Japanese expert Yasuto Takeuchi speaks on the Korean victims of forced mobilization by imperial Japan in a news conference in the southwestern city of Gwangju on June 13, 2025, in this photo released by a civic group. (Yonhap)
GWANGJU, June 13 (Korea Bizwire) – Most of the Koreans who were forcibly mobilized by Japan to build military facilities on the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific during the 1910-45 colonial era were drafted from the southwestern province of South Jeolla, a civic group said Friday.
The group supporting the victims of forced mobilization by Imperial Japan made the revelation during a news conference in Gwangju, about 270 kilometers south of Seoul, disclosing the list of 640 Korean victims of forced mobilization.
A Japanese expert on the issue, named Yasuto Takeuchi, said at the conference that his analysis of various Japanese government records showed 635 of the 640 victims were from South Jeolla Province. They included South Jeolla residents who were forcibly taken to Mili Atoll of the Marshall Islands to build an airstrip and other military facilities for Japanese troops.
Mili Atoll is where the Japanese military forcibly mobilized 800 Koreans as military personnel in 1942 to build military bases, including an airfield. Takeuchi said last year that 213 of 218 Koreans who died in Mili Atoll at that time were residents of South Jeolla.
(Yonhap)
