day Rika was menstruating and could not provide service, whereupon the soldier whom she had denied service took his rifle and hit her on the knees. The injury was so bad that she has been unable to walk normally since, despite repeated treatment. The girls were exploited by everyone, including the mama-san. "If a soldier gave us tips, then the Japanese mama-san in charge of us took the money away and we were left with nothing. We received just enough food and clothing and had a regular medical check by a doctor once a week. The girls were also closely guarded and not allowed outside the camp, where there were a lot of romusha (forced labourers). 'If any romusha was caught talking to any of us, he would be executed immediately'.(She witnessed several of these executions.) Four months later, the girls were moved to camp in Brunei, where they stayed for a few months before being moved to Singapore, then to Malaya, and then again to Sandakan, in Borneo. On the voyage to Sandakan, the ship hit a mine. Johana saw two of her Eurasian friends drown because they could not swim, and had no pieces of wood to cling to, but she eventually reached land, where she found Rika. Those who were injured were taken to hospital for treatment, after which they were made to serve the soldiers again, in company with many other Filipina girls. She and Rika were in this isolated camp in Sandakan for the last three years of the war. Desperation led to a few suicides. One was her friend Inem, who became pregnant and was driven crazy by the thought that she would never know the father. 'One night after serving a soldier, she grabbed hold of his gun and shot herself'.
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