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What happened there in 1943?



On the 21st, SBS 'The Tale of Biting the Tail' (hereinafter 'Kkokomu'), told the story of a boy who was taken to the warship island with the subtitle '1943 Hell's Gate - Beanstalk and Black Diamond'.



In January 1943, 15-year-old Choi Jang-seop from Iksan, Jeollabuk-do.

A man approached Jang-seop, who was a model student.

At the same time, all over the country, Jang-seop's classmates were kidnapped without knowing English.

I was led by the hands of those who said that the younger the better and the more the better.



And the boys had no choice.

He held the family hostage and said that if he did not follow, he would cut rations and harm his family.

As a result, the boys had no choice but to say goodbye to their parents for the sake of their families.



They were kidnapped on Hashima Island, Japan.

The place I went to when I heard that I could work under good conditions was an island the size of two baseball fields.

And to welcome them was written Glory Gate.



Passing through the narrow passage, a sight they had never seen before unfolded in front of the boys.

There were no high-rise apartments, hospitals, schools, theaters, etc., and on that small island, nine times the population of Tokyo lived.



The Korean workers headed to the nine-story apartment located there.

However, their accommodation is on the lowest semi-basement floor of the apartment.

In particular, 4 or 50 people had to live together in one room, but the environment was not suitable for people to live in.

And the Japanese workers were on the middle class, the managers were the royal class, and the apartment floors were thoroughly divided according to their status.



The next day, the Korean workers headed to Makjang, the far end of the mine shaft.

Small children were needed to work in the narrow coal mines, so Japan brought Korean boys to this place.

And this was a warship island that resembled a warship.



Mitsubishi, a Japanese conglomerate, operated the coal mines on the battleship island.

Mitsubishi, the coal of the warship island called the Black Diamond, mined 410,000 tons of coal a year alone, which had to be mined by Korean workers.



In particular, because of the high temperature and the constantly falling seawater, Makjang was sweating like rain, and his flesh was wrinkled.

And from 1925 to 1945, 122 Koreans died on the Battleship Island, and the causes of death were explosion, crushing, asphyxiation, and drowning.



They had to eat a single rice ball made from soybean paste eaten by livestock, and they had to suffer from violence, let alone being treated like a human being.

The only way to get out of the battleship island, which had no personality, was to cut off one leg.

It was a shock to find out that some people deliberately put their legs in coal carts in the reality that they can return to their hometown only when they are useless.



The entrance to the Battleship Island was actually the gate of hell, not the gate of glory, and the Battleship Island was the island of hell.



At that time, Japan, which lacked manpower, enacted the National Mobilization Act and took Koreans wherever they could.

And human rights were ignored and wages were not properly paid.



Life on a warship island without hope.

In the midst of that, they were finally liberated, and the Koreans could not sleep with the excitement that they could finally return to their hometowns.

However, two weeks after liberation, one day, a ship arrived and took Koreans on board.



However, they took them to none other than Nagasaki, which was damaged by the atomic bombing.

The Japanese brought brooms and shovels to the Korean workers.

to do restoration work there.

They had brought Koreans without protective equipment to a place less than a month after the atomic bomb was dropped.



And three months after liberation, he finally gave away three tongtong boats, and the Koreans went home on them.

But this time, the typhoon hit the Koreans, and many Koreans were also killed.



After hard work, Jang-seop returned home safely.

It was a trip back home after three years.

Upon arriving at his hometown, he was able to meet his mother and father, whom he had dreamed of.

But when Jang-seop saw his father's right hand, his heart pounded and fell.

Four fingers of his father's right hand were severed.



In fact, Jang-seop's father was taken to the Aoji coal mine at the time his son left for forced labor on the Battleship Island, and his finger was cut off while working, making it impossible to build the farm that he had built his whole life.



Japan's forced mobilization of Koreans is estimated at 7.82 million, most of them without money or power.

And they suffered hardship not only in Japan, but also in Sakhalin, the South Pacific, and Southeast Asia.



However, in 2015, Japan applied for inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, saying that Warship Island was a proud heritage of industrialization.

Our government strongly opposed this.

UNESCO also put forward the condition, "Let the entire history of the warship island be known. Do not hide the history of forced labor."



In response, the Japanese representative agreed to know, and recognized the forced labor in front of the whole world.

Believing this promise, UNESCO decided to inscribe Gunham Island as a World Heritage Site.

However, Japan's promise did not last more than a day.



The very next day, Japan insisted that what they said did not mean forced labor.

And with the UNESCO World Heritage List, Gunhamdo Island has become a famous tourist destination.



In a guide to introduce the warship island, Japan said, "Who is distorting history, the warship island is not an island of hell. There was no forced labor mobilization. The warship island lived like a single family, a coal mining community with food, clothing, and shelter." claimed to be distorting history.



As a result, the victims of the warship also went out to uncover the truth in various ways.

Jang-seop Choi, no, grandfather Jang-seop Choi, who is now a grandfather, started writing.

In his autobiography, he recorded everything he had experienced on the battleship island.



And he passed away in 2018 at the age of ninety.

My grandfather had a habit of saying, "This should never happen again to our descendants. History must be written correctly. The only thing I hope for for our descendants with tears is to get history right. That is my last wish." did like



In response, his son also said about the truth about the warship island, "It's not something that some of us will know. Our people should know it all."



Recently, the Japanese government announced that the Sado mine would also be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The same thing happened to the Sado mine as well as the warship island, and Japan also does not recognize forced labor.

Japan is still ignoring the truth, saying, "The annexation of Korea and Japan was legally accomplished, and Joseon was a Japanese colony at the time. It was legal to mobilize Koreans."



But it is clear that the truth will one day be revealed.

Because history can't lie.



What do your friends think of the story of that day?

Song Young-gyu carefully brought out his story.

He said, "I have two fathers. I have a biological father and a stepfather, and the stepfather is the same age as grandfather Jang Seop, and he was forcibly conscripted in Japan."



He continued, "I was forced into labor at the same age as my grandfather Jang-seop, and eventually lived in Japan without being able to return to Korea. After that, he talked a lot about discrimination and regret, and hearing this story reminded me of my father." I think I forgot about it. He is buried in the Manghyang Garden, so I think I should visit him and tell him that he will tell the story." 



(SBS Entertainment News Editor Kim Hyo-jung)