TOKYO, Jan 6: Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso effectively conceded on Tuesday that Allied prisoners held by Japan during World War II dug coal for his family mining company.

The conservative leader, who had long avoided the sensitive topic, made the admission in parliament as an opposition lawmaker accused him of attempting to cover up the allegations.

The foreign ministry once lodged a protest against a US media report that Aso Mining Co. run by his wealthy family had used Allied prisoners during the war.

But the ministry recently deleted the protest from its website after the welfare ministry released documents in December showing that 300 British, Dutch and Australian prisoners of war worked at the company’s coal mine in western Japan.

“I understand that the foreign ministry removed the protest from its website because new facts that were unknown at the time of the publication (of the report) have come to light,” Aso told parliament.

The documents said two Australian POWs died during the three-month period but the ministry blacked out the causes of their deaths as well as other personal information, citing privacy.

The ministry released the documents on a request from the opposition, which is hoping to oust the unpopular premier’s long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party in elections this year.

Aso’s family firm is also widely believed to have used Korean forced labourers who were brought over during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.

Aso, who has long come under fire for sympathetic comments about aspects of Japan’s past colonialism, had tried to steer clear of discussion on whether the company used wartime prisoners or Korean labourers.

But since taking office in September, Aso has tried to be conciliatory about wartime history, a topic that continues to test relations with other Asian nations.—AFP