Scan barcode
sweetheart_seer's review against another edition
5.0
*I was sent an e-arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
4.5 stars rounded up.
The author of this took years to gather her research and to interview 16 Lolas/"Comfort Women".
The name "Comfort Women" is a subterfuge-y type of misnomer because there was nothing "comforting" about what they went through. During World War II the Japanese soldiers came into their homes, injured and or brutally murdered their fathers, mothers, siblings, husbands, and kidnapped these women to their camps.
The suffering they endured was nothing short of horrific, the detail is accounted for in the book, rapes happened multiple times daily by several different men and this went on for years. Some of the "women" were barely even old enough to be called "woman" yet. Yes, twelve year olds in some cases. Too young to deal with the literal traumas, they were left bleeding, bruised, and scarred for life.
Tying up the women 5 tied together, the others needing to stay quiet and basically just "wait their turn" to get raped. Brutality at its worst.
The number of women this happened to has been estimated upwards of 400.000 women.
Read that again. 400,000.
The ones that did manage to escape and make it back to their families sometimes faced being shunned and cast out by their families who were mourning the loss of their daughters while they were still living.
Their culture basically dictated that they should feel ashamed. The victims of something of this magnitude continue to be victimized by a government that to this day refuses to acknowledge what occurred. They won't apologize or take responsibility. Even going so far as to try to convince other countries to wipe the incident from *their* textbooks.
The ONLY thing that from a critique aspect that bothered me was the writing style of the author. It pulled me from the story at times because she wrote in all three tenses. She used first, second, and third person writing and it was highly distracting. This may simply be because I myself am a writer, but also could be because I read a LOT, and so it bothered me probably more than it would most readers.
This book is like a call to action; it is even stated by the author she wrote it with the intention of making it be a protest book.
Reading this along with the Radium Girls cases resonated with me because I am so sick of finding out about these travesties being committed on women and then the "men in power" making sure the victims stay victimized, trying to hush them, and trying to deny these events happened.
It is BS and it needs to stop.
We need to learn from the past to make sure that these events don't happen again in our future.
4.5 stars rounded up.
The author of this took years to gather her research and to interview 16 Lolas/"Comfort Women".
The name "Comfort Women" is a subterfuge-y type of misnomer because there was nothing "comforting" about what they went through. During World War II the Japanese soldiers came into their homes, injured and or brutally murdered their fathers, mothers, siblings, husbands, and kidnapped these women to their camps.
The suffering they endured was nothing short of horrific, the detail is accounted for in the book, rapes happened multiple times daily by several different men and this went on for years. Some of the "women" were barely even old enough to be called "woman" yet. Yes, twelve year olds in some cases. Too young to deal with the literal traumas, they were left bleeding, bruised, and scarred for life.
Tying up the women 5 tied together, the others needing to stay quiet and basically just "wait their turn" to get raped. Brutality at its worst.
The number of women this happened to has been estimated upwards of 400.000 women.
Read that again. 400,000.
The ones that did manage to escape and make it back to their families sometimes faced being shunned and cast out by their families who were mourning the loss of their daughters while they were still living.
Their culture basically dictated that they should feel ashamed. The victims of something of this magnitude continue to be victimized by a government that to this day refuses to acknowledge what occurred. They won't apologize or take responsibility. Even going so far as to try to convince other countries to wipe the incident from *their* textbooks.
The ONLY thing that from a critique aspect that bothered me was the writing style of the author. It pulled me from the story at times because she wrote in all three tenses. She used first, second, and third person writing and it was highly distracting. This may simply be because I myself am a writer, but also could be because I read a LOT, and so it bothered me probably more than it would most readers.
This book is like a call to action; it is even stated by the author she wrote it with the intention of making it be a protest book.
Reading this along with the Radium Girls cases resonated with me because I am so sick of finding out about these travesties being committed on women and then the "men in power" making sure the victims stay victimized, trying to hush them, and trying to deny these events happened.
It is BS and it needs to stop.
We need to learn from the past to make sure that these events don't happen again in our future.
glaiza_echo's review against another edition
5.0
A searing account from sixteen Filipina survivors of the war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army against them.
Cont'd on the blog: https://paperwanderer.wordpress.com/2017/10/12/lolas-house-filipino-women-living-with-war-by-m-evelina-galang/
Cont'd on the blog: https://paperwanderer.wordpress.com/2017/10/12/lolas-house-filipino-women-living-with-war-by-m-evelina-galang/
mpjustreading's review against another edition
5.0
Lolas’ House is a book of protest and personal narratives by lolas (grandmothers) who vividly describe the abduction, torture and rape they experience during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War 2.
When Evelina Galang started her research back in 1999, she mentions staying at a dorm in St. Scholastica’s College. This was the school I went to in ’99. I was in fourth grade. She mentions protesting with the lolas during the time when the streets were flooded with “ERAP, RESIGN” posters. A time when Filipinos fought against Joseph Estrada’s plunder and perjury. I attended one of these protests with MY lola. To read that Evelina and the lolas were right there, so close in proximity, protesting for comfort women… I wonder why I didn’t hear about them during that time? I wonder why I barely hear about their stories now.
The lolas are old. Some of them have died. They live with this trauma, suffer from it for years. The torture of comfort women didn’t just happen in the Philippines. There are known survivors speaking out from Malaysia, Korea, China, Indonesia… Women who go against the culture of shame that revolve around rape. The lolas deserve justice, a proper and sincere apology —not just compensation. How will they reclaim their bodies? If their stories disappear, how do we make sure history doesn’t repeat? Short answer: We can’t. We NEED to listen to the lolas.
When Evelina Galang started her research back in 1999, she mentions staying at a dorm in St. Scholastica’s College. This was the school I went to in ’99. I was in fourth grade. She mentions protesting with the lolas during the time when the streets were flooded with “ERAP, RESIGN” posters. A time when Filipinos fought against Joseph Estrada’s plunder and perjury. I attended one of these protests with MY lola. To read that Evelina and the lolas were right there, so close in proximity, protesting for comfort women… I wonder why I didn’t hear about them during that time? I wonder why I barely hear about their stories now.
The lolas are old. Some of them have died. They live with this trauma, suffer from it for years. The torture of comfort women didn’t just happen in the Philippines. There are known survivors speaking out from Malaysia, Korea, China, Indonesia… Women who go against the culture of shame that revolve around rape. The lolas deserve justice, a proper and sincere apology —not just compensation. How will they reclaim their bodies? If their stories disappear, how do we make sure history doesn’t repeat? Short answer: We can’t. We NEED to listen to the lolas.
whatannikareads's review against another edition
5.0
A tough read to get through but an important one. I thought it was just going to be testimonies of the 16 women who were raped by Japanese soldiers during WWII, but I like that Galang also gave the context of collecting these stories. It bounces between different years of the process of creating this book, and so we get breathers between the heavy information that the lolas provide. It's important that we read stories like this in order to keep these lolas' message alive although many have passed. A really powerful book that will have you stressed on how the governments have poorly handled the situation. If I could have a quarter of the strength these lolas have had to not only experience that, but continue their lives and then retell the story to educate others, I think I would be a better person.
More...