NAHF’s Position on the Japanese Government’s Follow-up Measures to the

Japanese Modern Industrial Sites’ Inscription as a World Heritage

-Japan should keep its pledge to the international society to accurately document

historical facts about forced mobilization and labor.-

March 12, 2020
Seoul

Through its State of Conservation Report submitted to the World Heritage Committee in November 2019, the Japanese government revealed its plan to establish an industrial heritage information center before the end of the 2019 session in March 2020. If the plan is carried out as scheduled, the information center will soon be opened, giving reason for the Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF, President Kim Do-hyung) to state its position.

On July 5, 2015, some of Japan’s modern industrial sites became inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As per the World Heritage Committee’s suggestion to devise an “interpretive strategy that allows an understanding of the full history of each site,” Japan stipulated that it would “take measures that allow an understanding that there were a large number of Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions” and “incorporate appropriate measures into the interpretive strategy to remember the victims such as the establishment of an information center.”

The Japanese government, however, has not been living up to its word. Through its State of Conservation Report submitted to the World Heritage Committee in 2017, the Japanese government distorted historical facts by noting that a large number of Korean workers “supported Japanese industries before, during, and after the War.” Moreover, it has failed to share any specific plans to fulfill its pledge through its State of Conservation Report submitted in 2019.

Even Japanese school textbooks mention the fact that Koreans, the Chinese, and the Allied prisoners of the Second World War were forced against their will to work under harsh circumstances in Japan. As such, NAHF strongly urges the Japanese government to keep its pledge to the international society by accurately displaying the undeniable facts about forced mobilization and labor and taking measures to honor the victims at the industrial heritage information center.