Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Women's Day is a big thing in China. Back home, we'd probably just send a couple of emails or text messages and forget all about it. In China, people actually celebrate it. Last night, I had dinner with the other teachers at WaiYan, all women, generously funded (surprisingly) by the headmaster. To the joy of everyone, the headmaster couldn't join us because he had a cold. We were, of course, thankful for the free food. Today, I saw random women carrying gifts and flowers.

A couple of nights ago, Rain, Jaden (the guy we were teasing as gay. He has a name now. We christened him that night.) and I went to TianXing (the disco) after going to a KTV bar with other friends. (Oh, that night I found out that there's a Cantonese version of Air Supply's "All Out of Love"!) The three of us felt that it was still too early to go home. So they were dancing while I was, hehe, sipping my Coke and watching people. Later, they would tell me what happened on the dancefloor. There were three Japanese women, one of which was dancing with Rain. She could only speak Japanese and very very little English. In fact the only English that she could say were, "Come on, baby" and um, ahh, "Sex." Despite the language barrier, I think she was quite successful in communicating perfectly what she wanted. As some of you know, Rain is not exactly the kind of person who can easily pass up oppportunities like this. Surprisingly, he did pass it up. Later he would tell me that he had what he thought as his first ever taste of racism. Remember that the Chinese hate the Japanese with a passion. Rain actually thinks of himself now as more Chinese than Canadian.

This reminded me of a class that I had during the winter break. The class were composed of college students home for the holiday, and one girl who spent six months in Canada to learn English. I'm not sure now how the discussion led to the Japanese. I was actually almost always careful not to stir up the controversial topic even in casual conversations. Since we already were talking about it and I was quite curious too, I asked them how they feel about the Japanese. They were hesitant about saying anything at first. I started calling on individuals. "Max, do you hate the Japanese?" "No." This was immediately followed by a punch (playfully, though) from the girl to his right. "Well, he doesn't." I said, defending him. The following will be paraphrased since I cannot remember exactly who said what, and how they were said.

Student: We don't like them.

JC: Okaaay...

Student from Canada: Even when we hang out together in Canada, we just pretend to like each other but I can feel... (voice trailed off, shrugged)

JC: Do you all feel the same way?

Students: (embarrassed smiles)

Student from Canada: And they're so... so.... When we eat together, they would eat even the last piece. The Chinese will always offer that to the guest.

That one made me smile a little. JC: Maybe that's just part of their culture. They probably don't do it the same way as the Chinese. It doesn't really mean that they were being impolite or disrespectful. They just have a different way of doing things.

Student: (shrugged) Maybe.

Student: We try not to buy Japanese products. We'd rather buy Western things.

Max: I like playing their video games.

Student: But as much as possible we don't buy Japanese-made things.

JC: I can understand how you feel. Really. The Japanese did a lot of bad things in my country too. Killed people, raped women...

Students: (nodded enthusiastically)

JC: But the Filipinos have a very short memory. We don't really hate them the way you Chinese do.

Student: They're not even admitting what they did. They believe they did nothing wrong.

JC: But you see, a lot of them don't really know. Their history textbooks don't really say what their ancestors did during the war...

Student: Yes.

JC: Your government never made you forget, unlike ours, unlike theirs.

Then I told them about the comfort women in the Philippines. The comfort women were basically sex slaves during the Japanese occupation. It was only in the early nineties when one of the comfort women first spoke up and told the nation of the atrocities that she had to suffer. Since then, more and more lolas came forward and told their stories. Before coming out with their stories, not even their husbands and children knew what they went through. Most of them are in their 70s and 80s now. Many have already died without even getting the justice they deserve.

The very first time I witnessed an actual account by a lola was in a forum on Balikatan 2000 in DLSU. I was active in Gabriela at the time and I was tasked to deliver a speech to urge students to take an active role in keeping the American soldiers out of Philippine soil. For the life of me, I cannot remember what I said. What I do remember was the lola's story of what war was all about. She told us how babies were thrown up in the air only to be caught by bayonets, how she was raped by Japanese soldiers in front of her parents, how her parents in turn were tortured and killed, how she and her sister were taken away separately never to see each other again. All the while, tears were streaming down her face as she recalled all that happened to her during the war.

A few years ago, the Conference for International Women Playwrights was held in Manila. I served in the documentation team but wasn't there when the lolas from Lila-Pilipinas, a group that the lolas formed, came to talk about their experiences. My friend told me how the women from all over the world wept together as they listened. After the lolas had finished, the Japanese delegation went up to them, knelt down, and asked for forgiveness. Up until that day, those Japanese women might not have known that their country had anything to be sorry about. A war that happened sixty years ago could be written in so many ways. Those women at the conference, as with most Japanese people, had nothing to do with the war, and yet when they found out how their country caused so much pain and suffering to innocent people, they were willing to kneel down and ask for forgiveness for things that they had no control over. How is it possible for one to hate them?

I told this story to my students in the shortest and simplest way I could. In the end I think we all agreed to blame the Japanese government for whitewashing history, and not the Japanese people as a whole. Or maybe they just wanted me to shut up.

So this is how I celebrate Women's Day. No flowers nor gifts for me though. For more information on the comfort women, click here.