Documentary ensures atrocity never forgotten
The women's faces are creviced by age but their memories are crystal clear. Sitting for interviews for a documentary, one by one they retell with exacting detail the first time they were raped by Japanese troops more than 70 years ago. [Special Coverage]
The aged women from different parts of China share very similar stories as they describe how as young girls they were tricked, coerced and forced into sexual slavery. Many have scares to prove the brutal torture they suffered.
The five-part documentary on the sexual enslavement of women and girls by Japanese troops began airing on China Central Television (CCTV) on Monday night, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.
Lei Guiying was just 15 in 1943 when she was separated from her family in the midst of rampaging Japanese troops.
"Three of four Japanese started harassing me. They tore apart my clothes. I was too scared to cry," says Lei describing a scene forever etched in her mind's eye before being overcome with emotion.
"The first Japanese soldier raped me, and then the second and the third ferociously pulled off my trousers and threw them away. He stabbed me several times with a knife," she said.
Lei is one of more than 20 enslaved women interviewed for the newly-released documentary series with English subtitles which can be viewed on CCTV4's website.
The first episode sets out to prove the atrocity, showing documented evidence including reports detailing the number of enslaved women in a particular war zone and the ratio of these women to the number of invading Japanese soldiers.
The documentary makers also interviewed people with early childhood memories of still existing buildings where enslaved women were brutalized, murdered or committed suicide.
The documentary series reveals how the Japanese government and military systematically built a series of so-called "comfort stations" an anachronistic term that belies the horrors the enslaved women suffered.
It also details similar tragic experiences of victims from Nanjing, Shanxi, Yunnan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea, Indonesia and other regions.
"The issue is not about crimes by individuals. It was an organized atrocity that Japanese soldiers and their government participated in," Su Zhiliang, the head of the Research Center for Chinese Comfort Women at Shanghai Normal University and an adviser to the documentary series, told the Global Times.
"Comfort women" is a euphemism used to describe girls and women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese during their occupation of China and other Asian countries.
Detailed research of archives, documents and personal accounts show some 400,000 women across Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army, said Su.
Remember victims and history
The shooting of the series was emotionally draining for the filmmakers as they listened to stories cast in everlasting pain.
"After more than 70 years, they still haven't recovered from the past ordeals and their emotional turmoil continues to influence their children," Liu Yunfeng, a videographer on the series, told the Yangtze Evening News.
The filmmakers took care in prompting the surviving women to relive the dread of their experience. Many of the elderly women who are well past 80 years old, needed rest breaks as their buried memories once again were dredged from the past, Liu said.
The feature documentary "Twenty-Two" also tells the story of women enslaved by the Japanese and has been seen by an audience of millions.
Many people in China and other Asian countries believe the Japanese government to this duty has not yet properly atoned for the atrocity, which has added to the victims' pain.
Guo Ke, the director "Twenty Two" told the Global Times he hopes documentaries like his contribute to historical memory of what really happened.
