Korea receives partial passenger list of ship that mysteriously sank repatriating Korean forced laborers in 1945

Diplomacy

Korea receives partial passenger list of ship that mysteriously sank repatriating Korean forced laborers in 1945

Published: 05 Sep. 2024, 18:03

LIM JEONG-WON
lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr

The Ukishima Maru, a 4,731-ton Japanese passenger vessel that sank after exploding in August 1945 while carrying Koreans forced laborers [JOONGANG PHOTO]

A part of the passenger list of the Ukishima Maru, a Japanese ship that was repatriating forcibly mobilized Koreans from Japan when it sank in August 1945, was obtained by Korea's Foreign Ministry after negotiations with the Japanese government, the ministry confirmed Thursday.

This is the first time any part of the passenger list has been handed to Korea. Negotiations over the tragedy have lasted over a decade.

According to the Korean Foreign Ministry, Japan provided the Korean government with 19 documents that it had completed internal reviews of and agreed to provide the remaining documents as soon as additional internal reviews are completed.

The 4,731-ton Ukishima Maru sank due to a mysterious explosion on Aug. 24, 1945, soon after Japan's defeat in the Second World War, while carrying forced labor survivors back to Korea. At the time, Japan officially announced that 524 Koreans died, but survivors claimed that there were about 7,000 to 8,000 passengers on board, and at least 2,000 to 3,000 people died. The exact number has yet to be confirmed.

In 2016, a Japanese government record was released revealing that explosives had been loaded on the ship. Kim Mun-gil — then adviser to the Association of Korean Victims of Ukishima Sinking — obtained the document from a Japanese national and first released it at a seminar in Busan on Aug. 8 of the same year. Following this, criticism grew over Japan’s accountability for the disastrous deaths of the survivors.

“We plan to utilize this list for victim relief and finding out the truth behind the Ukishima Maru incident,” said the Foreign Ministry in a press release. “The list contains the victims' personal information, and we plan to provide it to those who have the right to view or receive information according to domestic laws.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]