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Chinese researchers unveil first report on "comfort women" |
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17:31, July 03, 2007 |
A group of Chinese researchers probing into the "comfort women" issue has issued their first report Monday, which says the "comfort women" system continues till 1949, Beijing Times reported on Tuesday.
Besides residential houses and meeting chambers, the Japanese military even used Chinese temples, "holy place" in Chinese culture, to act as "comfort houses", the paper quoted the report as saying.
The investigation also found one of the "comfort houses" was used by the Japanese military until 1947, the report read.
After World War II, a few surrendered Japanese forces was grouped into the local Kuomintang Army. One of the group, called "the sixth security guards unit", released a notice in Japanese saying they had one "comfort house" set in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, which proved the "comfort women" system continued till 1947, according to the report.
The investigation was conducted by China's former "comfort women" investigation commission, which is co-sponsored by All China Lawyers Association and China Legal Aid Foundation.
The commission focused their investigation on five counties in Shanxi Province, two counties in Hainan Province and six counties in Yunnan Province from September 2006 to March 2007.
During the investigation, 17 former "comfort women" survivors were found. Among them, 16 are living in Shanxi Province and one in Hainan Province, according to the report.
When they were forced to act as "comfort women", fourteen were under 18 years old with the youngest only twelve and the oldest 21, the report read.
The survivors said they had suffered repeated sexual violence, says the report.
Kang Jian, a lawyer engaged in this investigation, said "this is the first systematic investigation on Chinese "comfort women" and two more reports from this investigation will be released.
He also said "larger scale investigation" will be carried out in the future".
On June 28, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang urged the Japanese government to seriously and properly resolve the issues of "comfort women" and forced Chinese laborers during World War II.
Qin made the comments in response to a bill passed by a U.S. House panel on June 26, urging Japan to acknowledge formally and accept responsibility for the sexual exploitation of "comfort women" by the Japanese military during World War II.
Source: Xinhua
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