by Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korea’s number of registered surviving victims of Tokyo’s 20th century sexual slavery is down to 50, just weeks ahead of an expected statement by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
An announcement by the family of Kim Dal-seon, 91, said Friday that she had passed away from natural causes the night before.
Less than 30 minutes before her death, another former so-called “comfort woman” also died -- the House Of Sharing shelter for surviving sex slaves had said the previous evening that Kim Dal-seon, 80, had been unwell.
Some experts claim that more than 200,000 women were forced into servitude by Japan leading up to and during World War II.
There has been increasing pressure on Tokyo from the United States government and international historians, as well as within Japan, to fully recognize the extent of its previous abuse of women from Korea and beyond.
Abe is set to address his country’s past when he marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the war later this year.
Former “comfort women” gather in Seoul every week outside the Japanese Embassy, calling for a long-awaited direct apology and compensation.
With time literally running out for the surviving victims, the story of Kim Dal-seon is resonating with the Korean public.
She had been working at a market when she was abducted by Japanese police aged 19. Having served at military brothels abroad, she subsequently had to have her uterus surgically repaired.
It was not until after her 50th birthday that she married.
The sexual slavery issue has been increasingly politicized under the current Park Geun-hye administration -- the South Korean president has so far refused to hold a bilateral summit with Abe since she took office more than two years ago.
