Injured S. Korean ex-sex slave receives treatments in Seoul

SEOUL, April 11 (Yonhap) — A local hospital on Monday started treatment on a former Korean sex slave who had suffered serious injuries due to an accident.

Chung-Ang University Hospital in Seoul said it started conducting a thorough medical checkup on Ha Sang-sook, the last-surviving victim of Japan’s World War II sexual slavery in China who is a South Korean citizen.

The 88-year-old was transferred to her home country on Sunday after she fell down a staircase in February, breaking her rib and pelvis.

The hospital said she was subject to four medical tests, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography (CT) scans.

Ha’s condition improved after she recovered from fatigue she had due to the flight. Though it is hard to have a conversation with her, she is still conscious, according to the hospital.

“Once we have the medical checkup results, we will decide on how to treat her,” said professor Park Byung-joon. “We do not know yet when she will get better.”

The hospital said it will focus on recovering Ha’s respiratory and kidneys functions.

At the age of 17, she was forced to serve as a sex slave in Wuhan for Japanese troops during World War II. Even after Japan’s defeat in the war, she did not return to her home country, according to her family in China. She lived in South Korea for a few years after recovering her South Korean citizenship in 1999 but returned to China because she had no living relatives in her home country.

Historians estimate the historical number of sex slaves at about 200,000, with less than 45 South Korean victims alive today.

Ha Sang-sook, a former comfort woman living in China, is hospitalized at Chung-Ang University Hospital in Seoul on April 10, 2016, for treatment. Ha’s life attests to the hardships suffered by the comfort women who were mobilized as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II. Ha, now 88, was told that she would be able to make a lot of money when she was coaxed to China and forced into sexual slavery at the age of 17. She suffered serious injuries from a fall down the stairs and was flown into Seoul for treatment. (Yonhap)