Aso Mining forced labor controversy

Surviving labourers and other records confirmed that the prisoners and conscripts were forced to work in harsh, brutal conditions for little-to-no pay and that some died, at least in part, because of the ill-treatment at the mine.

Two of the Australians, John Watson and Leslie Edgar George Wilkie, died while working in the Aso mine.

[1] In addition, 10,000 Korean conscripts worked in the mine between 1939 and 1945 under severe, brutal conditions in which many of them died or were injured while receiving little pay.

Japanese American historian Mikiso Hane writes that Koreans already worked under such brutal conditions and even without compensation — i.e. as slaves — by 1932, which led to an unsuccessful strike supported by burakumin.

The ministry confirmed that two Australians had died while working at the mine, but declined to release their names or causes of deaths for "privacy reasons."

The three veterans sent letters to Tarō Asō demanding an apology for their treatment at Aso Mining and for refusing to acknowledge that forced POW labour was used by his family's company.

[8] In June 2009, former POW Joseph Coombs and the son of another, James McAnulty, travelled to Japan to personally seek an apology from Asō.