Regarding the Ukishima Maru incident, the South Korean government has asked the Japanese side to provide the passenger list. Will the truth be uncovered?

The Korean government has submitted to Japan the passenger list that the Japanese government has revealed it possesses in relation to the Ukishima Maru incident that occurred in Maizuru Bay, Kyoto on August 24, 1945, shortly after the end of the Pacific War.
The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported on the 22nd of this month that the Japanese government had not acknowledged the existence of the passenger list for many years, but this year it disclosed three types of information in response to a request for disclosure of information.
In May, the ministry revealed that there were "roughly 70 documents" that could be called "lists" of passengers and others. On the night of August 22, 1945, the former navy transport ship Ukishima Maru carried 10,000 Japanese people who had been forcibly taken to Japan.
The ship departed from Ominato in Mutsu City, Aomori Prefecture, carrying 3,735 Korean workers and their families who were engaged in railroad construction work in the Shimokita Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture. It was heading for Busan, South Korea, but stopped at the port.
On the 24th, the ship suddenly exploded and sank in Maizuru Bay off the coast of Shimosabaga in Maizuru City, Kyoto Prefecture. According to the Japanese government, 524 Koreans and 25 Japanese were killed. However, survivors and the families of the victims said,
They claim that the death toll is in the thousands. Unclaimed remains are still kept at Yutenji Temple in Nakameguro, Tokyo.
This incident was not initially reported in Japan, but was reported in South Korea the following month.
It was revealed that the explosion of the Ukishima Maru was caused by a mine laid by the US military, but South Korea and North Korea still claim that the Japanese side deliberately detonated it.
In 1992, 80 survivors and bereaved families filed a class action lawsuit against the Japanese government, seeking approximately 2.8 billion yen in compensation, but in November 2004, the Supreme Court's Third Petty Bench ruled to dismiss the plaintiffs' appeal.
However, the Osaka High Court ruling (May 2003) in which the plaintiffs lost the case was finalized. In Maizuru City and Mutsu City, a memorial gathering is held every year by a group of local residents.
The memorial monument was erected in the park in 1978 by the "Committee to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Ukishima Maru," a group of citizens. Films about the Ukishima Maru incident have been made in Japan, South Korea, and even North Korea.
In Japan, a group of Kyoto citizens produced a film called "Ei JeeAn Blue Ukishima Maru Sakon" which was screened in 1995. The same film was screened in Gwangju, South Korea in 2004.
It was selected to participate in the International Film Festival. In South Korea, the documentary film "Floating Island" was released in September 2019. In North Korea, a film titled "Seoul's Protest" was produced in 2000.
Both of these works depict the Japanese side blowing up the ship. The fact that Japan, South Korea, and North Korea have different views on the cause of the Ukishima Maru explosion is reflected in the works that deal with the incident.
In the aforementioned lawsuit, the plaintiffs' legal team requested the disclosure of the passenger list and similar documents, but the Japanese government has not acknowledged the existence of the list for many years.
In response to a request for disclosure of information from journalist Yuji Fuse, who is a reporter using the Internet to report on his work, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has disclosed three different lists this year.
The Vice Minister explained that the three lists were all documents that had been held by the former navy and had been continuously held by the predecessor organization of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
"It lists people who were involved in the investigation," he said. He also revealed that there are "roughly 70 documents" that are called "lists."
According to a report by the Tokyo Shimbun on the 22nd of this month, the existence of the list was revealed.
In response to this, an official from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety of South Korea, which is in charge of returning the remains of wartime mobilization victims, explained that "we have requested the relevant materials from the Japanese side through the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
A ministry official said, "We are trying to obtain the passenger list of the Ukishima Maru, the existence of which was recently confirmed. We will continue to urge the Japanese government to take responsible and sincere measures, including uncovering the truth of the incident."
Attention will be focused on how the Japanese government responds in the future.