Victims of Japanese military wartime sex abuses in the Philippines and leftist groups protested in front of the Japanese Embassy in Manila last week to denounce growing military ties between the Philippines and Japan as the two nations held naval drills in the South China Sea.
"We are worried that what happened during World War II will be repeated this time — women being snatched, locked up and then raped," Hilaria Bustamante, an 89-year-old former "comfort woman," said during their demonstration.
The term "comfort women" is a euphemism to describe those who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels before and during World War II.