Outrage with Your Coffee: NPR Story on Filipino "Comfort Women" During WWII A Must-Listen

 Report by Julie McCarthy Brings Home Vitality of NPR Despite Network's Pandemic Challenges

Despite the fact that most of us who listen to "Weekend Edition" on NPR don't need more than the jolt coming from the caffeine in our mug of medium roast, the program doesn't shy away from taking on tough topics. That was in evidence today in a dispatch from Manila bureau chief Julie McCarthy, left, about the continued fight for justice by Filipino women who were sexual slaves to Japanese soldiers during World War II.

The report demands your attention, as it weaves a harrowing tale of one woman and how she and her family were terrorized in 1943 by Japanese soldiers who stormed their village looking for Filipino guerrillas. They lashed her father--the village leader--to a tree and started skinning him alive. Two of her siblings who tried to stop the soldiers were bayoneted, while her mother was sexually assaulted and later died. The woman told McCarthy she was removed to a garrison where two of her sisters were also taken, and  repeatedly raped by soldier after soldier. She was 12.

There's much more to this gripping story and it's one you should catch up to. It's also remarkable in that it runs for more than 13 minutes, which the weekend format allows for more so than NPR's signature weekday news programs, "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition." Still, 13 minutes is a relative eternity, even on NPR. But McCarthy offers no padding, no unnecessary flourishes. Just damn good storytelling.

Reports like these highlight why NPR remains essential, as it has the forum to tell stories like these without fear or favor. That's not to say it's easy to pull off. NPR has been clobbered by a drop-off in underwriting revenue and donations because of the pandemic. NPR staffers avoided layoffs by agreeing to unpaid furloughs, which are still ongoing this year. Cutting overseas bureaus would be an easy way to cut costs, but NPR has not succumbed to the beancounters, and has held the line in places like Manila. That means we get to hear from award-winning correspondents like McCarthy, who has criss-crossed the globe in service to NPR. We are better for it, as this story affirms.

P.S. After I tweeted about the story, McCarthy wrote back that more would be posted on the NPR Goats and Soda blog, devoted to global health and development news. The blog is new to me, but with stories like these I'll be happy to get acquainted.