S . Korean victim of Japan ' s forced labor dies SEOUL , Jan . 22 ( Yonhap ) -- A victim of Japan ' s forced labor during its colonial rule decades ago died on Monday at the age of 89 , civic group officials said . Choi Jang - seop was one of hundreds of Koreans who were conscripted into forced labor on Japan ' s Hashima Island as part of the country ' s mobilization of Koreans during World War II . Korea was under Japan ' s colonial rule from 1910 to 1945 . He was taken to the island , also known as Battleship Island since it looks like a warship , in 1943 and reportedly had to go through more than 12 hours of hard labor every day for three years . About 800 Koreans are believed to have been forced to work in cramped and stifling spaces in undersea coal mines on the island , which is the size of two baseball parks . Of them , 134 reportedly died of disease , malnutrition and accidents . ( END )