Oral History of Chinese Laborers Forced to Work in Japan During WWII - Volume 1: Snow in Hokkaido

Author: He Tianyi, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: This volume collects oral history materials of Chinese laborers forcibly taken to coal mines in Hokkaido, Japan. Hokkaido is the main coal-producing region in Japan, where the coal is of high quality and has a significant military demand. However, at that time, Japan's coal mining technology had low mechanical utilization, and coal mining labor largely relied on manual work. The shortage of labor in the coal industry was more severe compared to other industries. As a result, Hokkaido became the region where the most Chinese laborers were forcibly taken to Japan. This volume includes the oral histories of 108 Chinese laborers, covering 16 of the 24 operational sites in Hokkaido's coal industry. It includes major enterprises such as Mitsui Mining, Mitsubishi Mining, Hokkaido Coal Mining Navigation, Meiji Mining, and Sumitomo (Iwata) Mining. Among the laborers recorded in this volume, Liu Lianren, known as the "Wild Man," suffered the longest in Japan, for a period of 14 years. The most detailed recollections of laborer suffering recorded in this volume are from Feng Yiping's "Life and Death Record Book."