Telling the truth behind the tragic sinking

To find the truth behind the tragic incident, we need to work to remember the victims at sea shortly after the liberation on Aug. 15, 88 years ago.

WE SUNG-WOOKThe author is the Busan bureau chief of the JoongAng Ilbo. On Aug. 24, 1945, a ship carrying Japan’s forced labor survivors returning to Korea with the joy of liberation sank due to a mysterious explosion. It was the Ukishima Maru, which took forcibly mobilized Koreans from Aomori and Hokkaido in Japan two days before sinking in Maizuru Bay, Kyoto, Japan.

It was a 4,731-ton Japanese naval transport vessel originally built as a passenger ship.

At the time, Japan officially announced that 524 Koreans died, but survivors claimed that there were about 7,000 to 8,000 passengers on board, and at least 2,000 to 3,000 people died. The exact number has not been confirmed yet, but countless Koreans drowned to death before stepping on their homeland they had longed for since liberation.

The problem is that 78 years have passed since but the exact cause of the sinking was not identified. Japan has been arguing that the ship was bombed by a mine dropped by the U.S. military. But there were voices, especially among the survivors, suspecting Japan’s involvement.

Then in 2016, a Japanese government record was released that explosives were loaded on the ship. It is the “Navigation Ban and Disposal of Explosives” issued by the Japanese Navy Transportation Director to the captain of Ukishima Maru at 7:20 p.m. on Aug. 22, 1945.

The document states, “After [6:00 p.m.] on Aug. 24, 1945, navigation is prohibited unless it is currently sailing. Already on sail, each explosive should be disposed of by throwing it into the water. If not on sail, keep them in a safe place on land.” But the ship did not dispose of the explosives and left Ominato Port in Aomori Prefecture at 10 p.m. on August 22.

In the spring of 2016, Kim Mun-gil — then adviser to the Association of Korean Victims of Ukishima Sinking — obtained the document from a Japanese and first released it at the fact-finding seminar in Busan on August 8. Criticism grew over Japan’s accountability for the disastrous deaths of the survivors.

The ship drew attention as it was made into a movie and documentary at home and abroad, starting with Japanese public broadcaster NHK’s 1977 documentary “Sinking by Explosion.” But the truth of the day is not yet confirmed.

Meanwhile, there have been growing calls to build a memorial space for the victims of the Ukishima sinking at the first pier of Busan Port, which was the destination of the voyage back home after liberation. The Northeast Asian Peace and the Ukishima Victims Memorial Association had a news conference at the Busan City Council’s briefing room on Aug. 7 and said that Busan Port was directly related to the incident. They hoped to create a peace tower and history memorial space together.

The ship was salvaged by the Japanese government in 1954, but most of the remains are still buried at sea and haven’t returned home. To find the truth behind the tragic incident, we need to work to remember the victims at sea shortly after the liberation on Aug. 15, 88 years ago.