A bird's-eye view of the former "comfort station" in Hongkou district, Shanghai, Feb 23, 2016. [Photo/CFP]

Writer Chen Danyan posted a photo on the messaging app WeChat on Monday morning lamenting the loss of such an important piece of history.

According to the account of a Japanese national, Sakashita, whose father was an officer during WWII in Shanghai, the building was called Home of the Sea, and used as a "comfort station" for the Japanese navy. The man helped run the brothel between 1944 and 1945.

During the eight years of Japanese occupation of China, an estimated 200,000 women from China and many others from the Korean Peninsula, the Philippines and Indonesia were forced into sexual servitude by Japanese troops. Many of them died.

Experts have confirmed 166 "comfort stations" in Shanghai, more than 30 of them in Hongkou district.