Another former sex slave dies, reducing number of surviving victims to 11

All News 13:31 May 02, 2022

CHANGWON, South Korea, May 2 (Yonhap) -- Another South Korean woman forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War II has died, a civic group said Monday, reducing the number of registered surviving victims to 11.

Kim Yang-joo died in the southeastern city of Changwon the previous day at the age of 98, according to a local group working for wartime sex slavery victims.

This January 2018 file photo shows Kim Yang-joo at a hospital in the southeastern city of Changwon. Kim, who was forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War II, died on May 1, 2022.

She had been treated at a hospital since showing symptoms of sepsis. She previously collapsed due to cerebral infarction, the group said.

Born in 1924, she was lured by a false promise of employment in China and forced to work at Japanese military brothels there.

Her death brought the number of total surviving victims in South Korea to 11.

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. Korea was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.
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