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Light and creamy. Only uses one package of cream cheese!

3 egg whites ＋20g sugar

200g cream cheese

3 Tbsp plain yogurt, drained

50g margarine or butter

40g sugar

3 egg yolks

50cc cream

30g flour, sifted

juice of 1/2 lemon

lemon zest

Beat egg whites and 20g sugar till very stiff. Set aside. Beat softened butter, cream cheese. Add sugar. Beat well, then beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Add yogurt, and cream, Add lemon zest, juice. Add flour, beat.

Gently fold in egg whites. Pour into a 18 cm pan. (or pour over the baked crust in a 18 cm spring- bottom pan.) Place in a pie pan and set in an oven tray filled with boiling water. Bake in 170度 C (325°F)oven 30-40 minutes. Immediately, run a knife bround the edge to loosen cake from pan so it won’t sink in the middle. Cool in pan. Chill well.

Crust (if desired)

26-30 Ritz crackers

3 Tbsp sugar

50-60g melted margarine or butter

Toss together. Press into 18 cm spring-bottom pan. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10 minutes.

The Industrial Revolution in Japan started after the Meiji Restoration and the Chikuho Mines were opened in the 1890s. We planned to visit 3 mines in Kyushu: Chikuho Tanden (筑豊炭田）in Tagawa, Fukuoka prefecture, Miike Manda Pit (三池万田炭鉱）in Arao, Kumamoto prefecture and Hashima (also called Gunkanshima) （軍艦島）in Nagasaki.

I became interested in visiting these areas after reading a report written by Makise Akiko about her trip to see the Mine Museum in Tagawa. She recommended several books and I read one by a man named Ueno Eishin (「追われゆく坑夫たち」上野英信）He dropped out of prestigious Kyoto University to go and work in the Chikuho Mine for ten years. He interviewed many miners and wrote documentaries of life in the mines. My husband was so appalled by the brutality that he couldn’t finish reading it.

I became aware that many Koreans were used as forced labor in the mines, given the most dangerous areas to dig in and “lynched” or tortured for the slightest infraction. The torture often led to death. Even Japanese workers were barely paid, barely fed and forced to work 15 hour shifts under the ground in temperatures over 40 degrees (104 F).

Yamamoto Sakubei went to work in the mine with his father and brother when he was 7 years old. When he was 61, he began to draw pictures of life in the mine so his grandchildren would know what it had been like. These drawings are now a UNESCO World Heritage “memory” and can be seen on the second-floor gallery at the Tagawa Mining Museum in Tagawa, Fukuoka.

We met the curator of the museum, Moriyama Senichi, who is very knowledgeable about the mines and human rights. He took us to see the monument to Koreans who died in the mines located on the grounds of Hokoji Temple. （法光寺）Japan had invaded Korea and made it into a Japanese colony in 1910, taking over land and businesses and forcing the people to speak Japanese.

After visiting here, we ate Nagasaki chanpon at a small old diner recommended by Moriyama-san. We then viewed the museum. That night we stayed in Chikugogawa Onsen. (筑後鵜川温泉）

The Japanese admitted that Koreans were brought to Japan and “forced to work” in these mines, an admission which was a condition for several mines to be designated UNESCO World Heritage sites, Both Gunkanjima (Hashima) and Manda Pit received this designation. However, afterwards South Korea demanded that UNESCO take back this designation as Japan had never truly admitted the forced labor or made recompense to the miners or their families. Top government official Kishida Fumio stated that ” Forced to work doesn’t mean “forced labor”, a ridiculous comment if you can understand plain English. 「「明治日本の産業革命」と強制働労」、p.23)