Last Daughters: CGTN tracks voices of Chinese and Filipina WWII sex slaves

They lost their childhood to the flames of war and were forced into sexual slavery. They lived through decades of silence, carrying their burden alone. And then, they spoke.

CGTN's original documentary Last Daughters traces the lives of "comfort women" survivors in China and the Philippines during World War II and the enduring impact on their families. Today, only a handful remain alive – their voices and memories fading into the dust of history. Through a cross-border lens, the film reveals the deep scars left by war and captures the quiet strength and warmth that endured, even in the darkest depths of human suffering.

Blinded at 9, victimized at 14

"He didn't answer me."

Peng Zhuying, 96, from central China's Hunan Province, speaks softly. A Japanese journalist had visited her home. "I asked him," she recalls, "'Can your government apologize?' He gave no reply."

Peng is the last publicly identified survivor of Japan's wartime "comfort women" system in China. Six others linger in silence, bedridden by age and trauma. Just a month before the documentary filming began, "Grandma Xiaorui" – who had refused to disclose details of her past – passed away.

Peng lives alone in a narrow alleyway – a humble dwelling with one room and one kitchen. Her door opens directly in front of a refurbished public toilet. On the first day of filming, she waited for us in her dimly lit corridor, her face serene beneath the single bulb she keeps on for visitors. When I took her hands, calling her "Grandma," tears fell. For a generation raised in times of peace, meeting a survivor of war was shattering. Yet over days of filming, her quiet resilience revealed a woman far more than just a victim.

Born by the Yangtze River, Peng lost her eyesight at the age of 9 when Japanese mustard gas bombs fell on Hunan. "The light vanished," she says, "just vanished."

In interviews, her laughter rings out only when describing pre-war memories: "The sky's color and that of the river were the same. When I was a child, I would walk and see the moon following me. The moon walks, and I walk too." For a moment, the war dissolves; she is a child again. It was the last time she saw the Yangtze.

In the summer of 1938, Peng's mother and infant brother died from the gas. Her 13-year-old sister, Peng Renshou, was betrayed to Japanese soldiers while fleeing.

"A collaborator, a man in his 50s, wanted me as his concubine. I refused. I would rather beg on the streets," she recounted before her death. "Enraged, he incited a group of Japanese soldiers to violate me." She said they threatened to burn down a house with 50 people inside unless she surrendered. She had no choice. Gang-raped until unconscious, she survived but became infertile.

Three years later, 14-year-old Peng Zhuying suffered the same fate. She was imprisoned in a "comfort station." They broke her toes when she resisted and violated her regularly. "I only remember wanting to return home but couldn't because I was afraid they would kill me."

After her release – aided by villagers, when troops marched on Changsha – she bled relentlessly from gynecological injuries. Like her sister, she never bore children.

After the war, Peng's father forced his blind daughter to learn fortune-telling. "I wanted to care for children instead. But he insisted that for a girl to survive, she needed a skill." She memorized every incantation. For 80 years, it was her livelihood. She believed herself childless – until late 2024. A CT scan revealed a calcified fetus, dead for decades, inside her womb.

Half the victims were Chinese

Japan's "comfort women" system – a state-sponsored sexual slavery scheme by the military – was unprecedented in modern history. It enslaved at least 400,000 women across Asia and the Pacific: Chinese, Korean, Filipino and others. Half of them were Chinese. The Japanese opened the world's first "comfort station" in Shanghai and over 2,100 followed. Girls, deemed "military supplies," were trafficked like weapons. Many, too young, were left infertile.

The weight of silence

At 43, Peng married a fisherman 20 years older than her. Only after his death did she speak openly. "Countless survivors stayed hidden," says her nephew Peng Zifang. "In that era, speaking meant shame, ostracism, abuse."

Dutch survivor Jan Ruff-O'Herne, author of "50 Years of Silence," broke her own silence in 1992 – the first Western woman to publicly testify.

In the Dutch East Indies, 200 to 300 women were enslaved. Marthe, 18 when taken, escaped after contracting venereal disease but lived estranged and unmarried. In the Philippines, 1,000 suffered similarly. Maria Quistadio Arroyo, enslaved at 12, endured decades of spousal violence: "My husband mocked me and physically abused me until he died…No one punished the real criminals."

"The closest people hurt you like the enemy did," notes Zhang Ruyi, deputy director of China's "Comfort Women" History Museum. "But those who speak rebuild our shared humanity."

The unanswered question

By 2025, according to "Comfort Women" Research Center at Shanghai Normal University, only seven registered survivors remain in China, with an average age of 96. According to Lila Pilipina, there are six in the Philippines. Since 1995, victims from the Chinese mainland and the Taiwan region have filed five lawsuits against Japan in Tokyo. All failed. Though Japan's Supreme Court acknowledged the Imperial Army's sexual violence and its lasting harm, the state refuses reparations.

"The young Japanese aren't to blame," Peng tells us. "But can their government apologize?"

Will she live to hear it?

Darkness and light

In Peng's home, we noticed two porcelain shards in her cooking pot. "She listens to their sound to judge whether the food is cooked," her nephew explains. "She solves problems on her own. … She may be a victim, but she has never thought of herself as weak."

Zhang Ruyi reflects: "These elderly women, once enslaved, have suffered so much. Yet they shine with a certain light. Do you remember what Grandma Wei Shaolan said in the movie 'Thirty-Two'? 'This world is so beautiful. Even if I eat only husks and scraps, I want to keep looking at it.' That, I think, is women's power – raw and unfiltered." She gestures to Peng's corridor that is always lit for visitors. "What is that if not love? If not confidence in humanity?"

Executive Supervisor   

Fan Yun   

Chief Planner

Wang Yuehua

Senior Supervisor  

Liu Cong

Supervisor & Planner

Zhang Shilei

Chief Producer

Wen Yaru

Producer  

Li Tianfu   

Alvin Tan (Philippines)

Executive Producers  

Chen Kairan    

Kristine Lim (Philippines)

Director

Gao Xingzi

Directors Team   

Chen Kairan    

Liu Xiaoxian   

Mike Carandang (Philippines)

Camera

Zhang Zhiyuan   

Yang Yuzhao      

Chito Acot (Philippines)

Kim Delos Reyes (Philippines)

Photographers & Tech Assistants

Lance Francisco (Philippines)

Joshua Allares (Philippines)

Equipment Caretaker   

Bryan Joshua Wilcan (Philippines)

English Review    

Lin Dongwei    

Qin Xiaohu    

Wang Mingyan             

Post-Production Editor  

Yan Junting  

Trailer Editor

Liu Xiaoxian

Audio Technicians  

Shi Binkun   

Ken Dinopol

Sound Designer  

Song Kaiyu   

Poster Designer  

Pei Zihan  

Multimedia Producer   

Andrea Alcantara (Philippines)

Script Consultant   

Moosa Abbas

Nadim Diab

John Goodrich

Historical Consultant  

Su Zhiliang  

Wang Xinpeng  

Zhang Ruyi  

Line Producer  

Chen Kairan  

Dan Fangfang

Shi Jiangtao

Jia Mei

Ge Wei

Production Assistants

Vivienne Tan (Philippines)

Joel Mendoza (Philippines)

Gab Capadocia (Philippines)

Assistant  

Jasper Martirez (Philippines)

Production Managers

Shen Hongjian  

Fu Zhengwei

Li Peipei  

Jiao Xiaopeng

Li Tong

Media Release  

Chen Kairan  

Li Yahui  

Zhang Haoyudi  

Hao Xiaotong