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Documentary explores WWII "comfort women"
Police said Wednesday that a acceptable of bones recovered astatine a wartime excavation successful Japan are quality remains, and a Japanese radical helping hunt for the remains said they are definite to beryllium to astir 180 mostly Korean forced laborers who died successful an mishap successful 1942.
Police said their introspection of the 3 bones and a skull recovered this week by Korean divers astatine the erstwhile tract of the Chosei Mine successful occidental Yamaguchi prefecture confirmed they are each quality remains.
But constabulary said their investigation could not find whether the 3 limb bones and skull belonged to the aforesaid person, their property oregon the timing of the death.
The group, known arsenic Kizamu Kai, said they are definite the remains beryllium to victims who died astatine the excavation 83 years agone and that the find is simply a large boost successful their efforts to retrieve different remains of the 136 Korean forced laborers and 47 Japanese workers killed successful the excavation collapse.
"I was waiting for this day," radical typical Yoko Inoue said Tuesday aft the bones were found.
After archetypal attempts were unsuccessful, a June survey by the radical confirmed a way to the spot wherever the remains were believed to be, the Japan Times reported.
This shows what are believed to beryllium bones, recovered from Chosei Mine successful Ube, Yamaguchi prefecture, confederate Japan Monday, Aug. 25, 2025.
Kyodo News via AP
The betterment of the bones comes conscionable days aft a play acme successful Tokyo betwixt Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung showcasing affable ties betwixt the 2 countries to cooperate connected large challenges, specified arsenic determination information and trade, portion avoiding humanities differences.
The Chosei undersea excavation started operations successful 1914. In February 1942, portion of the ceiling of a excavation shaft collapsed, flooding the excavation and sidesplitting the 183 workers inside. The mishap had agelong been forgotten until a radical of citizens started to analyse successful 1991, initially to erect a memorial for the victims and sphere the erstwhile mining site, including the entranceway and a ventilation shaft.
Historians accidental Japan utilized hundreds of thousands of Korean laborers earlier and during World War II, including those forcibly brought from the Korean Peninsula, astatine Japanese mines and factories to marque up for labour shortages due to the fact that astir working-age Japanese men had been sent to battlefronts crossed Asia and the Pacific.
Following years of enactment collecting witnesser accounts and humanities documents astir the mine, the radical started undersea searches for the victims' remains past year.
Ishiba, who has acknowledged Japan's wartime aggression and has shown much sympathy toward Asian victims, gave a motion earlier this twelvemonth for his authorities to perceive from experts connected however searches tin beryllium carried retired safely.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi offered his condolences to each victims of the excavation mishap and said the authorities is pursuing the constabulary introspection of the bones. He said the authorities has yet to get expertise connected the information of undersea searches for remains astatine the site.
Kizamu Kai has gone up with the searches astatine the excavation tract connected its own. The Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry, successful complaint of wartime remains, has been reluctant to assistance money the searches.
Critics accidental Japan's authorities has agelong been reticent to sermon wartime atrocities. That includes the intersexual maltreatment and enslavement of Asian women - galore of them Koreans known arsenic "comfort women" - and Koreans mobilized and forced to enactment successful Japan, particularly successful the last years of World War II.
Japan's authorities has maintained that each wartime compensation issues betwixt the 2 countries were resolved nether a 1965 normalization treaty.
Korean compensation demands for Japan's atrocities during its brutal assemblage regularisation person repeatedly strained relations betwixt the 2 Asian neighbors. But since 2023, their ties person improved nether Washington's unit to acceptable speech differences that hamper important information practice arsenic China's menace successful the portion grows.
"This twelvemonth marks 80 years since the extremity of the warfare extremity and 60 years since the normalization of diplomatic relations betwixt Japan and South Korea," Yoko Inoue, the civic group's co-head, told the Japan Times past month. "To bring backmost adjacent portion of the remains would beryllium of historical value for our peaceful relationship with radical connected the Korean Peninsula."
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