Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/21
By: Chen Chih-chung, Hsieh Chia-chen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, April 21 (CNA) Chen Lien-hua (陳蓮花), one of three known surviving former

(CNA file photo)

comfort women in Taiwan, died of intestinal infection on Thursday at the age of 93, according to the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, a group that has been advocating for the rights of the former WWII sex slaves.

Chen was taken to the hospital in March when she was in pain from intestinal blockage. Doctors diagnosed that her intestines had suffered a tear, increasing the risk of infection. But after undergoing surgery, Chen became very weak and passed away with her family by her side.

Born in Xizhi (now a district in New Taipei City) in 1924, Chen was given up for adoption and had from a young age worked at a local factory. When she was 19 years old, a Japanese person came to the factory under the guise of recruiting “caregivers” and took more than 20 women, including Chen, by boat to the Philippines. After arriving in the Philippines she and the other women were forced into “sexual slavery” for Japanese soldiers. But it was too late for them to escape.    [FULL  STORY]