THE Japanese Army forced Chinese women into prostitution and enslaved about 9.2 million labourers and their families in northern China during World War II, historical documents in Tianjin archives show.
The documents are the first 'official' statistics found, but are yet to be authorised.
Evidence showing that 80 Chinese women were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers from 1944 has been banned from publication, according to Tong Zeng, head of the Chinese Committee for Demanding War Reparations from Japan.
Mr Tong said yesterday that he had obtained a copy of the documents showing that the district court in the northern port city of Tianjin investigated cases of 80 'comfort women'.
The court transferred the documents to Tianjin municipal archives in 1946, he said.
'This is evidence of the Japanese Army's war atrocities,' Mr Tong said in Beijing.
'There will be a lot of cases to attest to Japan's crimes in China if archives are allowed to publicise such documents,' he said. 'Japan won't be able to distort history.' The campaigner said the Chinese authorities, however, had ordered archives nationwide not to release historical documents on 'comfort women'.