Japan should not cover up wartime forced labor
Japan has again raised the ire of South Koreans over its attempt to cover up wartime forced labor. This attempt comes less than a year after Tokyo imposed trade restrictions last July in retaliation to a ruling by Seoul's top court that ordered Japanese firms to pay compensation to surviving Korean victims of such forced labor.
At the center of the new dispute is Japan's 23 Meiji-era industrial locations which are listed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. In order to put the locations on the list in 2015, Japan promised to set up an information center to remember those forced into labor during World War II and publicize the facts about its war crimes.
Regrettably, however, Japan has broken its promise. On Monday, the country opened the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo to the public. But the center holds no material about Japan's shameful history of forced labor.
The center only posted remarks by Kuni Sato, Japan's ambassador to UNESCO, that a large number of Koreans and others were forced to work against their will under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites. But the center is full of material aimed at distorting and covering up the forced labor. It publicizes the testimony of about 30 residents who denied Japan's crimes against humanity.
All are filled with denials of force labor. One of them reads: “The working conditions were good.” Another says: “There was neither abuse (of workers) nor discrimination (against them).” These testimonies are sheer lies, considering the well-documented fact about the horrendous exploitation of forced laborers.
More surprising is that the center juxtaposes a copy of the 1965 basic treaty between the two countries with other fact-distorting materials. Japan is apparently trying to send the wrong message that all reparations claims related to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea were settled with the treaty that normalized diplomatic ties between Seoul and Tokyo.
One of the most notorious sites is Hashima Island, better known here as “Battleship” Island, where many Koreans and some Chinese were forced to work in a coalmine run by Mitsubishi. It was estimated that at least 33,000 Koreans were mobilized for forced labor as coalminers, steelworkers and shipbuilders in Japan during WWII.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately called in Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Koji Tomita to protest Tokyo's failure to honor forced labor victims at the information center. The Japanese government should not try to provide a lame excuse for this incident. It must stop its egregious attempts to distort its shameful history and crimes against humanity. It should not be engrossed in glorifying its past industrial achievements, while turning a blind eye to the dark side of its imperialism and colonialism.
We urge Japan to acknowledge the wartime forced labor and apologize for having inflicted untold pain and suffering on the victims. The first step is to place correct material and documents in the center about its brutal mobilization of forced labor. Then Japan and its companies should comply with the Korean Supreme Court's order to compensate the victims.