Colonial Japan forced even young girls into hard labor

Colonial Japan forced hundreds of Korean girls into hard labor to produce its war supplies, a report showed Monday, adding to the grievances of Koreans against Japan's exploitation in war times that also include sexual enslavement. The average age of Korean females subjected to forced labor came to 16.46 years, according to the report on 1,039 cases of coerced labor on Korean women by Japan during its colonial rule from 1910-45. Among those drafted for factory jobs, the average age came out to be an even lower 13.2 years, according to the report by the Prime Minister's Office's forced labor investigation commission. The number of victims here does not include Korean women who were forced into sexual enslavement at front-line brothels for Japanese soldiers during World War II.