Fifty Years of Silence

How can you tell your daughters, you know? I mean, the shame, the shame was still so great. I knew I had to tell them but I couldn't tell them face to face... so I decided to write it down.

Jan Ruff-O'Herne's idyllic childhood in Dutch colonial Indonesia ended when the Japanese invaded Java in 1942. She was interned in Ambarawa Prison Camp along with her mother and two younger sisters.

In February 1944, when Jan was just twenty-one years old, she was taken from the camp and forced into sexual slavery in a military brothel. Jan was repeatedly beaten and raped for a period of three months, after which she was returned to prison camp with threats that her family would be killed if she revealed the truth about the atrocities inflicted upon her.

For fifty years, Jan told no-one what had happened to her, but in 1992, after seeing Korean war raped victims making appeals for justice on television, she decided to speak out and support them. Before she could testify publicly, through, she had to find a way to tell her family and friends about all she had suffered. Jan's survival is a tribute to her inner strength and deep faith.

This is a completely revised and updated version of this remarkable story, which was first published nearly 15 years ago. Nearly twice as lo0ng and with never before seen drawings by the author's own hand in coloured pencil while she was in the camp and the military brothel, this revelatory story of survival is inspiring and uplifting.

Jan Ruff-O'Herne For the past fifteen years, Jan Ruff-O'Herne has worked tirelessly to support the plight of 'comfort women' and for the protection of women in war and armed conflict. She has worked with the Human Rights Commission, International Red Cross, and Amnesty International, speaking in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the US and UK, the Netherlands and many other countries.


Fifty Years of Silence
Random House Australia
Author: Jan Ruff-O'Herne
ISBN: 9781741667462
Price: $34.95


Review: A truly moving tale that you hope your children never have to live through.