Analysis finds more Korean deaths in deadly sinking of Ukishima Maru ship in 1945

A passenger list of the Ukishima Maru, a Japanese ship that sank in 1945 while carrying Koreans returning to their homeland. Courtesy of Seoul's foreign ministry

A Korean analysis has found a Japanese ship that sank in 1945 while repatriating Koreans carried 193 fewer passengers and caused four more deaths than previously announced by Japan, the interior ministry said Monday.

A total of 528 people out of 3,542 aboard the Ukishima Maru were killed when it sank on Aug. 22, 1945, days after Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, analysis by the Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization by Imperial Japan showed for the first time.

The Japanese vessel was transporting Koreans, many of whom were forcibly mobilized for wartime labor, back to their homeland when it sank off Japan's Aomori Prefecture following an explosion in the hull.

Japan announced that the ship hit an underwater mine, and 524 out of 3,735 passengers were killed in what it called an accident, but bereaved family members have disputed the figures, prompting Seoul to conduct a yearlong analysis of 75 passenger lists provided by Tokyo.

Korea received the lists after they were unearthed by a Japanese journalist. Tokyo had previously denied the existence of the records.

The foundation initially found a total of 18,176 people from the documents before sorting through overlaps and mistakes and determining the latest figures.

The interior ministry plans to contact bereaved families to check whether their family members are included in the analyzed list before conducting cross-examinations with other government records.

Once the examinations are completed, the government plans to review compensation measures for the victims.

"(We) will make utmost efforts to heal the suffering of the victims and their families and recover the truth behind history," Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said.