A memorial ceremony for Chinese forced laborers was held for the first time in Hokkaido, Japan.
According to Japan’s Kyodo News, the city of Muroran in Hokkaido held a memorial ceremony on Wednesday for the first time for 564 Chinese forced laborers.
During the Pacific War, these laborers were forcibly brought to Muroran, where the military industries were thriving, and lost their lives after being forced to perform harsh labor. Around 50 Muroran residents gathered to pay tribute to the Chinese laborers who perished.
According to Mr. Toshizo Masuoka (82), a representative of the citizens’ group “Muroran Area Network for the Protection of the Constitution,” which hosted the ceremony, over 1,800 Chinese people were forcibly brought to Muroran between 1944 and 1945 to fill wartime labor shortages, mainly being forced to undertake the dangerous and strenuous labor of transporting coal and iron at ports and factories. Malnutrition and the harsh working environment led to the deaths of 564 people.
Masuoka believes that while the history of civilian deaths from air raids and naval gunfire has been passed down in Muroran, “perhaps the history of perpetration has not been fully told,” and, with that in mind, planned the aforementioned memorial ceremony.