The Women of Mapanique (Part 2) [video]

The Women of Mapanique (Part 2) [video]

[From YouTube]: This is the story of the Women of Mapanique located in Candaba Pampanga Philippines who were subjected to mass rape, gang rape and other human rights violations by the Japanese Army during World War ll in 1943.

***

MAPANIQUE, Philippines — On Nov. 23, 1944, Japanese soldiers stormed through this village, burning down houses and killing all the Filipino men they could find. They then herded dozens of women to a red mansion that had been turned into a garrison.

There, the soldiers took turns violating the Filipinas; they raped a mother and her daughter at the same time in one of the many rooms.

To this day, the women of Mapanique - many of those still alive are now in their 70s - talk about their ordeal with chilling clarity.

[Women interviewed: Ester Dela Cruz-Balingit, Florencia Macapagal de la Peña, Januaria Galang Garcia, Juanita Maniego Briones, Leonora Hernandez Sumaway, Rosalina Manalastas Buco, Rosario Culala Buco, Virginia Manalastas Bangit]

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English

Video

Transcript from YouTube [edited]:

0:05
[we were on the grass under the heat of the sun]
0:13
[in the afternoon]
0:16
[two soldiers came out]
0:21
[and took me inside]
0:22
[to one of the room upstairs, I cried… he slapped me]
0:28
[I remembered what] they did [to my brother]
0:30
[I decided]
0:32
to keep quiet
0:36
[together with the other Japanese he undressed me]
0:40
[he then sent the other soldier to the door]
0:43
[when] companion [was on his way out he called him Captain Iwara]
0:51
[this is the stairs, the room]
0:58
[my sister and I were taken]
1:03
[to an area near a tree]
1:04
[and they succeeded in what they wanted to do] with us
1:07
we could not refuse
1:10
[we could only cry]
1:14
[I was looking for something to drink]
1:15
[what one Japanese did, he pulled me]
1:20
[then] raped me
1:22
[I could not]
1:23
[understand]
1:24
[why] he would do that [to a child like me]
1:29
[when he got] tired of me
1:32
[he did not mind me] anymore, [with the help of God]
1:38
[I was able to get out of the Bahay na Pula]
1:39
[I was only thirteen years old]
1:41
[then when a Japanese soldier]
1:44
[took me to the Bahay na Pula]
1:47
[for almost the whole afternoon] they did something to me
1:51
[at night I fought back and they stopped]
1:57
[then they held my] two feet
2:04
[and] hit me
2:07
[I lost consciousness]
2:10
when i came to [one was on top of me, while the other was holding]
2:15
[my hands]
2:19
[I was pleading] with them
2:21
but they ignored me
2:23
[they kept us inside the house]
2:28
[at midnight]
2:29
they opened the door
2:31
he thought we would be released
2:34
[but we were not allowed to go home]
2:40
[when the soldiers saw me come out of the house]
2:45
[they immediately grabbed me]
2:46
[by the arm]
2:47
[while] one was behind
2:52
[when we were walking towards the schoolhouse]
2:55
[they passed by]
2:57
[the big house]
2:59
[owned by the richest in our] village
3:03
[we entered the house]
3:04
[and they asked me to undress]
3:08
[I was very frightened]
3:09
[I didn’t want to take off my dress] and they even [covered my hand]
3:14
[when I refused to undress, they pushed me]
3:18
[I was]
3:19
[thrown off to a corner]
3:23
[and they hit me] me on my side [with a bayonet]
3:26
which [wounded me]
3:30
[they also used the bayonet]
3:33
[to rip off my underwear]
3:36
[yes, I did not reach Bahay na Pula
3:38
[but] they also [did] the same thing to me
3:41
[they raped me]
3:43
at the age of thirteen years
3:46
[I had now experience]
3:48
[and what] they did to me was very painful
3:51
[my God, i thought there was a God watching over me]
3:55
but there was none [why did he allow it to happen?]
4:01
[The following morning, they let us go]
4:04
[we could hardly stand because of hunger and what we suffered in the hands of the]
4:09
Japanese
4:10
the whole night
4:11
i could not [walk]
4:13
[my companion was supporting me]
4:16
we had no [house] to go home to
4:19
everything [was in ashes]
4:21
they wanted to eat
4:22
There [was] no food
4:23
we wanted to change clothes [there were no clothes]
4:28
[when I woke up I was bleeding] not just from [my wound] but from other
4:32
parts of my [body]
4:36
[I felt very weak]
4:39
[I crawled towards the rice fields where I hid] for three days
4:43
[without food or] water
4:48
[when I reached Candaba]
4:51
[…anywhere I’d been]
4:52
[I could not answer… and cried…]
4:55
then i told [them] what was done [to] me
4:58
my father said
5:02
[those Japanese are animals, we] were defenseless [against what they did]
5:12
[I got sick]
5:13
[my body weakened, including my lungs]
5:18
[to this day]
5:19
the incidents that [happened to me are still on] my mind
5:24
[I cannot forget what the Japanese did]
5:27
[because] what they had done [was very painful]
5:32
[those were very painful experiences… I can’t…]
5:35
anymore
5:39
[I, on the other hand, was able] to get married
5:42
but [my life was miserable]
5:48
[my husband and I were together only for a short while]
5:53
[in less than three years…]
5:57
[he got sick…]
6:00
[…alcohol]
6:02
[everytime he came home]
6:04
[he’d tell me]
6:10
[better to have a leftover dog than a leftover person]
6:19
[that’s what he said until he died]
6:25
[that is why I seek… we must fight for justice for us women]
6:28
[so that this will never]
6:29
happen again

Uploaded to YouTube by Ariel Salumbides on Dec 4, 2008