Niamh Cunningham is an artist and curator working in Beijing.

Shackled by her bound feet, enslaved by the Japanese as a "comfort woman", raped, beaten, ransomed into poverty: these are among the incredible hardships that Zhang Xiantu endured, nightmares that haunted her all of her days.

The last surviving member of a group of "comfort women" who sued the Japanese government for compensation in 1995, but never won the justice they sought, Zhang died on Nov 12 at the age of 89.