The report released late Monday by the All China Lawyers Association and China Legal Aid Foundation, comes as Japan faces increased pressure from the United States to further apologize for sending women to work in wartime brothels. Fourteen were under the age of 18 when they "suffered repeated sexual violence," the report said. Some Japanese soldiers were incorporated into China's Kuomintang Army after the end of the war and continued using one brothel in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, until , the report said.
Soldiers also used temples as brothels, it said. Japanese soldiers controlled large parts of China in the s and s. The Chinese legal groups focused on five counties in Shanxi, two counties in Hainan province and six counties in Yunnan province.
The groups did not say why the study was carried out now. The All-China Lawyers Association is the national umbrella group for government-sanctioned lawyers' groups. Historians say hundreds of thousands of women, mainly from Korea, China and the Philippines, were sent to Japanese military brothels in the s and '40s. Many victims say they were forced to provide sexual services against their will.
Wartime issues still define relations between China and Japan, although ties have improved recently, with Premier Wen Jiabao visiting Japan earlier this year. Last week, the U. House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a nonbinding resolution by a vote urging Japan to "formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner" for the suffering of "comfort women.
.jpg "Call girl in Taiyuan")
The endorsement allows the measure to be considered by the full House of Representatives. After decades of denial, the Japanese government acknowledged its role in wartime prostitution after a historian discovered documents showing government involvement. In , the government issued a carefully worded official apology.
