March
is ‘Women’s History Month’ and it seems an apt time to remember those women who
were shunned in life and forgotten in death – the prostitutes.
 |
| Jack the Ripper |
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| 18th Century Prostitutes |
Fallen
Women, Soiled Doves, Unfortunates,
– prostitutes have carried hundreds of monikers throughout the ages. Always living on the B-side of life,
they have been neglected, abused, even murdered for being too accessible, too
easy – their trademark. And as in life, prostitutes have not fared any better
after death.
 |
| Pauper's Cemetery |
 |
| 19th Century Society Outcast |
Ostracized
by society and considered to be impure and immoral, most private and religious
cemeteries would not allow prostitutes to buried among the sanctified and
moral. Many times, public
cemeteries would agree to take them only to place them in paupers graves, unmarked
and unremembered.
In
Singapore, during the close of the 19th century, researchers
estimate that close to one-thousand Japanese peasant girls, some as young as
13, were tricked and sold into a life of prostitution, known as karayuki-san.
They were taken to Singapore to service immigrant laborers working on
plantations and in mines.
 |
| Japanese Cemetery Park |
 |
| Prostitutes Graves |
The
girls died, many times at the hands of clients, or committed suicide due to
abuse by their handlers, or because of the lose of money due to ageing. These
prostitutes were buried at the Japanese Cemetery Park, land that was donated by
brothel owner Tagajiro Fukaki for destitute women.
 |
| View of cemetery |
During
WWII Japanese soldiers and civilians who were ill were also buried in the
Japanese Cemetery Park. Over 900 graves are located there. Though most of the
prostitutes’ remain nameless, it is said that all of their graves face the same
direction, away from their homeland of Japan.
 |
| Mohe Memorial |
 |
| Mohe Entrance |
In
Beijing, China, Mohe Prostitutes Cemetery is the burial ground for Chinese,
Japanese and Russian prostitutes.
Most were buried without names on their markers, but epitaphs
do exist such as, “Here lie buried 12 Russian prostitutes.”
 |
| Bishop of Winchester |
In
England, Cross Bones Graveyard is another such place. During the 1500’s it was established as an unconsecrated
graveyard for “single women.”
Women working this area were also known as Winchester Geese since they were licensed by the Bishop of
Winchester to work within this jurisdiction just outside of London.
 |
| John Stow |
The
age of the graveyard is not known. John Stow first referred it to in 1598 in
his Survay of London where he
wrote,
“I
have heard of ancient men, of good credit, report that these single women were
forbidden the rites of the church, so long as they continued that sinful life,
and were excluded from Christian burial, they were
not reconciled before their death. And therefore there was a plot of ground
called the Single Woman's churchyard, appointed for them far from the parish church."
By
1769, the Single Woman’s Churchyard had become a pauper’s cemetery.
In
1853 the graveyard was closed because there was no more room for burials. It is
believed that over 15,000 people were buried there. In 1883, the cemetery was sold for a building site but after
complaints were made, the sale was ruled null and void.
 |
| Cross Bones Graveyard |
 |
| Decorated Gates |
The
Cross Bones Graveyard now has a plaque on the gates for “The Outcast Dead.” A
local group, known as the Friends of Cross Bones, is currently working on
getting a permanent memorial garden in place. Every Halloween, they hold
special events and processionals to remember those buried here. The gates of the cemetery are always
decorated with messages, flowers and ribbons in remembrance to those
unfortunates of the past.
 |
| Tending the Graves |
In
some countries, and in some religions, prostitutes would establish their own
cemeteries. There, others of the
same profession would tend the graves and mourn the dead, since no one else
felt them worthy of such attention.
It
is not our place to judge them; we do not know how or why they led these
lives. Even in the twenty first
century, the sex slave trade still exists. Thousands of nameless, faceless women continue to be
banished from society, living on the outskirts of humanity, to be exploited,
abused; to die and be buried, forgotten, in unmarked graves.
~
Joy
March
is ‘Women’s History Month’ and it seems an apt time to remember those women who
were shunned in life and forgotten in death – the prostitutes.
In
Singapore, during the close of the 19th century, researchers
estimate that close to one-thousand Japanese peasant girls, some as young as
13, were tricked and sold into a life of prostitution, known as karayuki-san.
They were taken to Singapore to service immigrant laborers working on
plantations and in mines. 
In
England, Cross Bones Graveyard is another such place. During the 1500’s it was established as an unconsecrated
graveyard for “single women.”
Women working this area were also known as Winchester Geese since they were licensed by the Bishop of
Winchester to work within this jurisdiction just outside of London.
It
is not our place to judge them; we do not know how or why they led these
lives. Even in the twenty first
century, the sex slave trade still exists. Thousands of nameless, faceless women continue to be
banished from society, living on the outskirts of humanity, to be exploited,
abused; to die and be buried, forgotten, in unmarked graves.
