Two former comfort women die over two days

Posted on : 2008-04-29 09:05 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST

Two women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II died over two consecutive days due to chronic diseases, a civic group here said Monday.

A 78-year-old woman, identified only by her surname, Kim, died late Sunday due to her heart and kidney diseases, just one day after an 83-year-old woman died from liver cancer, according to the Daegu Citizen Forum for Comfort Women.

Both women had been forced to serve Japanese soldiers as sex slaves, who are euphemistically called "comfort women."

Historians say that most of the estimated 200,000 young girls who were forced to serve as sex slaves from the 1930s to 1945 were young girls from Korea, which was a Japanese colony from 1910-1945.

Last December, the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a nonbinding resolution demanding that Japan "formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical and legal responsibility, in a clear and unequivocal manner" regarding its history of militarized sexual slavery.

The move followed similar resolutions adopted earlier last year by the legislatures of the United States, the Netherlands and Canada.

The Japanese government has yet to officially apologize and compensate the victims of sexual slavery.

DAEGU, April 28 (Yonhap)

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