Korea seeks to honor Japanese group for helping recover remains of Korean victims of wartime mine
Published: 19 Jan. 2026, 15:21
Updated: 19 Jan. 2026, 17:56
![This undated photo provided by Korean divers Kim Kyung-soo and Kim Soo-eun shows a human skull discovered at the site of the Chosei coal mine in Japan's western Yamaguchi Prefecture, which flooded in 1942, killing 183 people, including 136 Koreans who had been forced to work in the mine. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/01/19/7367119d-2ad3-484a-8bb5-5dd27a3520d0.jpg)
This undated photo provided by Korean divers Kim Kyung-soo and Kim Soo-eun shows a human skull discovered at the site of the Chosei coal mine in Japan's western Yamaguchi Prefecture, which flooded in 1942, killing 183 people, including 136 Koreans who had been forced to work in the mine. [YONHAP]
If realized, it would mark the first time for the Korean government to bestow a state decoration to a Japanese civic organization since Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.
Yun said he would push to honor the Association to Etch the Calamity of the Under Sea Coal Mine Disaster into History in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday, noting a recent bilateral agreement to conduct DNA analysis to identify the remains recovered at the Chosei Mine last year.
"The Japanese government had previously not acknowledged that there were [Korean] victims at the Chosei coal mine site," Yun said. "That's why it was South Korean divers who worked with the Japanese civic group that found the remains.
"There will be a government award for the Japanese civic group and our divers who participated in the remains recovery."
In 1942, a devastating flood at the Chosei coal mine in Japan's western Yamaguchi Prefecture killed 183 workers, including 136 Koreans who had been forced to work at the mine.
![Yoko Inoue, co-head of a Japanese civic group that has long investigated the Chosei coal mine, hands a document requesting a proper investigation into the Chosei coal mine incident during a meeting with Japanese government officials on Sept. 9, 2025. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/01/19/e494cea1-d535-40a6-81c4-2ceaabd4eb2b.jpg)
Yoko Inoue, co-head of a Japanese civic group that has long investigated the Chosei coal mine, hands a document requesting a proper investigation into the Chosei coal mine incident during a meeting with Japanese government officials on Sept. 9, 2025. [YONHAP]
Through crowd funding, the organization conducted underwater recovery efforts and found four human bone fragments, including a skull, last August, renewing interest in the disaster. Korean divers Kim Kyung-soo and Kim Soo-eun took part in the remains' recovery.
Last week, the two countries agreed to conduct DNA analysis of the bone fragments during President Lee Jae Myung's summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, raising hopes the remains could be returned to the victims' families.
The interior ministry has already decided to give a minister's commendation to the Japanese group and the divers. It plans to deliver the commendation to the Japanese organization next month in Japan.
Meanwhile, Yun said he would be willing to push for state awards for others, including a Japanese journalist who unearthed a list of passengers who boarded a Japanese ship that sank in 1945 and killed hundreds while repatriating Koreans.
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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