A monument in Japan's Nagasaki City has kept the memory of forced Chinese laborers killed in the 1945 atomic bombing.
The stone monument in the Nagasaki Peace Park was erected by local citizens to honor the 32 Chinese laborers who were forcibly brought to Japan during World War II and died in the U.S. atomic bombing of the city 81 years ago.
The monument, officially titled "Memorial Monument for Chinese Victims of the Nagasaki Atomic Bombing," was unveiled in 2008 on the site of the former Urakami Branch Prison of the Nagasaki Penitentiary, roughly 100 meters from the hypocenter.
During the war, about 40,000 Chinese people were forcibly taken to Japan for heavy labor across 135 worksites. In Nagasaki Prefecture alone, more than 1,000 were sent to four coal mines, while two more mines in northern Nagasaki also held forced Chinese laborers.
Thirty-two of them were later arrested on the alleged charge of "attempting to destroy the coal mines," imprisoned at Urakami, and killed instantly when the atomic bomb exploded.
"Around 1944, so many Japanese men were sent to serve the military that the country faced a severe labor shortage. At first, they forcibly took Koreans to work in Japan, but even that wasn’t enough, so Chinese laborers were seized too. About 40,000 Chinese laborers in total were dispatched to 135 sites. In Nagasaki Prefecture, there were four coal mines, where nearly 1,000 Chinese were forced to work. In addition, there were two other coal mines in northern Nagasaki where Chinese laborers were also forced to work," said Tatsuo Sekiguchi, head of a Nagasaki civic group.
Sekiguchi said local civic groups are calling for Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum to formally include this buried chapter of history.
"One bereaved family member I interviewed told me that one morning, three Japanese soldiers kicked the door open and burst in, then dragged her husband away by force. She had just given birth two or three days earlier and could only cry helplessly. She had no idea where her husband had been taken. Only later did she learn that he had been forcibly sent to a coal mine in northern Nagasaki Prefecture and made to work there by force," said Sekiguchi.
"Later, 32 Chinese men from that site were arrested on the so-called charge of attempting to destroy the coal mine and locked up in Urakami Prison, a facility only about 100 meters from the hypocenter. They all perished in the atomic bombing. This is a deeply symbolic event. It reveals the link between the history of Chinese people forcibly conscripted as laborers and the Nagasaki atomic bombing," said Sekiguchi.
Nagasaki monument memorizes Chinese laborers killed in 1945 atomic bombing
