I am very pleased to find out Friends of “Comfort Women” in Australia has formed as a group and extremely happy to join as a member and to offer any assistance I can to you.

My grandmother (Gertrude Braun or Brown) and mother and aunt (Noreen and Eleanor-my mother and aunt are identical twins) were imprisoned in an internment camp in Bandung during WW2. The emotional, physical and psychological effects of this period for them has had a widespread generational impact on our family. My grandmother passed away a few years ago but it has recently come to light that she was a “comfort woman” for the majority of the period in the camp. My mother and aunt were young children and were left to be cared for by other women in the camp. For years and years they maintained that their mother had caught malaria and dysentery and had been in hospital while absent from the camp, such was the shame surrounding what had happened to her. I’ve always considered this one of the most painful things about it, because it infers that my grandmother had a choice in the matter!

Anyway, I am currently researching and working on a documentary about my grandmother’s and mother’s and aunt’s experiences during the war and the “comfort woman” revelation and the impact it has had on our family. I attempted to do it years ago while Nana was alive when I was studying film at university but it was so distressing and painful for her I decided that at that time it just wasn’t worth it. Now that she’s passed on it might be maybe not less painful but at least a little bit easier.

I’m really happy and keen to maintain links, keep you updated on it and again offer my assistance in whatever way I can. I will transfer my membership fee now and send off the application this afternoon or tomorrow, again, I’m really happy such a group like yours has formed.

Kind regards,

Tracey Crawcour