Chinese ‘comfort woman’ dies aged 89
Print Edition
THE last member of a group of Chinese “comfort women” who sued the Japanese government for its wartime atrocities has died at her home in north China’s Shanxi Province at the age of 89.
Zhang Xiantu passed away on Thursday after years of struggle against illness, according to Zhang Shuangbing, a campaigner for her claim.
“In her last days, Zhang still hoped that volunteers would help her continue the lawsuit against Japan,” he said.
Historians estimate there were about 200,000 “comfort women,” mainly from the Korean Peninsula, China and other Southeast Asian countries, who were forced to serve in Japanese brothels during World War II.
Zhang was the last member of a group of Chinese “comfort women” who sued Japan for apology and compensation in 1995. In 2009, Japan’s top court recognized the crime but rejected their compensation claims.
According to Zhang’s account, she was only 16 and had been married for just a few months when she was taken by Japanese soldiers and thrown into a military brothel, where she was held for 20 days. For the rest of her life she battled chronic gynecological diseases and psychological scarring.
“The status of ‘comfort woman’ brought huge stigma, but they lived on in order to testify to that part of history, and to get an apology and compensation,” Zhang Shuangbing told Xinhua.
Zhang’s death is a “great loss to the campaign for compensating all the women who suffered,” he said.
Campaigners will discuss continuing their demands with the remaining survivors and their families, Zhang said.
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