Tokyo has handed over a long-awaited listing of Koreans who perished aboard the Ukishima Maru, a Japanese ship that exploded in 1945 whereas repatriating hundreds of Koreans after Japan’s colonial rule ended, the Seoul authorities introduced on Thursday.
The announcement by the 2 nations got here only a day earlier than Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visits Seoul for a summit with President Yoon Suk Yeol earlier than leaving his workplace.
The transferred listing is incomplete, because the Japanese authorities has not accomplished its personal evaluate of all of the related paperwork, and will likely be supplemented later.
“The Japanese government has initially provided 19 documents following the completion of their internal review and has agreed to transfer additional materials once their investigation is fully concluded,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry mentioned in a press release.
However, a Foreign Ministry official, talking with The Korea Herald, clarified on situation of anonymity that 19 various kinds of paperwork had been acquired, however the precise variety of Korean people listed would solely be decided after an in depth evaluation by the South Korean authorities.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare handed over the partial listing of Korean passengers to the South Korean Embassy in Japan at 4 p.m. native time.
Seoul introduced that it has engaged in negotiations with the Japanese authorities to safe a listing of Korean passengers however withheld extra particulars, together with the timeline for the discussions.
The Japanese authorities, which had beforehand claimed that the passenger listing from the Ukishima Maru sinking was misplaced within the incident, has complied with a home data disclosure request and made the listing public earlier this yr.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry underscored that the “government plans to utilize the passenger list to aid in victim relief efforts and to uncover the full truth surrounding the Ukishima Maru incident.”
The ministry mentioned the listing will likely be notably used for the re-examination of compensation claims from the households of victims whose functions have been beforehand rejected or dismissed attributable to inadequate proof in the course of the evaluate course of by the Commission on Verification and Support for Victims of Forced Mobilization beneath Japanese Colonial Rule.
The Ukishima Maru was the primary repatriation vessel assigned to return Korean victims of pressured labor beneath Japanese imperial rule after Japan’s defeat in World War II.
However, on August 24, 1945, simply two days after leaving Ominato Port in Aomori, Japan, the ship was tragically torn aside by a large explosion off the coast of Maizuru, north of Kyoto.
The precise variety of Koreans aboard the Ukishima Maru, and the reason for the explosion, stay topics of ongoing debate.
In 1945, the Japanese authorities formally reported that 3,725 Koreans and 255 Japanese naval personnel have been aboard when the ship exploded and sank. According to their figures, 524 Koreans and 25 Japanese crew members died, whereas hundreds extra have been listed as lacking.
However, survivors and households of victims have challenged these numbers, suggesting that the precise variety of passengers may have been a lot greater, with some estimates inserting it between 7,500 and eight,000.
The civic affiliation commemorating Korean victims of the Ukishima Maru explosion claimed that the incident resulted within the deaths of roughly 8,000 Koreans.
The affiliation has additionally questioned Japan’s official clarification {that a} US naval mine prompted the explosion, suggesting as an alternative that it might have been a deliberate act by the Japanese navy moderately than an unintentional detonation.