South Korea boycotts Japan memorial for WWII labourers
Relatives of Korean victims and South Korean officials offer a minute of silence during a memorial service in Sado, Niigata prefecture, Japan, on Nov 25, 2024, a day after boycotting a memorial organised by Japanese officials. (Photo: AP/Eugene Hoshiko)
SEOUL: After boycotting a memorial event organised by Tokyo, South Korea held its own on Monday (Nov 25) to remember compatriots forced to work in a Japanese mine during World War II, highlighting lingering sensitivities between the key United States allies.
The memorial has touched a raw nerve although Seoul and Tokyo have seen ties generally improve in recent years, as they seek to put aside acrimonious disputes tied to Japan's 1910 to 1945 colonisation of the Korean peninsula.
Seoul's decision not to attend Sunday's official event at the Sado mine followed a Kyodo report that Japan would send an official who the news agency said had visited a shrine that neighbouring countries see as a symbol of Japan's militarist past.
Kyodo late on Monday issued an apology for what it said turned out to be an erroneous report that the official, Akiko Ikuina, now the parliamentary vice-minister for foreign affairs, had visited the shrine in 2022 as a lawmaker.
"There is a possibility that (the report) had an impact on diplomacy," Kyodo said, noting that the South Korean foreign ministry had commented on Ikuina's reported visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said in a television interview on Saturday that the governments could not resolve their differences in time, but added the incident should not damage improved ties under President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Yoon has pushed to put behind years of animosity and boost three-way security efforts with Tokyo and Washington.
South Korea's ambassador to Japan led Sunday's memorial event, with the participation of nine descendents of the original labourers as well as some government officials. The parallel events held by the two countries both took place in Sado.
In his remarks, Ambassador Park Cheol-hee expressed deep sorrow at the plight of the South Korean forced labourers, exhorting Japan to ensure the painful history of the Sado mine was not forgotten.
"Our government's decision not to attend the memorial service by the Japanese side and hold its own memorial event is an expression of our government's firm determination not to compromise with the Japanese side on the past history," South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Japan's top government spokesman, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said it was not Tokyo's place to explain the reasons for South Korea's absence from the memorial ceremony held by Japan's government.
"But we do think it is regrettable that they did not participate," he told a daily briefing in the Japanese capital.
Hayashi added that Tokyo had explained to Seoul that Akiko Ikuina had not visited Yasukuni Shrine since becoming a lawmaker.
South Korea negotiated a pact with Japan to hold events explicitly mentioning South Korean forced labourers as a condition for backing Tokyo's bid to list the Sado mine as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
But Yoon's government drew criticism at home for not pushing Japan harder to recognise the darker aspects of the mine, which Japan celebrates for its long history and contribution to the country's industrial development.
