ED Shame on Japan

Tokyo should not deny wartime forced labor

A UNESCO committee has called for Japan to deliver on its promise to honor victims of wartime forced labor at an information center on its industrial revolution sites registered on UNESCO's World Heritage list. In an annual session Thursday, the World Heritage Committee (WHC) adopted a resolution expressing “strong regrets” over Japan's failure to keep its pledge. This unanimous resolution requested that Tokyo submit an implementation report on the follow-up measures by December next year.

The WHC action came after Japan was found to have failed to provide sufficient explanation about Korean victims of forced labor at the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo which opened last year. Japan promised to set up the center to remember the victims when 23 Meiji-era industrial sites were added to the heritage list in 2015. The promise was based on the recognition that Koreans and others were taken to some of the sites against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s. One such site is Hashima, also known as Battleship Island, where many Koreans were forced to labor as coal miners during World War II.

Regrettably, however, Japan has yet to carry out its pledge. On the contrary, it has only highlighted the achievements of its industrial revolution at the information center without mentioning the exploitation and suffering of victims at the sites. More seriously, the center displays false testimonies that there was no forced labor, no harsh work and no discrimination against Koreans. It can be said that Japan lied to UNESCO and the international community in order to gain approval for the World Heritage designation of the sites.

The resolution against Japan carries significant implications as it puts the brakes on the country's bid to deny or distort its disgraceful history of militarism and colonialism. Tokyo should stop glossing over its past aggressions and colonial rule of Korea and other Asian countries. It must face up to its history squarely and reflect on its wartime atrocities and misdeeds before it is too late. Then Japan will have to apologize sincerely to those who were subject to untold sufferings due to its crimes against humanity, including forced labor and sex slavery.

The industrial site episode is only the tip of the iceberg. Seoul-Tokyo ties have hit the lowest point since their diplomatic relations were established in 1965, due to Japan's refusal to honor the South Korean Supreme Court's ruling that ordered Japanese firms to pay compensation to surviving Korean victims of force labor. Without apologizing for its past wrongdoings, Japan has responded with trade retaliation against Korea. It has even scoffed at President Moon Jae-in's offer to hold a summit with his Japanese counterpart to resolve these thorny historical issues.

The Korean government and civil society need to step up solidarity with the international community to denounce Japan for its ill-conceived efforts to glorify its past. There is no hope for the future as long as Japan continues relapsing into historical amnesia and trying to sugarcoat its shameful history.