Japan holds Sado mines memorial despite S Korean boycott amid lingering historical tensions

Japan held a memorial ceremony on Sunday close to the Sado Island Gold Mines regardless of a last-minute boycott of the occasion by South Korea that highlighted tensions between the neighbors over the difficulty of Korean pressured laborers on the website earlier than and through World Struggle II.

South Korea’s absence at Sunday’s memorial, to which Seoul authorities officers and Korean victims’ households had been invited, is a serious setback within the quickly enhancing ties between the 2 international locations, which since final 12 months have put aside their historic disputes to prioritize U.S.-led safety cooperation.

The Sado mines had been listed in July as a UNESCO World Heritage website after Japan moved previous years of disputes with South Korea and reluctantly acknowledged the mines’ darkish historical past, promising to carry an annual memorial service for all victims, together with tons of of Koreans who had been mobilized to work within the mines.

On Saturday, South Korea introduced it could not attend the occasion, saying it was inconceivable to settle unspecified disagreements between the 2 governments in time.

Households of Korean victims of the mine accidents had been anticipated to individually maintain their very own ceremony close to the mine at a later date.

Masashi Mizobuchi, an assistant press secretary in Japan’s Overseas Ministry, mentioned Japan has been in communication with Seoul and referred to as the South Korean choice “disappointing.”

The ceremony was held as deliberate on Sunday at a facility close to the mines, the place greater than 20 seats for Korean attendees remained vacant.

The Sixteenth-century mines on the island of Sado, off Japan’s north-central coast, operated for almost 400 years earlier than closing in 1989 and had been as soon as the world’s largest gold producer.

Historians say about 1,500 Koreans had been mobilized to Sado as a part of Japan’s use of tons of of 1000’s of Korean laborers, together with these forcibly introduced from the Korean Peninsula, at Japanese mines and factories to make up for labor shortages as a result of most working-age Japanese males had been despatched to battlefronts throughout Asia and the Pacific.

Japan’s authorities has maintained that every one wartime compensation points between the 2 international locations had been resolved below a 1965 normalization treaty.

South Korea had lengthy opposed the itemizing of the location as World Heritage on the grounds that the Korean pressured laborers, regardless of their key function within the wartime mine manufacturing, had been lacking from the exhibition. Seoul’s backing for Sado got here as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol prioritized enhancing relations with Japan.

The Japanese authorities mentioned Sunday’s ceremony was to pay tribute to “all staff” who died on the mines, however wouldn’t spell out inclusion of Korean laborers — a part of what critics name a persistent coverage of whitewashing Japan’s historical past of sexual and labor exploitation earlier than and in the course of the battle.

A customer walks by means of tunnels at Sado Kinzan Gold Mine historic website in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, on Sunday. Picture: AP/Eugene Hoshiko

Preparation for the occasion by native organizers remained unclear till the final minute, which was seen as an indication of Japan’s reluctance to face its wartime brutality.

Japan’s authorities mentioned on Friday that Akiko Ikuina — a parliamentary vice minister who reportedly visited Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine in August 2022, weeks after she was elected as a lawmaker — would attend the ceremony. Japan’s neighbors view Yasukuni, which commemorates 2.5 million battle lifeless together with battle criminals, as a logo of Japan’s previous militarism.

Ikuina belonged to a Japanese ruling occasion faction of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who led the whitewashing of Japan’s wartime atrocities within the 2010s throughout his management.

As an illustration, Japan says the phrases “intercourse slavery” and “pressured labor” are inaccurate and insists on using extremely euphemistic phrases reminiscent of “consolation girls” and “civilian staff” as an alternative.

South Korean Overseas Minister Cho Tae-yul mentioned Saturday that Ikuina’s Yasukuni go to was a problem of competition between the international locations’ diplomats.

“That concern and numerous different disagreements between diplomatic officers stay unresolved, and with only some hours remaining till the occasion, we concluded that there wasn’t ample time to resolve these variations,” Cho mentioned in an interview with MBN tv.

Some South Koreans had criticized Yoon’s authorities for supporting the occasion with out securing a transparent Japanese dedication to spotlight the plight of Korean laborers. There have been additionally complaints over South Korea agreeing to pay for the journey bills of Korean victims’ members of the family to Sado.

Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea.

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