Film Screening: Malaya Lolas (Surviving Filipina Comfort Women of WWII)

Malaya Lolas: A Film About Surviving Filipina Comfort Women of WWII

On the morning of November 23, 1944, the Japanese Imperial Army bombed the barrio of Mapanique, Pampanga. By noon, most of the men and women were rounded up and brought to the local school house. There, the men were tortured and massacred in front of their wives, mothers, sisters and children. With their barrio and homes burned, the women were forced into a life of sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army; where they were raped repeatedly and subjected to a panoply of violence.

Of the thousands of women forced into sexual slavery in the Philippines, only 173 of the surviving Filipina comfort women have come forward to date. Earlier this month, HR 121, a demand for Japan to apologize to the women victimized by military sexual slavery during World War II, was passed by Congress.

Malaya Lolas (directed by Etang Macam) is the raw and truthful story portraying the struggle of these surviving women (now in their 70s and 80s) which questions whether an apology is enough to absolve Japan's military for imposing a legacy of violence onto the bodies of our grandmothers.

This is a FREE event, but donations are kindly accepted. Light refreshments will be served.