Nanjing to build museum for wartime sex slaves

Plans to build a museum highlighting the plight of sex slaves during World War II are being considered by authorities in east China's Nanjing city.

The museum site is where Chinese sex slaves were forced to provide services for Japanese troops during the war.

The site has seven two-floor buildings along Liji Alley, near Taiping South Road in Baixia District of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province.

Cai Jia, a senior publicity official in Baixia District, said the district government has submitted a feasibility proposal for the project to the municipal authorities for approval.

If plans are approved the museum will be open to visitors in 2014 as a branch of the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre, according to Cai.

More than 200 sex slaves, or "comfort women", from Japan, the Korean Peninsula and China, were forced to work for Japanese soldiers in the buildings during the Japanese invasion.

Cai said as irrefutable evidence for the atrocities of the invading Japanese army, the site is a mirror of history and a warning to the future.

Japanese troops occupied Nanjing on Dec. 13, 1937 and began a six-week massacre. Records show more than 300,000 people -- not only disarmed soldiers, but also civilians -- were killed.

Some 100,000 to 200,000 Asian women were forced to provide sexual services to the Imperial Japanese Army during the WWII.