Choi Jang-seop was one of hundreds of Koreans who were conscripted into forced labor on Japan’s Hashima Island as part of the country’s mobilization of Koreans during World War II. Korea was under Japan’s colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. (Image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – A victim of Japan’s forced labor during its colonial rule decades ago died on Monday at the age of 89, civic group officials said.
Choi Jang-seop was one of hundreds of Koreans who were conscripted into forced labor on Japan’s Hashima Island as part of the country’s mobilization of Koreans during World War II. Korea was under Japan’s colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.
He was taken to the island, also known as Battleship Island since it looks like a warship, in 1943 and reportedly had to go through more than 12 hours of hard labor every day for three years.
About 800 Koreans are believed to have been forced to work in cramped and stifling spaces in undersea coal mines on the island, which is the size of two baseball parks. Of them, 134 reportedly died of disease, malnutrition and accidents.
(Yonhap)
