Indonesians in Focus: Mardiyem

By Barrie | October 5th, 2007 | No Comments

In a two-by-five-meter room in a house in Suryomentaraman, Ngampilan, Yogyakarta, an elderly woman lies helplessly on the carpet. The physical strength Mardiyem, 78, displayed when fighting for the rights of the more than 1,000 Indonesian women who were forced to become jugun ianfu (comfort women) for the Japanese Imperialist Army, left her long ago.

Instead of using a blanket, Mardiyem covers herself with a thin red mattress.

Despite her ill health, she continues to be one of the foremost proponents of the rights of the Indonesian women who were coerced into being sex slaves during the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945.

“Tell them there is still a long way to go. Tell them I’ll keep fighting. Tell them I thank them for all their support. Tell them… ” Mardiyem whispered to her son, Mardiyono, in early September.

“She is always in high spirits like this when she talks of her struggle,” Mardiyono said.

His mother had been confined to her bed since she collapsed two weeks earlier.

Mardiyem made headlines in the early 1990s when, together with other women from across Indonesia, she spoke out about the intolerable circumstances they had endured as wartime sex slaves.

Assisted by lawyers from the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH), the women have since 1993 been demanding that the Japanese government issue an official apology as well as paying them compensation.

Budi Hartono of LBH Yogyakarta said they had submitted petitions to both the Japanese parliament and Indonesia’s House of Representatives, but there had been zero response.

Many organizations, according to Budi, had given the women verbal support but were not prepared to do more. A group of 17 teachers representing the Central Executive Kanagawa Teachers and Staff Liaison from Japan, recently visited the country, meeting with some former jugun ianfu.

The group, however, refused to use the words jugun ianfu which literally mean comfort women. Instead, they used sei do rei, which means sex slaves.

“Still, there has been no concrete response to the demands,” said Budi, adding that LBH Yogyakarta was currently representing 1,156 comfort women, half of whom had died.

Budi blames a lack of support from the Indonesian government for the women’s unsuccessful efforts, underlining that Indonesia as a country has been too dependent on Japan for financial aid.

Another factor is, according to Budi, that Japan refuses to admit to doing anything other than being a “victim” of World War II and does not acknowledge the existence of the unpaid sex slaves.

Now in her humble room, the aging Mardiyem can only hope that the former comfort women will one day get financial support.

“What she and other former jugun ianfu are really seeking is a direct apology from the Japanese government. That would reduce their suffering,” Budi said.

Mardiyem was only 13 years old when she was offered a job as a performer in Kalimantan in 1942.

Having been a performer and keroncong singer in her home village, Mardiyem who did not complete elementary school, accepted the offer in blind faith.

So, with 47 other girls from Yogyakarta, she left for Kalimantan, where the group was split into three. The first group went to a Japanese restaurant and the women in the second group were employed as performers.

The third group, which Mardiyem belonged to, was sent to a Japanese army base in Telawang, which was surrounded by high bamboo walls. The compound had dozens of small rooms.

Here each of the girls was given a Japanese name. Mardiyem got Momoye.

After being examined by a physician, she was ordered to stay in a two-by-two-meter room, Room No. 11. She later realized she had been sent there only to sexually “serve” the Japanese troops.

Mardiyem once said that while in the camp she was often forced to have sexual intercourse with dozens of men in a single day and did not even have time to eat.

Being kicked, beaten and slapped in her face was part of her daily life in the camp. She was once forced to undergo an abortion.
All the girls including Mardiyem were ordered to collect tickets from the men they served, which would be used to calculate their payment.

Yet not a cent was ever given to Mardiyem or the other girls, not even after the Japanese troops lost the war and the former jugun ianfu left the darkest years of their lives behind them.

“It hurts deep down inside each time I remember all of that,” Mardiyem said, unable to hold back her tears.

Sri Wahyuni