S. Korea secures additional 34 passenger manifests from Ukishima ship sinking

Japan provided South Korea on Wednesday with another batch of passenger manifests from the 1945 sinking of a Japanese vessel that is known to have killed thousands of Koreans aboard.

The Ukishima Maru sank in waters off the Aomori Prefecture in August 1945 following an explosion in the hull. The ship was transporting Koreans, many of whom were forcibly mobilized for wartime labor, back to their homeland, as Korea was liberated from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it received the details of 34 passengers believed to be related to South Koreans, the second such disclosure by the Japanese government following the first provision of information on some 19 passengers in September.

Japan had asserted that the passenger lists were all lost in the sinking, until it was recently revealed that the records had been kept. Japan's reluctance to disclose them has fueled controversy over the cause of the sinking.

The ship, which belonged to the Japanese Navy, had departed from a port in Aomori Prefecture en route to Busan on Aug. 22, 1945, and was to make a port call in Kyoto two days later, but it sank after an explosion in the lower part of the hull.

Japan had announced that the ship hit an underwater mine and 524 out of 3,700 passengers were killed in what it called an accident.

But the bereaved family members of the Korean victims claim more than 3,000 lost their lives, out of as many as 8,000 people aboard, and have charged that Japan intentionally blew up the ship.

South Korean officials have said that more analysis is required to identify and verify the personal information, but some of the materials contain specific details, such as the countries of birth and birth dates.

The government will continue consultations with Japan to secure additional materials related to the victims, a foreign ministry official said. (Yonhap)