[Report] Sado Mine is making a lot of noise promoting gold mines... Forced labor of Koreans ignored for 3 years

(Sado = Yonhap News) Correspondent Do-yeon Lee = Visited the ‘Aikawa Local Museum’, an old exhibition facility on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, on the afternoon of the 12th.

As I climbed the narrow stairs of a shabby building that wasn't even properly heated, a small room appeared in the corner of the second floor.

This room is an exhibition room related to Korean workers, which Japan promised to register Sado Mine as a World Heritage Site on UNESCO in 2024.

This shabby exhibition room, inscribed ‘Life of mine workers, including those from the Korean peninsula,’ is virtually the only separate exhibition space where one can directly examine the history of Korean workers at Sado Mine.

The treatment of Korean workers, who were forcibly conscripted 80 years ago and had to endure harsh labor in dark and dangerous mine shafts, did not appear to have changed much over the years.

The word ‘forced’ has not been found anywhere on the explanation panel inside this exhibition hall for three years.

One panel recorded that workers from the Korean peninsula who worked at the Sado Mine had an overwhelmingly higher rate of engaging in dangerous mine work, such as digging (making holes in the bedrock to fill with explosive gunpowder), shoring (reinforcing with wood in places at risk of falling rocks in the mine), and transport (moving mined ore by hand), than those from the Japanese mainland.

However, the essence of discrimination and forced mobilization seemed to be obscured by the use of objective statistics.

Another panel simply states, “During wartime, the National Mobilization Act was promulgated in April 1938 and the National Conscription Ordinance went into effect in July of the following year, but ‘recruitment’ was introduced in September 1939, ‘council placement’ in February 1942, and ‘conscription’ in September 1944.”

Among these, the description of conscription as "mandating work to workers based on the law" was noticeable as if it had been done legally and legally.

On the other wall, there was a copy of an old Special High Police document that recorded the mass escape and industrial action of Korean workers, but it was only the dense original text and no explanation.

The narrative about Korean workers trapped in a corner room of an exhibition hall with no visitors contrasted sharply with the noisy promotion of World Heritage sites in and around Sado Island.

The inside of the speedboat we boarded to enter Sado Island was filled with promotional pamphlets announcing the ‘World Heritage Sado Mine’ and ‘gold mining experience’.

From the entrance to the new building ‘Kirarium Sado’, the main information facility of Sado Mine, there were only spectacular achievements that supported Japan’s modernization.

In particular, in the 1940s, when the forced mobilization of Koreans reached its peak, 1.5 tons of gold were mined annually, a record high, and they praised themselves as a 'golden age', but there was not a single line about the Koreans who sacrificed their lives behind this achievement.

Despite the extensive publicity, the interior of Sado Island, which coincided with the off-season in late fall, was quiet. On this afternoon, there were no visitors to both the Aikawa Local Museum and Kirarium Sado.

When asked, "Has the number of tourists increased since the World Heritage designation?" a restaurant employee who visited in the evening responded calmly, saying, "It only increased slightly during the peak summer season, and off-seasons like these are when there are usually no people around."

In July, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee adopted a decision calling for improved exhibitions to cover the 'whole history' of the Sado Mine, but it did not seem to reach Sado Island.

Rather, online, such as the Google Maps review of the Aikawa Museum, there is even an unreasonable claim that "Korea will tell us to move the exhibits to Kirarium Sado, which has more visitors, and that this is interference in Korea's internal affairs."

As the gap in perception between Korea and Japan surrounding the reflection of the 'whole history' promised by Japan has not been narrowed for three years, the memorial ceremony, which should be an opportunity for reconciliation over past history, has emerged as a source of diplomatic conflict between the two countries every year.

Due to differences of opinion over the level of attendees and the level of the memorial speech, the memorial service was held separately in Korea and Japan for the third year in a row.

Even at the memorial ceremony hosted by the Japanese government held last September, Japan made no mention of the forced labor of Koreans for three years.

It was expected that the gap between Korea and Japan regarding past history would not be easily narrowed due to Japan's refusal to reflect the 'forced' in exhibition facilities for three years.

It does not seem easy for the two countries to hold a complete 'joint memorial service' in the future.