Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny

Maria Rosa Henson

Summary

Lola Rosas life was never a walk in the park. Ever since
she was a child, she faced challenges that were too much for
even a little girl to handle. One example of this is having to live
with being isolated just because she was a child born out of
wedlock. The only chance she would get into seeing her own
father, Don Pepe, was in secret inside his rice granary. At 14
years old she was snatched and raped by Japanese soldiers,
she survived but two years shortly after this incident she was
then again captured at a checkpoint and became a comfort
woman for nine months. Lola Rosa narrated how she was
raped by 15-20 soldiers (sometimes even 30) and was sexually
assaulted over and over. She was even dragged to the garrison,
tied and beaten senselessly when the plans of the Japanese
soldiers in burning her village failed. After she was released, it
took her two months to regain consciousness. She couldnt
function on her own and had to be taken care of like a baby
until she fully recovered at 18 years old, married Domingo and
had two daughters. One day Domingo disappeared and it took
her a year to track his location in a jungle with the HMB.
Sadly, after tracking Domingo she was abducted by his men
while buying medicine for their sick child. Moreover, she found
out that he had another woman and had no other choice but
to raise her family by herself. Her life may have been filled with
suffering but Lola Rosa never lost hope. Anyone couldve given
up but instead, she lived through it and wrote an
autobiography for everyone to learn from her experiences. She
was raped, tortured and betrayed but she survived it all.