Maria Rosa

Henson
(Lola Rosa)
 In1992, The Task Force on Filipino
Comfort Women went on nationwide
radio, calling for testimonies on the
alleged sexual enslavement of
Filipino women by Japanese soldiers
during the second World War. One
came forward, the first to do so. Her
name was Maria Rosa Luna
Henson. Then already 65 years
old, she gave face and form to a
terrible war crime that until then
had only been whispered about.
Born in Pasay City on
December 05, 1927.
Her story begins as the
daughter of the landlord’s
illiterate mistress, Julia.
Rosa’s mother, Julia, is the
eldest of the children who
began her working life as Don
Pepe Henson’s housemaid.
 The seeming kindness of the
landlord to help Julia’s family was
not without motive.
 When he impregnated Julia, he
promised to give his name to the
child if they take her to Pasay to
give birth.
 Growing up without a father around
confused Rosa about her background
which later on was discovered by
her classmates and teachers.
 When war was declared on
December 05, 1941, Rosa was 14
years old.
 Her mother’s family all fled to
Bulacan to escape the Japanese
troops landing in Manila.
 While gathering wood, Rosa was
snatched by three Japanese soldiers
and raped. She survived the incident
because a farmer brought her home
to recover.
 Two years after, an even more
unfortunate incident happened to Rosa
while she was passing a Japanese
checkpoint with members of the guerrilla
movement. Afraid that the ammunition
hidden in the sacks of grain would be
discovered, Rosa silently went to the
checkpoint guard who by that time waved
to her companions to proceed. Rosa was
captured and become a comfort woman
for nine harrowing months.
 Violence and humiliation were everyday
occurrences in the garrison for comfort
women. Not even captivity nor bouts of
malaria dampened the spirits of Rosa to
survive, more so to help the resistance
against the Japanese.
 Overhearing Japanese soldiers planning to
burnt her town to flush out members and
supporters of HUKBALAHAP, Rosa risked her
life to inform a passing villager so when the
Japanese arrived at the village there was not
a single soul in the village.
 The officer readily suspected Rosa who was
in the same room during the planning. She
was tied and beaten senselessly.
 When the Japanese Imperial Army withdrew
its troops in the Philippines, Rosa was freed
from the garrison and only regained
consciousness after two months.
 Her recovery was as traumatic as her ordeal.
 After a remarkable recovery at the age of 18,
Rosa met Domingo who later became her
husband and father to two daughters.
 One day Domingo just disappeared without a
word. It was not until nearly a year when she
discovered her husband's location, he had
joined an armed group fighting the
government’s army for land redistribution.
 He also had another woman.
 If one were an ordinary mortal, there is
more probability that you’d loose your
sanity halfway if you were in Lola Rosa’s
shoes, or wooden clogs for that matter.
She started her life painfully, with only
faith in God and love for her mother in her
heart.
She was stripped of her dignity as a
Japanese comfort woman. She was
betrayed by her husband who hid under the
shield of resistance movement.
She single-handedly raised her family.
She mourned, she struggled, she survived.
 Coming out in public as a comfort woman
was a most courageous thing to do. In April
1993, along with other surviving comfort
women from the Philippines and other
countries, she filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo
District Court demanding compensation from
the Japanese government. During the visit of
the Japanese Prime Minister to the
Philippines in 1994, Tomiichi Murayama
brought out the idea of a Women’s Centre as
a form of compensation. Until now, the
Japanese government insist that
compensation was already given in the form
of reparations to the Philippines government
after World War II.