Following criticism that locations bearing witness to Japan’s forced mobilization of Koreans during its 1910-45 colonial rule have not been properly preserved, the state agency has belatedly stepped in. The Korea Heritage Service (KHS) recently issued a public call for bids for a project to map places linked to Japan’s wartime labor and conscription drive. The agency said the study will review their current condition, assess their historical and cultural values and lay out criteria for possible designation as national heritage. The study is scheduled to run through December. It marks the first comprehensive, government-led effort to investigate such sites. Forced mobilization refers to the Japanese Empire’s wartime policy of conscripting people, materials and financial resources across its territories to sustain its military campaigns during the Asia-Pacific War (1931-45). After invading Manchuria in 1931, the empire drew heavily on the Korean Peninsula, seizing supplies and mobilizing Koreans for military service, civilian labor and the production and transportation of war materi
