107-year-old victim of Japanese wartime sexual slavery dies in China
![Liu Nianzhen, the oldest surviving victim of wartime sexual slavery living in mainland China, died Tuesday. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/02/28/3464f113-eac9-48bd-9637-8d5369693332.jpg)
Liu Nianzhen, the oldest surviving victim of wartime sexual slavery living in mainland China, died Tuesday. [YONHAP]
A victim of Japanese wartime sexual slavery living in China died on Tuesday at the age of 107.
Liu Nianzhen, the oldest surviving victim of wartime sexual slavery living in mainland China, died in Yueyang County, Hunan Province, according to a “comfort women” research center at Shanghai Normal University on Wednesday.
Liu, who was born in Yueyang County in 1918, was captured by Japanese troops near her hometown in 1944. She was locked in a dilapidated house in the mountains and forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese.
Liu managed to escape after seven to eight days of captivity but fell seriously ill and was cared for by her nephew’s family until the end of her life.
The Hunan Province investigation team of the comfort women research center confirmed that Liu was a surviving victim through interviews and on-site investigation during the Yueyang County investigation in 2019.
With Liu’s passing, a total of eight survivors of Japanese wartime sexual slavery in mainland China remain, including one newly confirmed victim in Pinjiang County, Hunan Province, on Feb. 22.
In Korea, only nine survivors of Japanese wartime sexual slavery remain. The most recent victim died in May last year.
Last November, the Seoul High Court ordered the Japanese government to pay 200 million won ($154,000) each to 16 Korean victims of Japanese sexual slavery before and during World War II.
BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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