50 Years of Silence
Jan Ruff-O'Herne
Heinemann Australia, 1994
Jan Ruff-O’Herne’s 50 Years of Silence is a powerful memoir recounting her experience as a Dutch teenager in Indonesia who was forced into sexual slavery as a “comfort woman” by the Japanese military during World War II. After decades of silence, she breaks her long self-imposed secrecy to share the trauma she endured, the lasting scars it left, and her eventual decision to speak publicly in the 1990s as part of the global movement demanding recognition and justice for survivors.
Both deeply personal and historically significant, the book sheds light on the hidden suffering of European women in Asia during the war, while also serving as a testament to resilience, survival, and the importance of bearing witness to crimes long denied.
About the Author:
Jan Ruff-O’Herne (1923–2019) was a Dutch-Australian writer and human rights activist whose life took a courageous turn from unimaginable suffering to powerful advocacy. Born in Bandung in the Dutch East Indies, she was raised as a devout Catholic in a cultured colonial family. During World War II, at age 21, she was abducted from an internment camp and forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army—a fate she kept silent for fifty years.
In 1992, inspired by the bold testimonies of Korean “comfort women,” she broke her silence and became the first European to publicly speak about her experiences. She delivered her testimony at the Tokyo war crimes tribunal and went on to publish her memoir, Fifty Years of Silence, in 1994. She dedicated the rest of her life to campaigning for recognition, justice, and formal apologies for wartime sexual slavery. Her efforts earned her numerous honors, including the Dutch Order of Orange‑Nassau (2001) and the Australian Officer of the Order of Australia (2002)