In 1945, immediately after World War II, the unconditional surrender of the Japanese Empire allowed Korea to finally escape from Japanese colonial rule. However, the fact that a Korean fashion company exposed that the Japanese Empire killed thousands of Koreans shortly thereafter caused a shock to everyone.
The Korean fashion company Lakai Korea posted a product with a symbolic design and an image containing the whole story of the incident. Lakai Korea has been supported by many Koreans for letting the world know the painful history of Korea, such as the background of the Japanese Rising Sun Flag, their cruel biological testing, and the forced labor atrocities.
According to this project posted by Lakai Korea, shortly after the defeat of Japan, Japan made plans to repatriate Korean forced laborers to Korea, fearing that they would riot. As a result, on August 22, 1945, a repatriation ship, the Ukishima Maru, carrying about 7,000 Koreans, departed from Ominato Port, Japan.
However, two days later, the Ukishima Maru suddenly left the route scheduled to arrive in Busan and headed back to the coast of Japan. And on the way, it exploded immediately after 90% of the Japanese crew on board escaped. It is said that the number of Koreans killed by this incident is estimated to be at least 5,000.
However, the Japanese government blamed the United States for this and tried to cover up the incident by drastically reducing the number of passengers and casualties to about 500. But, according to survivors and witnesses at the time, the number of passengers and casualties is much higher than the estimates, and pieces of evidence proving that the ship was deliberately destroyed were revealed one after another.
Project images containing this information are translated and posted in four languages, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and English, on sales sites used by Japanese and other nationalities in addition to sites used by Koreans in order to spread this information all over the world.
As a result of Japan's continued attempts to conceal this atrocity, even the Korean people did not know about this incident. But Lakai Korea is speaking up about it which caused shock to many people both in Korea and abroad. Lakai Korea said ‘they will remember those who are still in the cold sea and will reach out for them to give comfort,’ expressing their ambition to correct and inform others of history.
Lakai Korea, launched in Korea in 2017, has caused people concern from the beginning as they pursue their philosophy in a completely different direction from existing fashion companies. However, as South Korea's unique culture, such as K-POP, becomes known throughout the world, Lakai Korea began to establish itself with the unique identity of communicating true Korean history to others.
They launched products designed not only out of the pain of damage done by Japan, but also from beautiful Korean culture and historical products such as Hangeul, which has recently been in the spotlight around the world. Their products are receiving favorable comments from many customers abroad.
The Japanese fashion market is a huge part of the world. Lakai Korea is telling people about the history of the Japanese colonial period while excluding itself from this huge market. In fact, when Lakai Korea was asked if they have intentions to sell products in Japan, they said “Japan is just one of 239 countries and we simply tell the truth.” This official comment later became a hot topic.
Since Lakai Korea is not a large-scale company, these corporate-level social contribution activities harm the profit of the company, but they are pursuing only for the truth and continuing to follow their beliefs.
South Korea is considered to be an independent country that showed tremendous economic growth without surrendering to the Japanese during the colonial period in the early 1900s, the aftermath of the Korean War with North Korea in 1950, the Financial crisis in 1997, and Japan's retaliatory export restrictions in 2019.
Lakai Korea continues to demonstrate the Korean spirit of independence and is having a positive ripple effect to the world. It is believed that this company's continued fearless challenging of the norms reflects the honest and passionate image of the Korean people.