October 20, 2024

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on October 18 in Yamaguchi’s Ube City visited a former undersea coal mine where many Korean and Japanese workers died in a wartime flooding disaster, and met with a visiting group of Korean scholars and researchers in front of a memorial monument in memory of the victims.

The fatal accident occurred at Chosei Coal Mine on February 3, 1942 when the undersea mine collapsed, flooded, and claimed the lives of 183 workers. Of them, 136 were Koreans and most were forcibly taken to Japan from the Korean Peninsula as forced laborers. None of the victims’ remains have been recovered.

In Ube City, a civic group to commemorate the Chosei mine tragedy was formed in 1991. The group hosts a memorial service annually on February 3, the day of the accident with the attendance of bereaved families of the Korean victims.

Koike, guided by JCP member of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Assembly Fujimoto Kazunori, toured and observed the ruins of Chosei Call Mine, including the aboveground mine entrance and the mine’s pillars (cylindrical ventilation and drainage shafts from mine tunnels still standing at sea).

After the observation tour, Koike offered his condolences to the victims at the monument and met with a group of visiting Korean experts. Koike said to them, “The Chosei mine accident resulted from prewar/wartime Japanese militarism and Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. It is necessary to collect and return the remains of the Korean victims. Exposing the truth behind what led to the deadly accident is also needed. The JCP strongly calls on the Japanese government to deal with this issue without further delay.”

Past related article:
> Monument to Korean, Japanese victims of coal mine disaster unveiled [February 3, 2013]