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| Photo of the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo. The center opened to the public in June 2020 to introduce 23 Meiji-era industrial sites that won UNESCO World Heritage recognition. / Courtesy of the Industrial Heritage Information Center |
By Kwak Yeon-soo
The South Korean government will continue to confront Japan's history distortion concerning wartime forced labor, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said on Friday.
Condemning Japan's negligence in carrying out the UNESCO recommendation that the country should offer correct accounts of wartime forced labor when addressing the history of industrial sites recognized as World Heritage sites, the Ministry will join hands with the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) to produce videos and organize seminars to counter Japan's inaccurate claims about wartime forced labor
When the 23 Meiji-era industrial sites ― including the notorious Hashima Island, where hundreds of Koreans were forced to work tirelessly in an undersea coal mine ― won World Heritage recognition in 2015, Japan made a pledge to set up an information center to honor wartime forced laborers.
However, the information center in Tokyo, which opened to the public last June, only highlighted the achievements of Japan's industrial revolution without mentioning the suffering of Korean forced labor victims.
In December 2020, Japan submitted a "report on the implementation status of the interpretation strategy" which tells how it has been carrying out UNESCO recommendations since the designation, such as providing explanations on the "full history" of each site. But the report was not much different from previous implementation reports.
In the first quarter of 2021, the Ministry will produce a promotional video that will pressure Tokyo to make corrections. Through this video, experts and the general public both at home and abroad will be able to learn about the wartime forced labor that was prevalent at Japan's industrial sites.
Meanwhile, the CHA will organize online seminars under the theme of, "One Heritage, Different Memories," to raise awareness among international experts about the conflicting interpretations of the Meiji-era industrial sites
This seminar will be held six times, between February and July, before and after the 44th World Heritage Committee, which was rescheduled to June-July 2021 from June 9-29 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic.
