A group of 40 lawmakers and business executives has launched a fundraising drive aimed at restoring Japanese graves in Uzbekistan and erecting a monument in honor of those who died as forced laborers on foreign soil.
At least 20,000 Japanese were moved from Japanese-occupied Manchuria and northern Korea after World War II to the then-Soviet republic of Uzbekistan to work in open-pit coal mines, and in construction and other projects.
Of these laborers, 812 died in Uzbekistan. According to organizers of the fundraising campaign, there are 14 Japanese grave sites in Uzbekistan, and most have been neglected.
The exact number of Japanese buried in some graves remains unclear because there are no grave markers.
"We want to restore the grave sites so that the Japanese who died in that land after the war are not forgotten," said Kintaro Kato, 73, a retired company executive and a founding member of the fundraising group who served time at an Uzbek labor camp.
The grave repair project is estimated to cost 17 million yen.