Wartime Forced Labor at Miike Coal Mine (Korean, Chinese, and Allied POWs)
三池炭鉱における朝鮮人・中国人・連合軍捕虜の強制労働
During WWII, Mitsui conscripted thousands of Korean civilians and 2,481 Chinese laborers to work in the Miike Coal Mine; 635 Chinese died (25.6% mortality). The mine also housed Fukuoka POW Camp #17, the largest Allied POW camp in the Japanese Empire, holding approximately 1,735 American, Australian, British, and Dutch prisoners forced into slave labor.
History
From 1939 onward, the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine mobilized Korean workers through progressively coercive means — voluntary recruitment (1939), government-mediated placement (1942), and outright conscription (1944). Several thousand Koreans labored in the mine under harsh conditions. By a 1942 cabinet decision, the Japanese government also transported Chinese laborers to Japan; 2,481 Chinese were sent to Miike, of whom 635 perished — a mortality rate of approximately 25.6%.
Fukuoka POW Camp #17 (Omuta) opened on August 7, 1943, with 500 Americans arriving from the Philippines on the hellship Clyde Maru. The camp grew to hold approximately 1,735–1,757 Allied POWs of American, Australian, British, and Dutch nationality. American, Australian, and Dutch prisoners were forced to mine coal in the Mitsui pits, while British prisoners worked in a nearby Mitsui zinc foundry. Conditions were described as slave labor with extreme hardship, starvation rations, and brutal punishment.
The forced labor history became an international flashpoint in 2015 when the site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with Japan promising but failing to adequately present the full history of wartime forced mobilization.