President Yoon Suk Yeol's reckless behavior continues unabated. Upon taking office, President Yoon insulted independence activists by labeling them communists, disregarded the release of contaminated water from Fukushima that affects the lives of the people and pre-emptively agreed with Japan to exclude the term "forced labor" in the context of registering the Sado Mine as a World Heritage Site. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' claim that there was no discussion about the term "forced" is deceitful to the public. This is indeed the reason for a tragedy of great lamentation.
At the time, Korean workers at the Sado Mine were literally "forcibly mobilized" and subjected to forced labor. By all means, it was forced labor. The administrative power of the Japanese Governor-General's office operated in a violent manner. When the labor officer at the county office pressured the labor officer at the district office to gather workers, police conducted background checks, including ideological investigations, and then sent them to the coal mines. Koreans under colonial rule had no choice.
According to the Korea-Japanese Citizens Joint Investigation Report "Sado Mine and Forced Labor of Koreans," Kim Su-hyung (born in 1928, Cheongju), it is stated that "The local office clerk and the National Defense Corps officer came and mobilized those from large families first, saying that they had to go for conscription first," resulting in 1,519 people, including 646 people in 1940, being taken to the mines.
Koreans were beaten so severely to a degree that it was unbearable to witness, and many attempted to escape. Again, according to the Dec. 15, 1941 issue of the Karafuto (now South Sakhalin) Police Bulletin, four Koreans — Ham Yeon-tae, Jo Ok-dong , Yoon Seong-myeong and Lee Hwa-sil — who had escaped from the Mitsubishi Sado Mine in November 1941 were being sought.
The working conditions were extremely poor. Via the March 1940 issued "Special Higher Police Report" published by the Japanese Ministry of Home Affairs' Police Bureau, it came to light that Koreans, who had just arrived at the mines after being mobilized from Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, went on strike on Feb. 17, demanding better treatment. Dangerous tunnel work was mostly carried out by Koreans. According to a 1943 document titled "Regarding Peninsula Labor Management" produced by the Sado Mine, among the 646 individuals responsible for dangerous tunnel work as of May that year, 481 (74.5 percent) were Koreans.
Mitsubishi Mining did not pay all wages in cash; instead, it required workers to enroll in savings, insurance and other schemes for various reasons. Most victims were unable to receive this money while returning to their hometowns after Japan's defeat. As a result, the unpaid wages amounting to 231,059.59 yen, left by 1,140 Koreans, were incorporated into the Japanese treasury after a 10-year deposit period had expired.
If the South Korean government is truly working for the Korean people, it must define it as forced labor and demand the same from our counterpart, Japan. If we accept that Koreans worked under those unbearable conditions at the Sado Mine while simply stating that all history is still remembered and then conclude without further action, what is the purpose of the nation's existence?
We cannot simply ignore this reality for the benefit of improving Korea-Japan relations, and the 2015 statement that mobilization and labor were carried out against the will of the Koreans, with many being forcibly taken and subjected to harsh conditions, must be explicitly acknowledged.
The Yoon Suk Yeol administration is fundamentally abandoning the role of the Korean government. This approach by the Yoon administration toward Japan is unsustainable and will inevitably be overturned by the next administration. Furthermore, it will even cause greater harm to the nation. This is why the Yoon administration is considered to be out of touch with reality.
Jeon Su-mi ([email protected]), an attorney, is a professor at the Soongsil Institute for Peace and Unification. She was a member of the Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation. Her areas of specialty include South Korean politics and foreign policy and North Korean politics and human rights.
