In October of 2014 I did a blog on my brief tenure as a Refugee Officer for our embassy in Tokyo during 1980-81. In that blog I made mention of encountering Vietnamese refugees on Okinawa, the so-called "boat people" and one particular young lady who had gone through a horrifying experience at the hands of South China Sea pirates. I did not elaborate on her story and what really happened at the time, so I will give a brief summary now.
The young woman in question was very beautiful and also very manipulative. The UNHCR officer, who was also a young woman, was very emotionally affected by this girl's story and went out of the way trying to help her. The girl claimed that she, along with her family members, were captured by the pirates when they were at sea. Her parents were brutally murdered and she was raped by the pirates and kept as a sex slave. According to her, after several months at sea, the pirate ship was caught in a storm, typhoon, off the coast of Taiwan and capsized. She, along with some of the other survivors managed to hang on to some floating debris until they were picked up by a Japanese fishing boat.
There were many similar story that were told by other survivors of pirate attacks. The young Vietnamese woman who had suffered such horrendous experience quickly latched on to the UNHCR officer who was also a young, attractive woman herself, and gained her complete sympathy and empathy. The UNHCR officer bought clothing and other goods for the unfortunate girl, using her own money! However, as we interviewed other survivors, a different story began to emerge. According to other survivors, the girl in question was not a prisoner/victim of the pirates like they were. She was a prisoner initially, but quickly gained the attention and favor of the pirate captain and became his mistress! Most of the survivors claimed that the girl became just like the pirates, cruel and vicious toward other prisoners/victims. She had complete freedom and was considered the captain's mistress and feared by other pirates! Her parents were not murdered by the pirates, but perished at sea when the typhoon sank their ship. Until then, they too had lived a privileged life on the pirate ship!
They were at sea for several months while the pirates raided other fishing villages and tried to "sell" their prisoners/victims to a willing buyer in one of the ports in South China Sea. Then they got caught in a typhoon off the coast of Taiwan and the ship sank. Apparently most if not all pirates perished or washed ashore on one of the islands nearby while the girl, along with some of the prisoner/victim survivors were picked up by a Japanese fishing vessel. They couldn't tell the Japanese about her, because no one on the Japanese ship spoke Vietnamese. Once they got to shore, to Motobu Peninsula on Okinawa, no one seemed to care to listen to them, until we arrived. We were the contingent from Tokyo, representing the U.S. Embassy, UNHCR,, Japanese government, and the U.S, Refugee Office from Washington.
The young Vietnamese girl did what she had to survive, but she did not have to take on the role of the pirate herself, which she did! Similar stories were repeated many times in different ways in that region. Probably the most well known case was that of a Chinese prostitute who became a mistress of a Chinese pirate in the early 19th Century. She ended up marrying the pirate chief Chung I, the most powerful pirate in South China Sea at the time with a fleet of 500 ships and some 50,000 men under his command. When Chung I died, Chung I Sao (literally Chung's wife) also known as Ching Shih, took over. She became the most feared pirate in the region with a fleet that was larger than most navies of countries in the area. She had increased her pirate fleet to over 1,000 ships and close of 80,000 men. She fought off the British, the Portuguese, French, Dutch, and Ching Dynasty navies. She was finally allowed to "retire" with her fortune in booty, without having to go to jail! That was the only way the combined forces of British, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and Chinese could put a stop to her life of piracy! If anyone thinks Iran Nuclear deal is a one-sided deal, well, the deal that she got makes Iran's deal pale in comparison!
Ching Shih aka Chung I Sao died peacefully and as a very wealthy woman! It is said that when Milton Caniff created the character of Dragon Lady for his cartoon strip Terry and the Pirates in 1934, that Ching Shih was the primary inspiration. The other real life person that inspired the Dragon Lady character creation was the so-called Manchurian Princess, Yoshiko Kawashima. But Ching Shih, the Lady Pirate, was the main inspiration. Incidentally, under Ching Shih's command, her pirates were subject to beheading if they raped or mistreated women prisoners! She had a very strict code of conduct for her pirates!
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