Efforts are under way to recover the remains of workers who died in a 1942 accident at a now-defunct undersea coal mine in Yamaguchi Prefecture, aiming to build momentum ahead of next month's 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
"We hope that the collection of the remains will be successful this year, 80 years after the end of the war," said a member of a civic group for carrying out diving surveys for the remains of the 183 workers — 136 from the Korean Peninsula and 47 from Japan.
At the Chosei coal mine, which opened in 1914 in the city of Ube, a submersion accident occurred in the mine tunnel at a point some 1 kilometer from its portal due to an abnormal water inflow in February 1942, during the war. The mine's entrance was closed, with the remains of the victims left behind.
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