By Yi Whan-woo
Japan is being self-contradictory as it shows different stances toward the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and toward Korea over two historical issues in an apparent bid to cover up its wartime crimes.
The country has been refusing to provide information of its forced labor of Koreans at seven of its 23 Meiji-era industrial sites, although it was a condition for the sites to win UNESCO World Heritage status in July 2015.
On the other hand, it has been pressing Korea to carry out a December 2015 agreement, under which the two countries agreed to address Japan’s wartime sexual slavery of Korean women.
In the recent session of the World Heritage Committee in Krakow, Poland, Japan kept mum over Korea’s call to carry out its earlier promise about the forced labor issue.
When having the sites placed on the World Heritage list in 2015, including Hashima Island, Japan promised to set up an information center commemorating exploited laborers including Koreans and to state not only the facilities’ contribution to their modernization but also their “dark history,” as recommended by UNESCO.
At that time, Japanese Ambassador to UNESCO Kuni Sato promised to “take measures that allow an understanding that there were a large number of Koreans and others who were brought there against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s” at the sites.
Right after the listing, however, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida shrugged off Sato’s statement written in English, saying the Japanese-language version did not include any straightforward expression of “forced labor.”
Under this circumstance, 12 of the 21 committee members at this session supported Korean Ambassador to UNESCO Lee Byong-hyun when he urged Japan to observe the UNESCO recommendation, according to diplomatic sources.
Japan is also still turning a blind eye to the Korean opposition to the sex slavery deal, saying the agreement addressed the issue “finally and irreversibly.”
On July 9, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, also a top government spokesman, protested the Korean government’s plan to support a bid to enlist documents about sex slaves in UNESCO’s Memory of the World.
During a meeting with surviving victims, Gender Equality and Family Minister Chung Hyun-back said she will support the civilian groups’ campaign for it.
Suga criticized the plan as “a behavior that can go against the original objective and purpose” of UNESCO to promote friendship and mutual understanding of its members.
He also called on Seoul to carry out the agreement, saying it is extremely critical for an internationally-valued agreement to be implemented in a steady manner.
“Japan is two-faced when it comes to its promises with UNESCO and Korea,” said Lee Myeon-woo, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute. “In that regard, Tokyo’s efforts to resolve historical conflicts merely appear to be nothing more than aiming at covering its shameful history.”
The anti-Japan sentiment still prevails in Korea and many Koreans view that Tokyo was not sincere in its repentance compared to Germany that repeatedly apologized for the crimes committed by the Nazis.
The Moon Jae-in administration has been calling for improvement of the deal, saying it was made hastily and without reflecting the victims’ opinions under Moon’s predecessor Park Geun-hye.