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A banner hangs at the entrance to the Sado gold mine complex in Japan’s Niigata Prefecture on July 28, 2024, celebrating the complex’s registration as a UNESCO World Heritage. (Yonhap)

Japan is refusing to provide a list of Korean victims of forced mobilization at the Sado mine complex requested by South Korea. Civic groups based both in countries have asked numerous times throughout the years for the list to be made public. 

National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik was among those urging the South Korean government to pressure Japan to release the list on Tuesday. 

“The government thought highly of the Japanese government’s promise to hold annual memorial services for the Korean workers, but shouldn’t we be able to see the names of those we should mourn before the services take place?” he asked.

The list of Korean laborers is currently stored at the Niigata Prefectural Archives as “Document No. 1414.” The list was provided by Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, the company that operated the Sado mining complex, and archived in microfilm format when Japanese historians conducted a historical survey of Niigata Prefecture in 1983.

While it is not the original document, the list is invaluable as an official document that shows a holistic view of the situation Koreans had to face when they were forcibly mobilized to work in the Sado mine complex. The history of the Sado mines states that 1,519 Koreans were forced into working at the site, but only the names of 490, who had been recorded in a register of cigarette distribution, have been revealed.

South Korea’s Center for Historical Truth and Justice and Japan’s Network Investigating the Truth about Coercive Conscription have requested the list be made public on numerous occasions, but Niigata Prefecture first claimed that doing so was impossible, due to the fact that they could not locate the original source. The government has since refused to acknowledge the list’s existence.

The South Korean government requested the list this year during negotiations concerning the Sado mine complex’s application for addition to the UNESCO World Heritage list, but the Japanese government has refused to engage on the topic. 

The Japanese government and company operating the Sado mine complex seem to be wary of revealing the list for fear of further lawsuits from the families of Koreans forcibly mobilized there. 

As the Sado mine complex gained World Heritage status, the Japanese government promised to exhibit historical resources revealing the harsh conditions faced by Korean forced laborers and to hold memorial services. However, it is refusing to disclose the specifics of “who” is being remembered.

By Park Min-hee, senior staff writer

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