A South Korean civic organization on Sunday said it has set up a memorial stone in Japan to remember Korean victims of forced labor during the Japanese colonial rule.
Steppingstone for Peace said it installed several "stepping stones for peace" at three locations on Japan's Hokkaido, where Korean workers suffered from forced labor and many of them died, in cooperation with a Japanese private organization on Aug. 21-22.
The Korean nongovernmental organization has sought to heal the "historical scars" of Koreans caused by Japan's invasion of the Korean Peninsula and the 1910-45 colonial rule.
Photo taken on Aug. 28, officials from Steppingstone Korea pay tribute to "stepping stones for peace" set up on Hokkaido to remember Koreans victimized by forced labor in Japan during the Japanese colonial rule from 1910-45. (Yonhap)
"We will continue to install stepping stones for peace in the hometowns of Korean victims (in South Korea) and the Japanese sites where Koreans were victimized due to forced labor. We will post the locations of the established stepping stones and what was engraved on them on the Internet," the organization said in a statement.
The move was designed as part of efforts to not forget the humiliating Japanese annexation of Korea 106 years ago, the statement said.
The Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was signed by representatives of the Empire of Japan and the Korean Empire on Aug. 29, 1910. In the treaty, Japan formally annexed Korea following the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905 by which Korea became the protectorate of Japan and the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1907 under which Korea could no longer administer internal affairs. (Yonhap)
