[Exclusive]Japan withholds Ukishima info

[Anchor]

The ship known as Ukishima means 'floating island.'

Victims of forced labor during the Japanese occupation boarded this ship to set foot on their homeland right after the liberation in 1945.

However, two days after its departure, it sank due to an unexplained explosion off the coast of Kyoto.

It remains unclear how many people were on board this 4,700-ton vessel, and how many lost their lives while holding their hometown in their hearts.

This is because the Japanese government has been denying the existence of a 'passenger list' for nearly 80 years.

Finally, last year, the existence of the passenger list was revealed, and our government was able to obtain some of it.

However, recent reports from KBS confirm that the Japanese government has rejected our government's additional request for the remaining documents.

Reporter Kim Seong-soo has the exclusive report.

[Report]

The Japanese government's change in attitude regarding the existence of the passenger list was due to internal movements for truth-finding.

[Kokuta Keiji/Japanese Communist Party Member/Aug. 2024: "(The passenger list) has been submitted. I think it contains very valuable information."]

The documents related to the Ukishima ship that have come to light total 75.

The Japanese government provided our government with 53 documents in two batches, starting with the first set of documents handed over just before the Korea-Japan summit last year.

This includes some lists of Korean passengers and deceased individuals.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety and others requested that the remaining documents also be provided, but the Japanese government refused at the end of last year.

The Japanese government has confirmed that the remaining documents are unrelated to our side and therefore cannot be provided.

Our government has no way to verify what the contents of the documents that Japan has not handed over are.

The Japanese government has stated that there were about 3,700 Korean passengers and over 500 deceased, but there are claims that the number of deceased could reach thousands.

[Kim Myung-shin/Co-representative of the Constitutional Petition for the Ukishima Incident: "We are only estimating the number of people, while Japan continues to say that very few people died, so we need to understand all this information to know how many were on board."]

There are also analyses suggesting that the confusion in domestic political situations may have weakened the Japanese government's willingness to improve relations.

[Kim Moon-gil/Director of the Korea-Japan Cultural Research Institute: "I understand that the undisclosed documents contain very difficult content regarding Korea-Japan relations. Given the current situation, the Japanese government is likely to think carefully about future disclosures..."]

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has decided to identify the victims based on the lists received and inform the bereaved families.

This is KBS News, Kim Seong-soo.