By Yi Whan-woo
Korea and Japan are in a spat over Tokyo’s English-language statement on the forced labor of Koreans at some of its newly registered UNESCO world heritage sites.
Japanese media reported Monday that its Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida shrugged off the statement announced by Japan’s ambassador to UNESCO Kuni Sato during the World Heritage Committee (WHC) session in Bonn, Germany, Saturday.
“Japan is prepared to take measures that allow an understanding that there were a large number of Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites, and that, during World War II, the Government of Japan also implemented its policy of requisition,” Sato said.
She referred to seven of the 23 Meiji Industrial Revolution sites that the WHC, which is under UNESCO, granted world heritage status illustrating the rapid industrialization of a non-Western nation in the 19th century.
Some 57,900 Koreans were forced into slave labor at seven of the 23 sites, including coalmines, shipyards, and steelworks, during the Japanese colonial rule (1910-45). Ninety four of them died and five others went missing while building warships, weapons and producing supplies for the Japanese military.
Kishida, however, was quoted as saying by the Japanese media outlets that “it doesn’t mean forced labor.”
They also cited the Japanese-language version of the statement, which avoided any straightforward expression of “forced labor.”
Japan’s top diplomat appears to have made the remarks for political reasons amid concerns over a backlash from conservative bureaucrats and politicians who refuse to admit the country’s wartime atrocities.
Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs fired back at Japan for its alleged attempt to water down the acknowledgement on its wrongdoings.
“The English version of the statement has been officially adopted by the WHC,” a foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity. “Its contents mean by international standards and practice that there was forced labor.”
The Korean foreign ministry previously welcomed that the Japanese government admitted its wartime brutality on the international stage after the two sides wrangled for months over the issue.
Japan agreed to establish an information center to remember the victims at the 23 sites and help visitors better understand the historical wounds of Korea.
In relevant measures, Tokyo is required to submit a progress report to the world heritage authorities by the end of 2017 for a formal review by the WHC states in 2018.
At a press conference in Seoul, Sunday, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said, “I’m glad that we could maintain our principles and stance while settling the issue through dialogue.”
Japan initially claimed all 23 sites were built before 1910, a move seen as bid to avoid any argument with Korea.
It also said that Seoul is making “political assertions.”
The case took a new twist when International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a UNESCO advisory panel, said the documents Japan submitted in its UNESCO bid “fail to describe the complex and broad social and political changes that industrial technology has brought about.” The panel added that relevant material should be provided.