Seoul: A victim of Japan’s sexual slavery of Korean women during World War II has died, a civic group said on Saturday, bringing down the number of officially registered surviving victims to eight.
The woman died recently, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan said, without revealing her identity.
At 18, the late victim travelled to China with a friend to find work at a sewing factory but was forced into sexual servitude for Japanese troops during World War II, when Korea was under Japan’s colonial rule, Yonhap news agency reported.
She couldn’t return home when the country was liberated in 1945, only managing to come back in the early 2000s and reunite with her family.
While alive, she actively testified about Japan’s wartime sexual slavery and worked to resolve related issues.
Her death brought the number of officially surviving victims to eight, with an average age of 95.
Historians estimate that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were forced to work in front-line brothels for Japanese troops during the war.
Last year, the Seoul High Court overturned a lower court’s rejection of a damages suit filed by 16 victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery and ordered Japan to pay the compensation requested by the victims.
The ruling was finalised as Japan did not appeal, but it remains unclear whether the compensation will actually be paid, given Japan’s inaction.
–IANS
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