Go to contents

Photos Show Child, Female Servitude Under Japanese Rule

Posted February. 17, 2009 04:52,   

한국어

Photos yesterday were released showing young Korean boys mobilized for forced labor by the Japanese colonial government and young Korean women mobilized to serve alcohol to Japanese commanders before they headed for the battlefield at train stations.

Chung Sung-kil, the honorary director of the Museum of Medical Missionary Works at Keimyung University in Daegu, said he found the photos in a private album of a Japanese military officer who worked in Korea during Japanese colonial rule.

The photo of the young boys shows how they arduously carried undersea cables (for wireless communication) on their shoulders to Wolmi Island off the coast of Incheon.

“Though the victims of forced child labor at ages 12 and 13 provided testimony in our investigations before, this is the first time for a photo to provide evidence,” said Chung Hye-kyung of the Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization under Japanese Imperialism under the Office of the Prime Minister

The other photo showed young Korean women holding jugs of alcohol for serving Japanese commanders in each compartment of a train. The photo is presumed to have been taken at the rail station in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.



surono@donga.com