Japan Press Weekly

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2019 July 31 - August 6 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Japanese and S. Korean students attend memorial ceremony for Korean victims of wartime forced labor

Japanese and South Korean high school students on August 4 attended a memorial ceremony for Korean victims of Japan’s forced labor during the war for the construction of the Tsuga dam in Kochi’s Taisho Village (currently Shimanto Town). In front of the monument, which was built 10 years ago by townspeople, they also prayed for peace.

Since 1990, a local youth group consisting of senior high school students in the Hata district in Kochi Prefecture has been conducting research on the issue of Koreans who were taken to Kochi and used as forced laborers to construct the Tsuga dam during WWII.

A group of ten South Korean youth, including senior high school students, on August 2 came to Kochi to promote friendly exchanges with the Japanese youth group. On the day before the ceremony, they heard a testimony from a son of a former Korean forced laborer.

After the hearing, one of the South Korean students said that mutual understanding and cooperation between the two peoples will lead to lasting peace and coexistence.