[Desk Column] Facts Cannot Be Distorted

[Asia Economy Senior Reporter Jinsoo Lee] The Japanese government ultimately decided on the 28th of last month to recommend Sado Mine as a UNESCO World Heritage candidate and subsequently submitted the nomination dossier to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre on the 1st of this month.

Japan highly values Sado Mine as an industrial heritage site that produced gold through traditional Japanese handicraft techniques during the Edo period (1603?1867). However, Sado Mine is also a site of forced labor where Koreans suffered under Japanese colonial rule.

There is no reason to oppose Japan’s attempt to register Sado Mine as a World Heritage site in itself. However, properly conveying the ‘entire history’ of Sado Mine, including forced labor, aligns with UNESCO’s values. The entire history means addressing not only Japan’s perspective but also balancing the viewpoints of victims such as Korean forced laborers.

It is known that Japan limited the period covered in the nomination dossier submitted to the World Heritage Centre to the Edo period. This is a ‘trick’ to avoid the issue of forced Korean labor during the Japanese colonial period. Currently, most of the Sado Mine remains date from the Meiji period (1868?1912) or later, with few from the Edo period.

Japan has already lost credibility. In July 2015, Japan registered 23 industrial heritage sites from the Meiji period, including Hashima (commonly known as Gunkanjima) coal mine, as World Heritage sites, promising the international community to take measures to inform about histories such as forced labor.

At that time, Kunio Sato, Japan’s Ambassador to UNESCO, stated, "In the 1940s, many Koreans and other nationals were mobilized against their will at some facilities and forced to work under harsh conditions," and added, "We are prepared to take measures to ensure understanding of the Japanese government’s conscription policies during World War II." However, this promise has yet to be fulfilled.

The Japanese government held an expert meeting related to the ‘Meiji Japan’s Industrial Revolution Heritage’ registered as World Heritage on the 7th. Experts pointed out that UNESCO’s resolution expressing strong regret over the exhibition content was rather problematic. Their advice was that the Japanese government should seek understanding from UNESCO and others.

Since the Liberal Democratic Party regained power in December 2012, the Japanese government has been revising history textbooks to conceal wartime atrocities. This has promoted historical distortion as a strategy to evade responsibility for issues such as the Japanese military’s comfort women and forced labor.

World Heritage is a system to protect cultural properties of universal value shared by humanity. Registering only up to the Edo period while excluding the Japanese colonial period from the World Heritage listing damages UNESCO’s values such as human dignity and objective truth. National intentions, ethnic consciousness, and historical perceptions tend to interfere with World Heritage registration. However, excluding these is essential for a genuine World Heritage site.

Japan even led institutional reforms to block the registration of Japanese military comfort women materials as World Documentary Heritage. As a result, in April last year, a system for objections by UNESCO member states was introduced. Under this system, if an objection is raised, the registration process for World Documentary Heritage cannot proceed until dialogue between the concerned parties resolves the issue.

As a follow-up, in July of the same year, the World Heritage Committee, which decides on World Cultural Heritage registrations, adopted guidelines urging dialogue between concerned parties before submitting World Cultural Heritage nomination dossiers. Without our government’s consent, it is practically difficult for Sado Mine to be recognized as a World Heritage site. This has become a self-defeating situation for Japan.

Facts cannot be distorted. Historical revisionism only justifies Japan’s denial of past responsibilities and its moves to return to militarism and become a war-capable state.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.