94-year-old ‘comfort woman’ dies, leaving 24

Another Korean woman coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II died Monday, a civic group said, reducing the number of surviving victims to 24.

The victim, only identified by her surname Lee, died at 94, according to the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

She was kidnapped by Japanese troops at age 17 in 1942, when returning home after working at a factory. Lee was forced to move to Manchuria, where she was forced into sexual slavery, according to the group.

Her death leaves only 24 surviving victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery from Japan’s 1910-45 Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula. Initially, 238 women were on the list of government-registered former sex slaves. Historians estimate that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were forced to work in front-line brothels for Japanese troops during World War II. In late November, the Korean government said it will shut down a 1 billion yen ($9 million) foundation on wartime sex slavery that was funded by Japan.

It was created in July 2016 to financially support Korean victims of Japan’s sexual slavery as part of a controversial accord signed in 2015.

Yonhap