Filipino World War sex slaves put grief to music

MANILA (Reuters Life!) - Filipino women taken as sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War Two have put their suffering to music, hoping it will help the younger generation remember their pain.

With the help of a women's empowerment group, the so-called comfort women from Pampanga province near Manila produced a music video that vividly chronicles their sexual abuse at the hand of Japanese soldiers.

"This is not one of those videos that will find its way to MTV's top ten countdown things. It can probably be best described as a short film that's set to music," said the video's director, Paolo Dy.

"Many of the women are already forgetting what really happened, due to their old age. We created the song so that at least they can remember their harrowing experiences," added Isabelita Vinuya, who heads the women's group, Malaya Lola.

Vinuya, forced into sexual servitude at 13, is one of 85 survivors of an estimated 450 comfort women documented in the Philippines.

Women's group WEDPRO (Women Advocating Change Through Media) describes the song as an "epic and time capsule". The video is interspersed with World War Two footage, and segments feature the women's grandchildren portraying them in their younger years.

The total number of women forced into frontline brothels to service Imperial Japanese soldiers is unknown for lack of official documentation, but historians put it anywhere between 10,000 and 200,000.

(Reporting by Rolando Ng; editing by Miral Fahmy and Roger Crabb)