Feature: Endless pain of Imperial Japan's forced labor victims in South Korea

"Can they bury the truth when I'm alive and kicking? Can they cover the sky with their palms?" Kim Han-su asked foreign correspondents in Seoul, referring to the Japanese government, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which has been seeking to list facilities where tens of thousands of Koreans worked as slave laborers during the World War II as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Kim, 97, was mobilized by the Imperial Japan for forced labor in August 1944 when he was a 26-year-old man with a wife and two children. Kim and some 180 Koreans were sent to the Mitsubishi Shipyard in Nagasaki of southern Japan, where warships, aircraft carriers and other military suppliers were produced.

"Hunger pang was the hardest thing to bear," he recalled. Kim and other Koreans were provided with meals that he called little better than animal feed, consisting of rice ball, pepper powder and sweet potato plant stem boiled in sea water. The rice ball did not include rice as it was made of sesame dregs and beans.

Describing what happened at the Nagasaki shipyard in a clear and distinct tone, the 97-year-old man said he had met with many warm-hearted Japanese who apologized to Kim for wartime brutalities committed by their ancestors. He asked the Abe government to apologize for the past and start anew.

In January 2014, the Japanese government applied to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to list 23 facilities of Meiji Industrial Revolution in Kyushu, Yamaguchi and related areas as World Heritage sites. The facilities included nine steelworks, five shipyards, three coal mines and five non-industrial sites.

Seven of the sites were facilities, where some 21,900 Koreans were forced to work during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. The facilities included the Mitsubishi No.3 dry dock, Mitsubishi giant crane and pattern shop in Nagasaki, along with Takashima coal mine, Hashima coal mine, Yahata steelworks and Miike coal mine and Miike Port. At the seven facilities, 94 Koreans died and five were missing, according to South Korea's foreign ministry data.

Researchers said 57,900 Koreans were mobilized to the facilities and numerous others died, much higher than the official data. The sites served as outposts of Imperial Japan's aggressive war and colonization, but the Abe government sought to whitewash the militaristic past by confining the period of the facilities to the Meiji era from 1850 to 1910.

Choi Jang-seop, 86, was sent to Hashima coal mine in February 1943 when he was just 14 years old. The Hashima was called a "hell island" as no one could return alive once anyone went there. Around 600 Koreans were taken to the undersea mine with 28 killed. Some estimated that 122 people drowned after attempting to escape, or died of extremely hard labor which was too harsh for young boys to bear.

Choi and many young Korean boys were sent to dig coal 1 km below ground as the gangways were narrow. They had to endure high temperature, seawater inflow and toxic gas while working, suffering from malnutrition as their main food was a kind of porridge made of beans and sesame dregs.

Prisoners of war of the Allied Forces and Chinese laborers went through severe discrimination, according to Choi. He and many other innocent people of various nationalities worked to meet military needs for the militaristic Japan under slave-like harsh labor conditions.

"A great number of Koreans and Chinese were requisitioned to work in Japan against their will in either a mine or a factory under extremely poor working conditions," said a Japanese history textbook read by Rep. Lee Won-wook of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy. Lee said Japan was trying to close its eyes to the real truth that it already knew all too well.

South Korea's National Assembly adopted a resolution on May 12, strongly condemning Japan's attempts to gloss over its history of colonial rule and military aggression by beatifying the facilities as the cultural heritage sites for industrial development. Lee and Lee Yi-jae of the ruling Saenuri Party plan to visit Germany in early July together with civic activists to express opposition to Japan's attempt to list facilities associated with war crimes as UNESCO World Heritage sites. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee will finalize Japan's application in Bonn next month.

"I was treated like animal, but I'd like to hear that (South) Korea reproaches Japan for being bad and wrong," said Yang Keum- deok who worked at the Nagoya aircraft manufacturing plant of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries when she was just 14. Yang is now 87 years old.

When she was in her sixth year at an elementary school, her Japanese principal deceitfully told Yang that she could earn money and go to a good school in Japan. She was taken to the Mitsubishi factory to produce Zero fighter jets from June 1944.

After surviving harsh labor conditions for a young girl to bear, Yang returned to South Korea in October 1945. She had difficulties in getting married as others mistook her for having been a comfort woman, or Koreans forced into sex slavery for Japan's military brothels during the WWII, when she was in Japan.

Yang managed to get married, but her husband left her for 10 years after learning belatedly that she had been to Japan. She chose not to denounce her husband for his unfaithfulness because of his hostility and distrust of her. Yang is now living in dire economic conditions with no family member to turn to for financial support.

Yang is now engaged in a compensation lawsuit against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at the Gwangju High Court. The Supreme Court in South Korea ruled in May 2012 that forced labor victims were entitled to private damages claims as the mobilization was an "unlawful act under Japan's forced annexation of Korea."

She and other victims filed a compensation lawsuit against the Japanese company in October 2012 with the local court, which ruled in November 2013 that "the defendant must indemnify the plaintiffs for damages." Mitsubishi immediately appealed.

The local court offered to Mitsubishi coming to an agreement through "mediation" considering the old age of the victims, but the Japanese company rejected the proposal. The higher court is set to finalize the case on June 24.

Kong Jea-su, 93, was taken to Aso Mines in Fukuoka Prefecture. He lost his hearing as his eardrum was ruptured after being caught from two failed attempts to escape. Kong said he had gone through several life-or-death moments from a mine collapse, a severe beating and hunger pangs.

After having contracted a contagious disease, he received no treatment for his condition and was instead ignored. The overcrowded living quarters, where forced laborers were housed, frequently became spacious overnight as so many people died or were removed.

Aso Mines refer to nine mines owned by the Aso Mining Company launched by Aso Takichi, the great-grandfather of Aso Taro, now Japan's Finance Minister and former Japanese Prime Minister. Takichi was called a "King of Coal" during the Meiji era. It is reported that the Aso Mining Company was so brutal that it frequently buried workers alive who were on the verge of death due to harsh labor.

"Aso Taro said in the past that he didn't know what his ancestors did as he was so young. When I heard that, my blood boiled," said Kong. Endi