The Apology

During World War II, the Japanese military forced more than 200,000 young women across Asia to work as “comfort women,” a ghastly term that essentially meant sexual slavery in the occupied nations. After the war, Japan either pretended that the kidnapping and captivity of these women did not occur, or members of the Japanese government would rewrite history to insist that the women were necessary for maintaining the morale of Japan's fighting men. Tiffany Hsiung's documentary details the efforts of three now-elderly women who have been pressing the Japanese government to issue an apology for the abuse they suffered during wartime. Each of the women, who are here referred to as “Grandma,” describe in graphic detail how they suffered during wartime, as well as in the post-war years when unsympathetic countrymen treated them as whores. The South Korean Grandma Gil gave birth to two children as a result of rape by Japanese soldiers, but both died, while the Filipino Grandma Adela never informed her late husband and only belatedly revealed the truth to her children. The Chinese Grandma Cao lives in fragile health under the care of an adopted daughter, holding on to the hope that the Japanese will acknowledge their crimes (a somewhat indifferent apology was issued by Japan's government after the film was completed). Hsiung's deeply moving and brutally disturbing film shines a light on a tragic chapter of World War II history. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)