Survivor of Japan's wartime 'comfort women' system dies aged 99

A survivor of the Japanese army's World War II-era "comfort women" system has died in Central China's Hunan province, leaving only six registered survivors on the Chinese mainland, according to a Shanghai-based research center.

The Japanese military's "comfort women" system subjected women and girls, mainly from occupied parts of Asia, to sexual slavery in military-run brothels before and during World War II.

The survivor, known in accordance with her wishes by the pseudonym Grandma Hui, died early on Wednesday at her home in Pingjiang county, Hunan, according to the Research Center for Chinese Comfort Women at Shanghai Normal University. She was 99.

Born in Changsha, Hunan, in 1928, Hui was subjected to wartime sexual slavery in the summer of 1945, the research center said in a post published on Wednesday.

At the time, local puppet authorities, acting under orders from Japanese troops, conscripted women under the pretext of "doing laundry and manual labor". In reality, the women were forced to work for Japanese troops without pay during the day and were subjected to sexual slavery at night, the center said.

Hui and her mother were taken to work outside a Japanese military camp. The women were kept under strict surveillance by Japanese patrols, barred from contacting outsiders and forced to work without pay. During that period, Japanese soldiers took young women into the camp and sexually abused them, and Hui was among the victims, the center said.

She endured the abuse for more than 10 days before the women were told they no longer needed to report to the camp. During that time, a Japanese soldier violently twisted her arm, leaving her with a lifelong injury.

In August 2024, an investigation team from the Shanghai Normal University research center visited Pingjiang, where researchers confirmed Hui's status as a survivor of the Japanese military's "comfort women" system through oral interviews and document verification.

The war brought lasting suffering to Hui, including the loss of her father at a young age, the death of her child later in life and lifelong illness, according to the research center.

In her final years, she continued to search for the burial site of her father, who died for the country, and chose to make her own experience public so that history would be remembered, the center said.

The dwindling number of survivors has added urgency to efforts to preserve historical testimony and wartime evidence as Japan continues to face criticism over its handling of the "comfort women" issue.

At a regular news conference in late June, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the forced recruitment of "comfort women" was a grave crime against humanity committed by Japanese militarism during its aggression and expansion, and a gross violation of the basic human rights of people in China, the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia and other regions.

Guo said there is irrefutable evidence of Japan's crimes and that they cannot be denied.

"For years, some forces in Japan have attempted to deny or distort the history of aggression, play down the 'comfort women' issue, deprive victims of their right to seek justice and compensation, and reopen the wounds of survivors," he said.

The Japanese government has also obstructed the establishment of "comfort women" memorial statues in some countries, triggering strong indignation among civil groups and people from various sectors, Guo said.

The question raised at the news conference referred to media reports that Auckland, New Zealand, had planned to install a "comfort women" memorial statue, but the plan was halted under pressure from Japan. It also mentioned Japan's obstruction of similar memorials in the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia and the Philippines in recent years.

Guo urged the Japanese authorities to face up to their history of aggression, sincerely admit guilt and apologize, stop covering up the truth and suppressing voices of justice and cease moves toward "remilitarization".

jiangchenglong@chinadaily.com.cn