Memorial for Korean laborers held in Japan

SADO, Japan — South Korea paid tribute to wartime Korean forced laborers at Japan's Sado Island Gold Mines in a memorial ceremony on Monday, a day after boycotting a similar event organized by Japan, as tensions over historical atrocities continue to strain relations between the two sides. Monday's ceremony at a former dormitory near the 16th-century Sado Mines, which were listed this summer as a UNESCO World Heritage site, was organized by South Korea's Foreign Ministry and attended by nine family members of Korean wartime laborers, the country's ambassador to Japan and other officials. Japanese officials at Sunday's ceremony paid tribute to "all workers", including Korean laborers who died at the mines, without acknowledging that they were forced laborers — part of what critics call a persistent policy of whitewashing Japan's history of sexual and labor exploitation before and during the war. The Sado mines were registered as a UNESCO cultural heritage site in July after Japan agreed to include an exhibit on the conditions of Korean forced laborers and to hold a memorial service annually, following repeated protests from the South Korean government.