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.