Forced Labor of Koreans

A historical event during the latter part of the Japanese colonial period in which Japan forcibly mobilized people from the Korean Peninsula to work in mines, factories, and other sites

Forced Labor of Koreans

Overview

Forced labor of Koreans (forced mobilization of Koreans) refers to the event in which, during the latter part of the Japanese colonial period—particularly after the enactment of the National Mobilization Act (國家總動員法) in 1938 and the measures to mobilize Korean laborers in 1939—the Empire of Japan forcibly mobilized and exploited people from the Korean Peninsula in coal mines, mines, civil engineering works, ports, and military supply factories until liberation in 1945. The number of Koreans taken to mainland Japan, Sakhalin, the South Seas Mandate, and elsewhere is estimated at hundreds of thousands to millions, and due to poor working conditions, discrimination, and violence, a considerable number died or suffered from aftereffects even after returning home. The issue of postwar settlement, having passed through the Japan–South Korea Claims Agreement, the 2018 Supreme Court ruling, and the 2023 government solution, remains a core pending issue in Japan–South Korea relations to this day.

Main Content

Background

After the Japan–Korea Annexation of 1910, imperial Japan used colonial Korea as a source of raw materials and a source of low-wage labor. With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Japan entered a wartime regime and enacted the National Mobilization Act in 1938 to begin controlling manpower and materials, and in 1939 it implemented measures in Korea as well to fully launch the mobilization of laborers. After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, the National Conscription Ordinance (國民徵用令) was applied to Korea in 1944, and even civilians were forcibly taken away.

Methods of Mobilization

Mobilization largely took the forms of official mediation (job placement), requisitioning (requisitioning manpower along with materials for military supply construction and the like), conscription (mobilization through legal procedures), and the forms of volunteer soldiers and student soldiers. The Japanese side claims that "conscription" was lawful mobilization under statutes, whereas Korea and the victims define it as "forced mobilization" or "forced labor" in that it involved forced detention, confinement, and forced labor against their will. In the actual mobilization process, coercive means such as employment fraud, nighttime detention, and threats against families were widely used.

Scale and Sites

According to a survey by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the number of Koreans mobilized to mainland Japan was about 660,000 to 800,000, and some estimates put the total at 5 to 6 million when mobilization within the Korean Peninsula is included. The number of deaths is counted at at least tens of thousands. Major labor sites include the coal mines and factories of conglomerate affiliates such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Sumitomo; Japan Iron & Steel (now Nippon Steel); Nihon Sangyo (now Nissan); Hokkaido coal mines; Hashima (Battleship Island) in Nagasaki; the Sado mines; and Sakhalin coal mines. Workers lost their lives to heavy labor of more than 12 hours a day, wage discrimination, poor lodging, malnutrition, assault, and accidents.

Postwar Settlement

After liberation in 1945, many of the survivors returned home, but many were also left behind in places such as Sakhalin. Under the 1965 Japan–South Korea Claims Agreement, Japan provided economic cooperation funds, and the South Korean government took the position that even individual claims had been resolved through this. However, as survivors' testimonies continued in the 1990s, the reality of the damage became known, and in 1997 the Special Act on the Investigation of the Truth of Forced Mobilization Damage under Japanese Colonial Rule and the like was enacted. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled to recognize the liability of Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate, and in response Japan retaliated in 2019 with export restrictions on semiconductor materials, escalating the conflict. In March 2023, the South Korean government announced a third-party reimbursement method through the Foundation for Support of Victims of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Colonial Rule.

Latest Trends

In 2024, Japan registered the Sado mines as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but Korea protested that the full history was not reflected, and Japan held a memorial ceremony for Korean laborers after the registration. In November of the same year, a representative of the South Korean government attended the memorial ceremony held at the Sado mine site, but some bereaved families did not attend, and the conflict continued. In 2024–2025, payments under the third-party reimbursement solution are proceeding, while concerns are growing that, with the deaths of elderly victims, the matter is being resolved without the parties concerned. Controversies over historical distortion at the Battleship Island exhibition hall in Japan, issues of textbook descriptions, and the issue of Korean residents remaining in Sakhalin also remain points of contention, and even amid the trend of improving Japan–South Korea relations, differences in historical perception remain unresolved.