By Yi Whan-woo
Korea and China have launched appeals for recognition from UNESCO based on historical records regarding Tokyo's wartime atrocities.
Korea and China are trying to highlight Japan's state-sponsored crimes during World War II, such as a program of forced labor, sexual enslavement of women and the massacre of civilians at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Japan, on the other hand, is citing a collection of documents as evidence that many of its citizens were victimized as slave laborers in Siberia by the Soviet Union after World War II.
The row comes amid Tokyo's failure to correctly address the issue of the forced labor of Koreans at seven of the 23 Meiji-era industrial sites that UNESCO granted world heritage status to in July. The sites included coalmines, shipyards and steelworks across Japan.
Some 57,000 Koreans were forced to work under extreme conditions at those sites, which UNESCO endorsed for illustrating Japan's rapid transformation into an industrial power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Acknowledging its atrocities, Tokyo said back then that it will take measures to help an understanding that Japan "implemented its policy of requisition" during WWII.
However, little progress has been made since then, according to Korean scholars and activists who visited the scenes recently.
Under such circumstances, Seoul's Cultural Heritage Administration has been reviewing up to 330,000 documents, including government records and written testimonies that describe Japan's forceful use of Korean laborers during its 1910-45 colonial rule of the peninsula.
The administrative body will select two of the documents by the end of this month. It will then submit them to UNESCO, which will decide whether to endorse them or not by next year.
China is making its UNESCO appeal based on two documents linked to the Nanjing Massacre and Japan's sexual enslavement of the Chinese women before and during WWII.
Up to 300,000 civilians and unarmed combatants were killed by the Japanese troops between December 1937 and March 1938 in Nanjing during the second Sino-Japanese War.
An estimated 200,000 women, mostly Koreans and Chinese, worked at military brothels operated by the Japanese Army in Asia.
UNESCO will make a decision over Beijing's two historical documents at its ongoing International Advisory Committee meeting in Abu Dhabi. The meeting will last through Tuesday.
During the meeting, Japan will also try to register diaries, letters and other written records that show the conditions endured by Japanese prisoners of war and civilians who were forcibly taken to work in Siberia after its defeat in WWII.
According to the Northeast Asian History Foundation, a think tank in Seoul, those documents are controversial because some 10,000 captives were Koreans who were previously conscripted to work in Japan.
Meanwhile, Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief cabinet secretary and top government spokesman, protested against China's move, Friday, saying "Beijing was using the UNESCO for political purposes."
"It's extremely regretful that China was making such moves at a time when efforts to improve bilateral ties are critical," he said.
Korea and China have launched appeals for recognition from UNESCO based on historical records regarding Tokyo's wartime atrocities.
Korea and China are trying to highlight Japan's state-sponsored crimes during World War II, such as a program of forced labor, sexual enslavement of women and the massacre of civilians at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Japan, on the other hand, is citing a collection of documents as evidence that many of its citizens were victimized as slave laborers in Siberia by the Soviet Union after World War II.
The row comes amid Tokyo's failure to correctly address the issue of the forced labor of Koreans at seven of the 23 Meiji-era industrial sites that UNESCO granted world heritage status to in July. The sites included coalmines, shipyards and steelworks across Japan.
Some 57,000 Koreans were forced to work under extreme conditions at those sites, which UNESCO endorsed for illustrating Japan's rapid transformation into an industrial power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Acknowledging its atrocities, Tokyo said back then that it will take measures to help an understanding that Japan "implemented its policy of requisition" during WWII.
However, little progress has been made since then, according to Korean scholars and activists who visited the scenes recently.
Under such circumstances, Seoul's Cultural Heritage Administration has been reviewing up to 330,000 documents, including government records and written testimonies that describe Japan's forceful use of Korean laborers during its 1910-45 colonial rule of the peninsula.
The administrative body will select two of the documents by the end of this month. It will then submit them to UNESCO, which will decide whether to endorse them or not by next year.
China is making its UNESCO appeal based on two documents linked to the Nanjing Massacre and Japan's sexual enslavement of the Chinese women before and during WWII.
Up to 300,000 civilians and unarmed combatants were killed by the Japanese troops between December 1937 and March 1938 in Nanjing during the second Sino-Japanese War.
An estimated 200,000 women, mostly Koreans and Chinese, worked at military brothels operated by the Japanese Army in Asia.
UNESCO will make a decision over Beijing's two historical documents at its ongoing International Advisory Committee meeting in Abu Dhabi. The meeting will last through Tuesday.
During the meeting, Japan will also try to register diaries, letters and other written records that show the conditions endured by Japanese prisoners of war and civilians who were forcibly taken to work in Siberia after its defeat in WWII.
According to the Northeast Asian History Foundation, a think tank in Seoul, those documents are controversial because some 10,000 captives were Koreans who were previously conscripted to work in Japan.
Meanwhile, Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief cabinet secretary and top government spokesman, protested against China's move, Friday, saying "Beijing was using the UNESCO for political purposes."
"It's extremely regretful that China was making such moves at a time when efforts to improve bilateral ties are critical," he said.
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