Sado Mine Memorial Ceremony in Japan Held as "Half-Hearted" Event Again This Year... South Korea Absent for Second Consecutive Year

Japan Sends Director-General Instead of Vice-Minister for Memorial Address
Korean Government Plans Separate Ceremony Amid Disagreement Over "Forced Labor"

On September 13, the memorial event for workers at Sado Mine in Japan was held as a "half-hearted event" without the participation of the South Korean government.

Memorial ceremony for Korean victims forcibly mobilized at Sado Mine held last November. Photo by Yonhap News

The Sado Mine Memorial Ceremony Executive Committee held the "Sado Mine Memorial Ceremony" at around 1:30 p.m. that day at the Aikawa Development Center on the western side of Sado Island. Yukiko Okano, Director-General for International Cultural Exchange at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, attended the event. Last year, a vice-ministerial-level official represented the Japanese government at the memorial, but this year, only a department director, a lower-ranking official, was present.

South Korea did not attend for the second consecutive year. Last November, the government decided not to participate just before the event, judging that the content of the memorial address and the event's title were insufficient.This year, South Korea notified earlier this month that it would not participate, citing concerns that the memorial address would not sufficiently acknowledge the forced labor of Korean workers.

The South Korean government is reportedly planning to hold its own memorial ceremony. Sado Mine, which was famous as a gold mine during the Edo period (1603-1867), was used to secure war materials after the outbreak of the Pacific War, and colonial-era Koreans were forcibly mobilized for labor. From 1940 to 1945, 1,519 Koreans are known to have worked at Sado Mine.

However, Japan has been criticized for trying to ignore the history of forced Korean labor by limiting the period covered in its bid for Sado Mine's World Heritage listing to the Edo period.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.