The Horrors They Faced
Jan O'Herne
Jan O’Herne was born in 1923 at Bandoeng, in central Java. After the Japanese invasion of the NEI, she, her mother, and her two sisters were interned, along with thousands of other Dutch women and children,were taken to an abandoned barraks.In February 1944 a truck arrived at the camp, and all the girls 17 years and above were made to lineup . The ten most attractive, including Jan O’Herne, were selected by Japanese officers and told to pack a bag quickly. Seven of the girls (including O’Herne) were taken to an old Dutch colonial house at Selarang, some 47 kilometres from their camp. This house, which became known to the Japanese as ”The House of the Seven Seas“, was used as a military brothel, and its inmates were to become ”comfort women“.
Niyem
Niyem, who, at 10 years old was kidnapped and loaded into a truck full of other women destined for a military camp in West Java. She shared a small tent with two other girls, where soldiers openly raped them. "I was still so young," she is quoted by Janssen as saying. "Within two months my body was completely destroyed. I was nothing but a toy, as a human being I meant nothing, that's how it felt during the Japanese era." When Niyem managed to escape and return home two months later, her parents didn't recognize her: "I didn't dare tell anyone that I had been raped, I didn't want to hurt my parents. I was afraid that no one would want me, that I would be left out. But people still abused me by calling me a 'Japanese hand-me-down.' Because I had been gone so long, they suspected what had happened. It hurt me tremendously."
Mastia
Mastia, born 1927, Sumedang, West Java Mastia was taken from home by soldiers along with 15 other girls. While the others were forced into prostitution, a Japanese captain picked her from the group and commandeered her as his private comfort woman. For half a year, she lived as a forced concubine in his quarters, an Indonesian military aide standing guard at her door.