Lei Guiying, 79; forced to work as a ‘comfort woman’ in World War II

Lei Guiying, 79, a Chinese woman who testified that she was forced to work in a brothel run by Japan’s Imperial Army during World War II, died Wednesday of a brain hemorrhage, Chinese state media reported from Shanghai.

Lei’s death marks the passing of one of the few remaining known victims of sexual slavery during Japan’s brutal invasion and occupation of much of China, Xinhua News Agency said.

Chinese experts say fewer than 50 former Chinese sex slaves are still alive, although few have gone public with their experiences.

The issue of sex slaves, or “comfort women” as they were officially called, reemerged when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suggested in March that no proof existed that the military had coerced women into brothels.

Lei had said she was 13 when she was abducted and raped by Japanese soldiers, who four years earlier had sacked her hometown of Nanjing in one of the war’s worst single atrocities.

She escaped after two years but was unable to have children and remained silent about her experience for more than six decades.

“It’s been more than 60 years now. I’m old and I didn’t want to talk about such a shameful thing to other people. But then I thought, if I don’t talk about it, they will get off too easily,” Lei was quoted as saying.

Japan’s government in 1993 issued an apology for running the brothels and two years later established a private fund to support the former slaves without conceding official responsibility.