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| The Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo, which introduces 23 sites of the Meiji Industrial Revolution, seen in this June 14, 2020, file photo. Yonhap |
By Jung Da-min
UNESCO has urged the Japanese government to faithfully implement its earlier promise to acknowledge the use of forced labor, including Koreans, at is World Heritage Sites during World War II, according to Korea’s foreign affairs ministry, Monday.
UNESCO also expressed “strong regret” over Japan’s failure to fulfill its promise. It is very rare for an international agency to use such a strong language and confirms that Japan is wrong to claim that it has kept its promises.
Japan was requested to acknowledge the forced mobilization of Korean workers after an expert panel from the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) inspected the Tokyo Industrial Heritage Information Center in early June. The information center introduces 23 sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution that had been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2015.
Among the 23 sites is Hashima Island, also known as “Battleship Island” in Korea, where it is believed that between 500 and 800 Koreans were forced to work between 1943 and 1945 ― 122 of them died.
Considering the outcry from Korea and other Asian countries over the designation of the sites linked to Japan’s wartime atrocities, the committee called on Japan to come up with measures to allow an understanding of the “full history of each site.” As Tokyo agreed to take such steps, the committee has been checking the level of progress every two years.
In a report issued by the panel on the committee’s website, Monday, the experts concluded that the Japanese government “has not yet fully implemented” UNESCO’s requests, saying they “strongly regret” that fact.
They said Japan has yet to establish a strategy that allows an understanding of the full history of each site. They said the center’s information was “insufficient” to acknowledge Japan’s use of forced labor and commemorate the victims.
“The committee expressed its deep regret that Japan did not faithfully implement its earlier promise … The international community has clearly confirmed that Japan’s claim that it has faithfully kept its promise is not correct,” an official with the foreign ministry told reporters.
The committee may keep issuing requests and increase pressure on Japan. But it may not be possible to remove the sites from the World Heritage Site list, the official said.
UNESCO urges Japan to recognize Korean victims of forced labor in world heritage site
Source: Buhay Kapa PH
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