Laban for the Lolas

A letter from SFSU Professor Allyson Tintiagco-Cubales:

Dear Community,

We would like to invite you to join us to learn about the stories of Filipina "comfort women" who were abused during WWII. This is a timely issue because in the month of May, our representatives may be voting on House Resolution 121 (HR121). If passed, HR121 will ask Japan to take full responsibility for the systematic raping and enslavement of over 200,000 women and girls during WWII.

We are fortunate to have M. Evelina Galang, one of the main organizers pushing for the passage of HR121, visiting the Bay Area from May 15-17, 2007. Many of you may know her as the author of Her Wild American Self, Screaming Monkeys, and One Tribe. She will in the Bay Area reading from her new book, Lola¹s House, which focuses on her research on comfort women.

Please join us at the following events to learn about this pressing issue.

Salamat,

Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies
San Francisco State University

P.S. Please see attached petition for you and your organization.

___________________


EVENTS

Laban for the Lolas: Fighting for the Rights of "Comfort Women"
Emergency Meeting and Informational Session on House Resolution 121

Location:
The Filipino Community Center
35 San Juan Avenue/ Cross Street is Mission
San Francisco, CA

Date:
May 15, 2007 (Tuesday)

Time:
6:00-8:30 P.M.

Special Presentation and Reading Featuring M. Evelina Galang (Author of Her Wild American Self, Screaming Monkeys, One Tribe, and Lola's House-forthcoming)

Along with Barbara Reyes Bermeo, Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Claudine delRosario, Korina Jocson, Jocyl Sacramento, and Michelle Ferrer

Special Performance by Aristel delaCruz and Aldrich Sabach

__________________________

Laban for the Lolas: Fighting for the Rights of "Comfort Women"
Student Presentation in Asian American Studies 363- Fil Am Lit


Location:
Burk Hall 225
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132

Date:
May 16, 2007 (Wednesday)

Time:
4:10-5:00 P.M.

Special Presentation and Reading Featuring M. Evelina Galang (Author of Her Wild American Self, Screaming Monkeys, One Tribe, and Lola's House-forthcoming)
_______________________

Laban for the Lolas: Fighting for the Rights of "Comfort Women"
Community Meeting and Informational Session on House Resolution 121

Location:
TBA
Daly City, CA

Date:
May 17, 2007 (Thursday)

Time:
6:00-8:30 P.M.

Special Presentation and Reading Featuring M. Evelina Galang (Author of Her Wild American Self, Screaming Monkeys One Tribe, and Lola's House-forthcoming)
_______________________________

For more information:

Website: http://labanforthelolas.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxKyeLOTA4E

WHO ARE WWII "COMFORT WOMEN"?
World War II "Comfort Women" are the 200,000 girls and women abducted by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII forced to experience a life of systematic rape and enslavement. They are now mostly in their 80's and they are dying.

They were taken from Korea, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan. In the Philippines, historians say there were about 1000 girls abducted.

On March 1, 2007 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe insisted, ³There is no evidence to prove there was coercion, nothing to support it (the coercion of WWII military sex slaves).² We ask Prime Minister Abe to look at the evidence, to see the coercion, to apologize and give appropriate reparations. The women are waiting.

H.RES.121: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Force's coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as "comfort women", during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II.

Sponsor: Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15] (introduced 1/31/2007) Cosponsors

(115)


Committees: House Foreign Affairs

Latest Major Action: 4/17/2007 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight.

House Resolution 121, if passed, will ask Japan to take full responsibility for the systematic raping and enslavement of over 200,000 women and girls during WWII. In the Philippines, historians estimate that over 1000 Filipina girls young as eight years old to women in their forties were abducted and held captive in garrisons ‹ churches, town halls, schools and private homes captured by Japanese soldiers and turned into comfort stations. Those girls are now lolas in their eighties.

For a moment, imagine war and your family. Imagine this. Is it acceptable?

To date, House Res. 121 has 115 co-sponsors in Congress. We want at least 120 to get House Res 121 to pass.

We need to let Congressman Tom Lantos, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi know that the Filipino American community of Northern California, their constituents, believe in House Resolution 121. Please write them. Determine who is your representative and then cut and paste the email message below, sign it and send it to them. Even better, send them your thoughts on this issue in your own words.

If you live in the following zip code areas ‹ 94002, 94005, 94010, 94011, 94013, 94014, 94015, 94016, 94017, 94019, 94030, 94037, 94038, 94044, 94061, 94062, 94063, 94065, 94066, 94070, 94080, 94083, 94114, 94116, 94117, 94122, 94125, 94127, 94128, 94131, 94132, 94134, 94143, 94401, 94402, 94403, 94404, 94497 -- your congressman is Lantos.


USE THIS LINK TO EMAIL LANTOS:

http://lantos.house.gov/HoR/CA12/Contact+Tom/Contact+Tom+2.htm?zip5=94132&zip4=1722


COMMUNITY LETTER (Please sign on)

Dear Congressman Tom Lantos and House Speaker Pelosi,

We are the Filipino American Community of the 8th and 12th Districts in California and we are writing to you to ask you to support House Resolution 121.

During WW2 the Japanese Imperial Army wreaked havoc on the Philippines. Many Filipino Veterans fought for the United States Army and died in battle or were injured for life. But Filipino soldiers who fought side by side with American military are not our only WW2 casualties. Over 1000 women and girls, usually between the ages of eight and twenty were abducted and forced into Japanese ³Comfort Stations² where they were subjected to systematic rape and enslavement.

For example, seventeen-year-old Pilar Frias had two bouts with the Japanese soldiers before she was taken captive in the province of Bicol. After raping her five times, soldiers tied her at the waist and dragged her along with three other girls. Strung together by hemp rope, the four girls were raped every night, five times a night, a different soldier every time.

Many of those 1000 girls and women like Pilar Frias have suffered the trauma of WW2 for their entire lives ­ their bodies, their minds and their spirits have never fully recovered.

We are a community that respects our elders and takes great pride in the spirit of family. It is time to take care of a generation of Filipinos who suffered a war that was not theirs.

House Resolution 121 is a resolution about human rights, about respect and justice. It is a statement that encourages Japan to take full responsibility for these war crimes and to make a full and unequivocal formal apology to the 200,000 women and girls of Asia who suffered these atrocities. Of these women 1000 of them are our ancestors, our mothers and grandmothers of the Philippines and it is our belief that these women deserve some peace of mind.

It is our belief that taking a stand against these war crimes sends a clear message to everyone that this behavior is intolerable, inhumane and unjust.

As your constituents of the 8th and 12th Districts of California, we urge you to support House Resolution 121.

Sincerely,