South Korea commemorated wartime Korean forced labourers at Japan’s Sado gold mines in a ceremony Monday, a day after boycotting a similar event organised by Japan, as tensions over historical atrocities continue to strain relations between the two sides.
Monday’s ceremony at a former dormitory near the mines on Sado Island, which dates to the 16th century and was listed this year as a Unesco World Heritage site, was organised by South Korea’s Foreign Ministry and attended by nine family members of Korean wartime labourers, the country’s ambassador to Japan and other officials.
Japan on Sunday held a memorial service for all workers at the Sado mines, including Koreans. It thanked them for their contributions at the mines but did not acknowledge their forced labour or issue an apology.
At the Korean-sponsored memorial on Monday, participants in dark suits observed a moment of silence and offered white chrysanthemums in honour of the South Korean labourers, along with offerings such as dried fish, sliced apples and pears.
In a short speech, South Korea’s Ambassador to Japan Park Choel-hee offered his condolences to the forced labourers and their families, expressing hopes that the memorial would bring comfort to families.
He said South Korea and Japan should both make efforts to ensure that the painful wartime history is remembered.
“We will never forget the tears and sacrifices of the Korean workers behind the history of the Sado mines,” Mr Park said.
“I sincerely hope that today will be a day of remembrance for all the Korean workers who suffered indescribable pain under harsh conditions and that this memorial service will bring comfort to the souls of the deceased Korean workers and their bereaved families,” Mr Park added.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Monday that Japan held the ceremony in line with its pledge at the Unesco World Heritage committee meeting after thoroughly communicating with South Korea.
“It is disappointing that South Korea did not participate,” Mr Hayashi said.
About 1,500 Koreans were forced to labour under abusive and brutal conditions at the mines during the Second World War, historians say.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here