Site of Japanese Invasion Troops' Comfort Women Station at Liji Alley, Nanjing, Former comfort station complex in Qinhuai District, Nanjing, China
The site at Liji Alley in Nanjing contains seven preserved buildings that served as military facilities during the Japanese occupation in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The structures remain largely intact, allowing visitors to see the physical layout and rooms where these facilities operated.
The seven buildings on Liji Alley were completed in 1935 as Puxing New Village, a high-class residential compound of two-storey concrete-and-brick houses financed by Lieutenant General Yang Puqing. In December 1937 Japanese forces occupied Nanjing, and on 28 December the plan to establish comfort stations was approved. The compound was requisitioned and run by a Japanese brothel operator named Chida as the Dongyun Comfort Station, also called the Eastern Hotel. In 2014 it was listed as a Nanjing protected site, and in 2019 as a national key cultural relic.
The site opened on 1 December 2015 as the Nanjing Liji Alley Comfort Women Station Site Museum, a branch of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders. House No. 2 was called the Shinozume Station or Eastern Hotel, run by a Japanese brothel owner named Chida; House No. 18 was the Furusato Station. In 2003 Korean survivor Pak Yong-sim identified the site in person.
The site is at Liji Alley No. 2, Wulaocun Subdistrict, Qinhuai District, and now operates as a branch of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders. The seven buildings cover about 2,000 square metres; the exhibition opened on 1 December 2015 after restoration begun in May 2015. Look for the heritage stele unveiled on 25 June 2014.
The seven buildings on Liji Alley are the only comfort stations in Nanjing identified through the testimony of surviving comfort women. In 2003, Korean survivor Pak Yong-sim, visiting Nanjing, pointed out this site in person. The complex is considered the largest of its kind in Asia.
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