The National Museum of the History of Japanese Imperialists’ Forced Mobilization announced on May 5 that it will “publicly purchase relics related to the Japanese Imperialists’ forced mobilization during the period of the struggle against Japan and before and after colonial liberation from the 11th of this month to the 11th of next month. The museum will publicly purchase artifacts for exhibition, education, and research related to the mobilization of Japanese Imperialists.
The relics to be purchased are railway-related relics and relics related to sanitation, infectious diseases, and vaccinations from the period of Japanese colonial rule. Also included are materials related to forced mobilization in Sakhalin, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Midwest, Japanese military “comfort women” and Korean women’s volunteer labor corps, advertisements in newspapers and other media at the time for job placement by government agencies, correspondence from victims of forced mobilization, and other materials related to forced mobilization. The artifacts include maps, lists, photographs, films, clothing, consumer goods, flags, certificates, symptoms, notebooks, albums, publicity materials, pictorials, letters, memoirs, books, and court records.
Anyone can apply, including private collectors, traders of cultural properties, corporations, organizations, and individuals. However, materials of unknown provenance, stolen or pilfered items, illegally obtained materials, and jointly owned items are not eligible for purchase. Application forms can be downloaded from the museum’s website (fomo.or.kr/museum). Applications will only be accepted by mail or onsite.
The History Museum opened in 2015 in Daeyeon-dong, Nam-gu, Busan. It is a memorial facility for victims of forced mobilization and the bereaved families of victims, and as a historical educational space for the history of Japanese imperialist forced mobilization, it exhibits materials that investigate and record the inhumane forced mobilization of the war criminals of the Asian-Pacific War, the Japanese imperialists.
Reporter Yong-Dong Kim
