Hypertext Magazine asked M. Evelina Galang, author of When the Hibiscus Falls: Stories, “What obsessions recur in your work and why?”
By M. Evelina Galang
The real-life stories of Filipina “Comfort Women” of WWII are embedded in my imagination. I worked and researched their experiences for my nonfiction book Lolas’ House: Filipino Women Living with War as an aside—I thought. But in the end, I spent 20 years going back and forth, building relationships with 16 women in the book, and more who had not made it into those pages. I had done it because they asked me to. Because they were victims of the Japanese Imperial Army of WWII and their sex slave camps, aka “Comfort Stations.” The women were fighting for justice, and they wanted me to join their campaign by documenting their testimonies. I did it because my elders asked me to, and I obeyed. I had other fictional projects in mind—even a screenplay. But they asked me to. And by the time they asked, I had fallen in love with each of them and I could not say no. I decided, I’d take a short break from my fiction to write their book. I had no idea they would be my life’s work.
Their stories of strength, resilience, and beauty made their way into my life. As I worked on their book, I joined their rallies. I marched with them. I pushed House Resolution 121 in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass unanimously by lobbying Congresspersons, visiting their offices in Washington, and chatting them up. I became an advocate (HR.121 was a resolution to formally ask Japan to recognize the acts against humanity and the women and to apologize.)
And when I had done my duty, I found their stories rising out of me like breath. If not fiction based on their experiences, then female characters born of their ingenuity, their charm, and courage.
There are two short stories in When the Hibiscus Falls that reflect the experiences of surviving Filipina “Comfort Women” of WWII, but if you read the women in this book closely, you will see the characters are inspired by them too.
The Filipina “Comfort Women,” who probably never heard of the terms feminist, activist, survivor, until after they came forward 50 years post WWII, have defined these terms for me, a woman who has learned a lot about standing up and speaking out and being myself from the lolas.
They are my obsession. They are my lesson. They are the women of Liga ng mga Lolang Pilipina. And they are with me always.
M. Evelina Galang is the author of a previous story collection, Her Wild American Self (1996), two novels, One Tribe (2006) and Angel De La Luna and the Fifth Glorious Mystery (2013) and the nonfiction book Lola’s House: Filipino Women Living with War (2017). She is the editor of the award-winning anthology Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images (2003). Among her numerous awards are a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2018, and the Zalaznick Distinguished Visiting Writer at Cornell in 2020. She directed the Creative Writing Program at the University of Miami from 2009-2019 and served as VONA Board President from 2018-2023. Galang lives in Miami, where she continues to teach creative writing.
