July 10, 2024

Deliberations on the registration of the Sado Kinzan Gold Mine on Sadogashima Island in Sado City (Niigata Prefecture) as a World Cultural Heritage site will begin on July 21 at the World Heritage Committee while the history of Korean forced labor at the mine during the Pacific War remains hidden.

Last month, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an advisory body to the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), recommended that “facilities should be set up to explain the history of the entire gold mine, including the wartime period.” However, Niigata Prefecture does not recognize the existence of the Koreans “Peninsula laborers roster,” which is essential to the explanation and display of the “overall history of Sado Kinzan.”

The civil group “Network for the Truth about Forced Mobilization” on July 5 requested that the Japanese government release a list of people involved in forced mobilization during the war and provide the list to the South Korean government.

According to the network, the Niigata Prefectural Archives holds a list of Koreans who were mobilized to work at Sado Kinzan during the Pacific War. It was in the possession of the then Sado Gold Mine Co. and was captured on microfilm in 1983. It was collected as part of a prefectural history compilation project and was inherited by the Prefectural Archives in 1992.

Takeuchi Yasuto, a member of the network, in April of last year made an inquiry to the prefectural archives but he was told that the information was “undisclosed.” Two days later, he requested that “Golden Sado” (which merged with Sado Gold Mine Co. in 1989), the operator of the Historic Site Sado Kinzan, make the list public.

However, the company responded that it could not release it because the whereabouts of the original was unknown.

The office of prefectural archives no longer acknowledges the existence of the list itself.

There is no doubt that the list was captured on microfilm. Takeuchi said, “There may be outside pressure to keep the list hidden.”

The list is the basic historical material for the investigation of the truth and it is also indispensable for understanding the history of the Sado Kinzan Gold Mine as a whole.

Takeuchi said, “I want to change the current situation where no one takes responsibility for the forced mobilization even after 80 years. The release of the list will enhance the value of Sado Kinzan as a historical site.”

Past related article:
> Shii: Japan should acknowledge its use of forced labor of Koreans during war at Sado gold mine in quest for World Heritage site [January 30, 2022]