'Comfort women' numbers underestimated: author

The author of a book on "comfort women" estimates that the number victimized could be above 200,000.

Caroline Norma, author of The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery During the China and Pacific Wars, said an estimation (of 80,000 to 200,000 by some scholars) "is not based on the latest information from China, so my estimation would be definitely higher than 200,000, easily."

Norma took part in a discussion at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies on Tuesday.

An estimated 200,000 women from China and many others from the Korean Peninsula, the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries were forced into sexual servitude by Japanese troops before and during World War II, according to Xinhua.

"If any country was victimized to a great extent, I think it has to be China," Norma said.

Peipei Qiu, author of Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Imperial Japan's Sex Slaves, recounted many emotionally charged anecdotes from Chinese victims during the panel discussion.

"These kind of abductions were very common in occupied areas in China," said Qiu, director of Asian Studies at Vassar College in New York.

The testimonies of comfort women "have often been contested on the grounds that human memories are subjective", she said.

"In China, because the sexual enslavement took place in the victim's hometowns, there are many, many local witnesses. So all these testimonies are verifiable and supported by local history," Qiu said.

"One legacy is hopefully greater cooperation and research over the comfort women," Norma said. "And the second is that China will hopefully lead the world in pursuing justice for comfort women from various countries."

Allan Fong in Washington contributed to this story.