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| In a still from video footage from 1944, released Tuesday, a Chinese soldier takes a sock off one of the dead Korean sex slaves killed by the Japanese military. The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the SNU Human Rights Center released the 19-second footage through which an Allied Command soldier, surnamed Baldwin, filmed a mass grave site for Korean sex slaves in Tengchong, a western Chinese village bordering Myanmar. /Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government and SNU Human Rights Center |
WARNING: Graphic content.
By Kim Se-jeong
Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul National University Human Rights Center unveiled video footage, Tuesday, showing scores of bodies of Korean sex slaves being dumped after being killed by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
The Japanese government has denied any responsibility for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women into sexual slavery. But the latest footage contradicts that claim, according to researchers studying the issue.
The 19-second footage depicts a Chinese soldier looking at scores of naked bodies he carried to a hill. In another scene, he takes a sock off one of the bodies before walking away. Another scene shows smoke billowing from what appears to be a mound of human bodies at a different location.
The research team said the footage was recorded Sept. 15, 1944, in Tengchong, a western Chinese village bordering Myanmar, by an Allied Command soldier, surnamed Baldwin. The team recovered the footage from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
In June that year, the Allied Command began attacking Tengchong and a nearby city which were under control of almost 3,000 Japanese soldiers. As defeat became more certain, the Japanese soldiers took their own lives and killed people stationed with them, including the sex slaves. At least 70 sex slaves were believed to have been there with the troops, among whom only 23 survived.
Together with the footage, the team also revealed a document filed by the Allied Command reporting the killing of Korean sex slaves. "Night of the 13th (Sept. 13, 1944), the Japs shot 30 Korean girls in the city," the document said.
The newly disclosed materials are expected to give more insight into the sex slavery issue which is one of the most contentious between Korea and Japan.
With the precise figure unknown, scholars estimate the number of sex slaves to have been almost 200,000, mostly Koreans.
Korea points to the Japanese military's accountability in mobilizing young women to provide sex for its troops, while Japan denies the military's role insisting they were voluntary sex workers who traveled with the troops for money.
This latest footage was revealed during a conference on sex slavery organized by the city government.
Kang Sung-hyun, a professor at the Institute for East Asian Studies of Sungkonghoe University who was one of the speakers at the conference, called the killings a massacre.
"At a time when the Japanese government denies the existence of sex slaves and their massacre, today's revelation offers a meaningful glimpse into what really happened to the sex slaves," he said.
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said: "We know all too well we shouldn't repeat this tragic history and one part of remembering it is documenting it. The city will continue to support the project that will help people remember history."
The city's joint project with Seoul National University started in 2016. Researchers traveled all over the world to collect documents, objects, images and videos relevant to sex slavery.
Last year, the team revealed a black-and-white video featuring Korean sex slaves. The city government is working to publish a book on the subject next month based on accounts from sex slavery victims and recently found documents.
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