Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Author: Maria Rosa Henson
Maria Rosa Luna Henson burst into the national consciousness in 1992, when she broke half-a-century's silence to talk about her ordeal as a ‘comfort woman’ in a World War II rape camp.
In April 1943, then 15 year old Rosa was taken by Japanese soldiers and forced to render sexual services to the military. In this moving autobiography, she recalls her childhood as the bastard daughter of a rich Angeles landowner, her wartime experience and her decision to go public with a secret she had kept for 50 years. She wrote her memoirs by hand, often crying as she remembered. ‘Comfort Woman’ is a story of a young woman’s survival, but it is also an account of her extraordinary courage which moves and inspires us all.
Her example encouraged other women to come out with their own stories, belying earlier claims that the Japanese forces did not set up ‘comfort stations’ in the Philippines as they did in Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia. Lola Rosa overcame great odds to become a champion of justice for the most secret and silent victims of World War II. Sadly, her personal crusade went unfinished when she died of a heart attack at the Pasay City hospital on the night of August 18, 1997. She was 69. The book was a finalist for Best Biography in the 1997 National Book Awards.
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