Archives on wartime sexual slavery victims donated in Nanjing

A collection of historical materials documenting survivors of the Japanese military's wartime sexual slavery system was donated on Friday to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

The donation was made by Li Xiaofang, a former official of the Zhejiang Provincial Press and Publication Administration, and Yan Meihua, senior editor of Xiaogan Daily in central China's Hubei Province.

Both have long been engaged in collecting historical records, conducting field investigations and researching the history of the Japanese military's "comfort women" system.

The donated materials include a large number of photographs, video recordings and other documentary records related to survivors.

Li donated 43 reproduced handprints of surviving victims, along with portraits, records on living conditions and related photographs of 67 survivors.

Yan donated 8,701 photographs and images, as well as 10 video clips, documenting Mao Yinmei, a Korean survivor of the system.

Born Park Cha-sun, also known as Park Ah-hee, Mao was originally from Jeollabuk-do in South Korea.

In the 1940s, she was deceived by the Japanese military and was forced into sexual slavery in Wuhan, China's Hubei Province, where she suffered sustained brutal abuse and torture.

After Japan's surrender, she settled in Xiaogan, Hubei, and lived there until her death in 2017.

According to the memorial hall, all donated materials will be cataloged, restored, archived and systematically preserved by its Nanjing Massacre Documentation Research and Exchange Center.

They will subsequently be incorporated into exhibitions, academic research archives and public education programs.

The memorial hall has continued to collect and preserve documentary evidence related to the Japanese military's wartime sexual slavery system and other wartime atrocities.