LADIES OF THENIGHT “J
APANESEpros titu tes in Penang? Are you s er iou s ? Can we go over and have a look?” I exclaim in surprise before m aking m y r equ es t to m y friend and renowned Penang his torianDr ChuaHockKhoonwhohadjust inform ed m e about the existence of an ancient Japanes e cem eter y in the vicinity du r ing ou r m eander ings at the Lor ong K u lit flea m ar ket.
We decide to continu e ou r chat on the s u bject m atter at a near by s tall as neither of u s had had ou r br eakfas t yet. Whilewaitingforourfoodtobeserved, Chua continues to s hare with m e about his lates t res earch project.
“Japanes e pr os titu tion in Penang s tar ted du r ing the ear ly 1880s , taper ed off in the 1920s and finally ended jus t before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1941. This integral part of our s ocial his tor yis s eldom heard off du e to the taboo attached to it. Bu t for m e, I feel that this interes ting s egm ent of our nation’s pas t needs to be told as it is binds the com plex s ocial and econom ic forces in Malaya, China and Japan,” says Chua, his voice filled with excitem ent.
Sens ing m y lack of knowledge r egar ding the m atter, the dentis t who r u ns aclinicinLebuhPantaibegins byoffering m e s om e background inform ation. The lack of occu pational choices , s ays Chu a, forced young girls hailing from extrem ely im pover is hed fis hing and far m ing villages in s ou ther n Japan to em igr ate abroad in s earch of greener pas tu r es . “Thes e wom en, like all other m en and wom en m igrant labourers, becam e known as Interes tingly, it was only after the Second World War that this gener al ter m was u s ed to s pecificallydes cr ibe Japanes e wom en who went abroad to work as pros titutes .”
Thes e wom en didn’t only go to China and Siberia and countries in Southeast Asia, inclu ding Penang in the s ou th bu t they als o went to India and Afr ica. Their fam ilies had no choice but to let them go as the Tokugawa regim e at that tim e required peas ants to hand over as m u ch as 50 per cent of their annu al har ves ts . Taxes paid in kind were als o im pos ed on other life neces s ities like hou s es , cloth, s ake, beans and, m os t im por tantly, on fem ale childr en. Debts increas ed in tandem with abortion r ates and fem ale infanticide!
I lis ten in hor r or as m y fr iend continu es that fem ale children were considered expendable du r ing thos e tim es of extr em e hards hip. Manybabygirls owed their lives to parents who rais ed them prim arily as a source of future revenue when s old as dom es tic s er vants to wealthy fam ilies or other benefactors who m ade a tidyprofit bys hipping them abroad to work as pr os titu tes .
Thes e wom en were tr ans por ted pr im ar ily on coal ships plying the route between Nagas aki and Shanghai. Sea captains and s ailors received bribes from m iddlem en to take the gir ls on board as s towaways . After that, the were brought to brothels in Hong Kong to work for s ever al m onths . Du r ing that per iod, they wer e required to take up Englis h. Finally, the young wom en were trans ported s outhwards to thriving colonial port towns in Malaya and Singapore.
“They wer e s old to local br othel owner s as s oon as theylanded her e. The pr ice for an attr active you ng wom an cou ld be as m u ch as 2,000 yen (about 500 Straits dollars at that tim e),” explains Chua before telling m e that the s m all Japanes e com m u nity in Penang at that tim e preferred to us e the Japanes e currency while dealing am ong them s elves .