Comfort women an awkward issue
Comfort women an awkward issue
Leo Wahyudi S., The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government's plan to introduce the issue of World War II
"comfort women" to the school curriculum has failed to impress
teachers.
Advocates suggest the move will open students' eyes to a
previously hidden episode of the war, while critics say they do
not see any benefit in "opening up old wounds".
More conservative teachers are already feeling embarrassed
imagining how they will explain the concept of sexual slavery to
their teenage students.
The term "comfort women", or jugun ianfu as the Japanese call
them, refers to the thousands of women forced by occupying
Japanese forces to become sexual slaves in military camps across
Asia between 1942 and 1945.
Indonesian women were among those enslaved and survivors, with
the help of non-governmental organizations, have been pressing
the Japanese government for compensation.
Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar raised a
number of eyebrows when he announced he had accepted a proposal
by the Yogyakarta-based Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (LBH) to
have the subject of jugun ianfu included in school curriculums.
LBH, representing 1,156 former comfort women from Yogyakarta
and Central Java, is also seeking the government's recognition of
jugun ianfu as heroes of the Independence Struggle.
For Nanang Kurniawan, a history teacher at Sekolah Global Jaya
in Bintaro, Tangerang, the introduction of jugun ianfu to the
curriculum will be a good thing because the tragedy has always
been covered up by Japan and swept under the carpet by Indonesia.
But he wonders if the inclusion of the war time sex slavery
issue will offend contemporary Japan.
Strong objections have come from J. Drost, a noted
educationist. He sees no urgent need to put the issue on the new
school curriculum, which will come into effect next year.
"Not at any level of schooling. What moral values can the
students possibly learn from being taught about sex slavery?" he
asks.
"I suspect that the inclusion of jugun ianfu on the curriculum
was driven by a mere vendetta. So opening up old wounds to the
students won't do any good. Let bygones be bygones."
A. Joko Widodo, the principal of SLTP Tarakanita Gading
Serpong in Tangerang, says he is opposed to the plan to discuss
comfort women as part of the national curriculum.
"What if students became hostile toward the Japanese, the same
way people are now harboring anti-American sentiments (in the
wake of the Afghan attacks)?" he says.
Not only that, he also theorizes that the interest groups
backing the plan will exploit the issue for their own political
and economic gain.
If they must discuss the comfort women issue in the classroom,
teachers will have to be careful to convey the message of the
lesson clearly without delving into the complex sexual and moral
factors that the issue raises.
The same advice comes from G. Budyanto Nugroho, a teacher at
St. Louis 1 High School in Surabaya.
Sexuality is still generally seen as a taboo topic in schools,
he says. He proposes that the topic of jugun ianfu be made
optional, not compulsory, and suggests that every school should
have the freedom to discuss it.
Heri Herdiawanto, a teacher at SMU Al Azhar Jakarta, says that
the subject could easily result in the growth of inaccurate
public opinion about the Japanese and fan anti-Japanese sentiment
if not properly handled.
He says the lesson that should be drawn from the episode of
the war time comfort women is to respect human rights. The
curriculum should be prepared by ulemas and academics, not only
bureaucrats.
The biggest concern about the plan is, in fact, how to present
the subject without embarrassing the teenage students and their
teachers.
Endah Rukmini is a history teacher at SLTP Negeri 1 Turi, a
state junior high school in Sleman, near Yogyakarta. She says
that discussing sexuality in the classroom is still taboo.
She says introducing the jugun ianfu subject could be
inappropriate, at least at the third year grade of the junior
high school.