Published: 14:44, December 29, 2024 | Updated: 15:12, December 29, 2024
Survivor of Japan's 'comfort women' system dies, leaving 8 on Chinese mainland
By Xinhua
A visitor arrives at the site of a former "comfort women" station at Liji Lane on Aug 14, 2024 to mark the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. The exhibition reveals the extent of atrocities committed on the victims of sexual slavery by Japanese military personnel between 1932 and 1945. (PHOTO / CHINA NEWS SERVICE)

SHANGHAI - A 95-year-old survivor of the Japanese army's "comfort women" system during World War II, passed away on Saturday in Central China's Hunan province, leaving only eight registered survivors on the Chinese mainland.

Previous research has shown that some 400,000 women in Asia were forced to be "comfort women" -- sexual slaves for the Japanese army during World War II -- and nearly half of them were Chinese.

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The survivor, born in 1930 in Pingjiang County, Hunan, was abducted by Japanese soldiers with her cousin in early 1945. They, along with other girls taken from various locations, were confined in a house in Pingjiang, where they endured severe sexual abuse, according to the Research Center for Comfort Women at Shanghai Normal University.

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After more than a month of captivity, she was rescued by Chinese soldiers.

The research center has conducted multiple investigations in the provinces of Hunan and Shanxi, collecting information through site visits, testimonies of survivors, and historical records to establish research archives on victims of the Japanese army's "comfort women" system.

It has also set up a fund for "comfort women" research and assistance, which assists the victims and supports relevant research.