Lei Guiying （File Photo）   Apr.26 - Lei Guiying, who was forced to work as a "comfort woman" by the Japanese army during the Second World War, died in Nanjing on Wednesday at the age of 79.

 

Lei died of a brain hemorrhage in the provincial Chinese Medicine Hospital of Jiangsu, east China, after being admitted last Sunday.

 

Her death means the loss of an important personal account of the atrocities committed by Japanese invaders, historians said.

 

At the age of 13, Lei was raped by a Japanese soldier and was made to work in a Japanese-run brothel on the outskirts of Nanjing for two years. She later escaped but the ordeal left her with many scars and unable to have children.

 

After hiding her past from family and friends for more than 60 years, she went public with her experiences of Japanese army atrocities just last year.

 

"It's been more than 60 years now. I'm old and I didn't want to talk about such a shameful thing to other people. But then I thought, if I don't talk about it, they (Japanese WWII army) will get off too easily," she had said. "I need to let the world know the crimes they committed in Nanjing and I need them to address the issue."

 

In an interview last month with the Times newspaper, Lei said that she was ready to file a case against the Japanese government for its war crimes.

 

Jing Shenghong, a history professor at Nanjing Normal University, said that Lei's testimony was important evidence and it was very regretful that she had passed away.

 

"There is a lot of material evidence to prove the existence of the sex slave quarters in Nanjing, but human accounts are scant," Jing said. "Lei was a brave woman, and should be respected by all of us. It's a huge loss to all of us," said a man, who did not wish to be named, outside the hospital in which Lei died.

 

The issue of wartime sex slavery was back in the international press last month when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that there were no documents to prove the Japanese military had physically coerced women into providing sex for its soldiers during the Second World War.

 

Abe later reiterated his apology over wartime sex slavery in an interview with the U.S. magazine Newsweek, saying "as Japan's prime minister, I am extremely sorry that they were made to endure such pain. We feel responsible for the situation in which women had to exist as 'comfort women' and endure such hardship."

 

An estimated 200,000 women were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese forces during World War II.