NANJING, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — Inside the Nanjing Museum of the Site of the Lijixiang Comfort Stations in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, a wall of portraits bears the weathered faces of greater than 60 survivors of the Japanese military’s World War II-era “comfort women” system.
On Friday, that visible document grew as a brand new batch of artifacts, pictures and video supplies documenting the victims’ experiences was added to the museum’s assortment.
The supplies have been donated primarily by two Chinese photographers after years of documentary work and subject investigation.
One of them is Li Xiaofang, a member of the China Photographers Association, who spent greater than 20 years gathering the tales of survivors of the Japanese army’s “comfort women” system. Traveling throughout China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK), he visited, interviewed and photographed greater than 100 survivors.
Li donated greater than 200 pictures of over 70 survivors, together with 43 replicas of their handprints. The pictures are actually on show on the museum.
The tales behind the photographs stay vivid in his reminiscence. Li recalled visiting survivor Zhou Fenying on a cold autumn day. Despite the chilly, the aged lady insisted on taking a shower.
“After escaping from the comfort station, I had to take a bath every day, hoping to wash away the humiliation and pain from my body,” Li recalled Zhou telling him.
“It was a psychological trauma she could never erase in her lifetime,” Li stated.
Another donor, photojournalist Yan Meihua from Xiaogan City in central China’s Hubei Province, spent two years documenting the testimony and each day lifetime of Mao Yinmei, a Korea-born survivor.
Yan finally compiled greater than 7,000 pictures and 10 movies, preserving an in depth visible document of Mao’s life and experiences.
Born in what’s now Jeonbuk State of the ROK, Mao was deceived by the Japanese army within the Nineteen Forties and brought to a “comfort station” in Hubei’s Wuhan, the place she endured inhumane abuse. After Japan’s give up, she fled to Xiaogan and settled there for the remainder of her life.
“She often sat alone in silence. Whenever the Japanese were mentioned, her face would turn pale, and she would quietly shed tears,” Yan recalled.
“You could truly feel that the harm caused by the atrocities of the Japanese military stayed with her throughout her life, like a shadow that never faded,” she stated.
Liu Guangjian, a researcher on the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, stated the newly donated supplies will present a stronger historic foundation for future educational analysis and museum exhibitions.
“Li’s more than two decades of field investigation have created a collective portrait of survivors, while Yan’s two years of documentation have preserved a precious visual archive of an individual survivor,” Liu stated.
Affiliated with the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, the museum preserves one of many former “comfort station” websites on the Chinese mainland which were personally recognized by survivors.
According to analysis, solely six registered survivors of the Japanese army’s “comfort women” system stay alive on the Chinese mainland.