Japanese wartime files show Allied prisoners toiled in mine of current leader's family

The admission came after the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, under prodding from an opposition lawmaker, released documents showing that 300 British, Dutch and Australian prisoners of war worked at a mine owned by Aso Mining during the last four months of World War II in western Japan.

At a parliamentary session on Thursday, officials of the health and foreign ministries acknowledged the validity of the documents, which, totaling some 43 pages, were retrieved from the basement of the Health Ministry building.

The acknowledgment was another embarrassment for Aso, whose popularity has plummeted since assuming office only three months ago. Erratic stewardship over an increasingly shaky economy and a series of insulting remarks leveled at various groups have pushed his approval ratings to about 20 percent and drawn public attacks from inside his own Liberal Democratic Party.