TOKYO – A Japanese mayor said it is “extremely regrettable” that South Korea pulled out of a memorial ceremony on Nov 24 to honour wartime forced labour victims, local media reported.
The East Asian neighbours have long been at odds over historical issues linked to Japan’s brutal colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, including forced labour and sexual slavery.
Seoul announced on Nov 23 it would not send officials to the mine memorial, after South Korean media criticised the participation of Ms Akiko Ikuina, a parliamentary vice-minister at Japan’s foreign ministry, citing her past visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine.
The shrine is highly sensitive in South Korea due to the enshrinement of Japan’s war criminals along with 2.5 million war dead.
Ms Ikuina told Japan’s TV Asahi that she has not visited the shrine since she became a lawmaker.
Following the ceremony in Sado, central Japan, Mayor Ryugo Watanabe said the absence of South Korean officials and bereaved families was “extremely regrettable”, quoted by Kyodo News.
At the event, Ms Ikuina said “there are many people who perished after coming from the Korean Peninsula during the war to be involved in difficult labour,” the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.
She expressed “our heartfelt condolences to those who passed away”, the newspaper said.
The network of mines, which is infamous for using conscripted wartime labour, was added to Unesco’s World Heritage list after South Korea withdrew its objection.
Seoul requested Japan reflect the “full history” of the site, prompting Tokyo to organise the first memorial event to honour the forced labour victims.
After withdrawing from the ceremony, the South Korean foreign ministry said officials will hold a separate memorial on Nov 25 at the site where dormitories for Korean labourers were located. AFP
