Cristeta Alcober's Inhumane Experiences

The printed testimony of Cristeta Alcober, in 67 years of age back in 1993, from Tacloban City, Leyte, contained her experiences of inhumane acts of kidnapping, forced labor, repeated counts of rape, sexual slavery, and torture by the Japanese war soldiers during the World War II. It also stated her feeling of “being rejected” by the community, knowing that she was raped by the Japanese soldiers, and her reasons in joining the lawsuit against the Japanese government. This testimony came out of empathy after Maria Rosa Henson narrated her experience in the hands of the Japanese soldiers last 1992 and the rise of advocacy in promoting not only justice for the “comfort women,” but also ending the idea of militarism that may result in sexual

Because of this assumption, it may be possible that some (or worse, most) of her statements are just merely accusations or are false, especially when there are no or very few other witnesses from her fellows in Leyte (because after the war, a lot of “comfort women” were killed), authenticated documents, or any other valid evidences to verify her experiences (or at the very least, to ascertain that there were inhumane acts conducted by the Japanese soldiers, though, in one of the official documents found in archives in the US and Japan, there were comfort stations in Tacloban City, Leyte). Also, since she testified at her old age of 72, it is (highly) possible that her traumatic memories of those inhumane acts may have been modified not only because of her age, but also of the perception of the human mind towards these experiences (as mentioned earlier, the trauma), which may affect her recollection of these memories, and in effect, her credibility. Although the testimonies were gathered from the actual documents and published in a book by the Asian Women's Human Rights Council, in this light, it is very hard to verify that most of her claims were true or not, due to the lack of evidences, despite the similarity between the other testimonies given by

Some other sources that can be used to further understand the issues are the testimonies of the other “comfort women” (in order to unlock the other nature of the crimes committed by the war soldiers) and the copy of Hague Convention of 1907 (which was the law said to be broken by the Japanese government). However, a legal scholar must be careful and critical in interpreting every word in the testimony because this is a criminal case being filed and studied in which it demands (very) high and great sanctions by the prosecution and by the