While working on this timeline I noticed that the history about comfort stations and comfort women was very hard to find since many records weren’t kept in the Philippines. So, to supplement this I decided to really focus on the context and background of Japanese rule in the Philippines, all the way from how they got there to how they left. By doing this it expands the readers knowledge of WWII in the Philippines and how it affected the whole country. Making the decision of what makes the cut was very difficult because many of the dates tend to blend together. Ultimately, I decided on key points that help the reader understand what was going on in the Philippines during the war and how Japan’s treatment affected the whole nation. I also included many key points about how the Philippines and the United States interacted with each other against the Japanese. At the end of my timeline, I included a public apology from the Japanese nation towards all comfort women in Asia. Though this causes almost a 50-year gap between events, I thought adding this would be important because it shows that the issue of comfort women and what Japan did to these young girls still is prevalent many years later. One of the main issues I encountered while working on this project was the research aspect. Like said in the beginning, record keeping in the Philippines wasn’t the best specifically pertaining about comfort women and the locations of the stations. Trying to find specific media to use that showed history in 1940s Philippines was very difficult. But through very intensive research through multiple different databases, I found photos and videos for each point in my timeline. With all the images and videos I chose, they all give a better context and look into how life in the Philippines was like during WWII. For example, when I added “Retaking of Manila by Allied Forces and Guerilla” I chose a photo that showed Filipino Guerillas to show what they wore and the weapons they had. I thought that this was important because the Filipinos dressed very different compared to the American soldiers. They wore light weight material that covered their body and straw hats. They didn’t have uniforms, and they wore their weapons around their bodies. Some carried grenades with them. I feel that this image really captured how different the Japanese and American soldiers were compared to the Filipino guerillas. While working on the timeline the most frustrating aspect was how time-consuming the project was. Actually, working with Timeline JS wasn’t hard and it was quite easy to understand. The example they provided helped show what I needed to do for each box. Using this timeline definitely showed me a different perspective of history. History is typically taught from a long line of events but seeing how much can happen in a 3–4-year timeline really put things into perspective of how much can happen in such a short amount of time. Timelines are very important to how we learn history. It makes information easy to read and understand for everyone. Being able to know when certain events happen helps the public get a better understanding of the whole story. Some limitations that can arise from a timeline are that it can be hard to explain every detail compared to essays and museum exhibitions. Both will be able to provide much more information and go into more depth that a timeline cannot, since the idea of a timeline is the get general dates and ideas across. Overall, doing this project helped me better understand the background and context behind comfort women in the Philippines. Understanding how WWII affected all Filipino people further deepens how important sharing this information to everyone is, because it shows a side of history that is often overlooked.
