Chinese former ‘comfort women’, aged 94 and 90, break silence about brutal treatment by Japanese soldiers
Previously, only 14 of the thousands of women forced into sex slavery during the Japanese invasion in the second world war were known to be still alive
Two sisters in their 90s from central China have spoken out about being forced to become “comfort women” during the second world war, mainland media reports.
At least 200,000 Chinese women were abducted as sex slaves during the Japanese invasion, only 14 of whom were previously known to be still alive, according to Chinese official data.
Peng Renshou, 94, and her sister Peng Zhuying, 90, from Yueyang city in Hunan province, were found by volunteers from a museum in eastern China’s Jiangsu province commemorating the Nanking massacre by the Japanese, reported state news agency Xinhua.
The volunteers pieced together stories during a visit to Yueyang that led them to the sisters, who initially denied the stories before being persuaded by volunteers to speak to Chinese media on Thursday.
The elder Peng said she was captured in 1939 and taken to a “comfort station” – a de facto brothel used by Japanese soldiers – when she was 14. She said she was raped repeatedly, before being thrown out when she was sick.
