published: 2017-12-07 06:50:13
정부 “군함도 등 일본 ‘세계유산 후속조치 이행보고서’ 유감”
Japan’s Hashima Island was controversially listed as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2015.
But the island has a dark history unknown to many outside Korea and Japan.
It’s where hundreds of Koreans were forced into slave labor by the Japanese during World War II.
While Japan promised to take measures to help visitors understand the site’s full history,… Tokyo’s insincere and tricky attitude is coming under fire.
Lee Ji-won has more.
Japan finally seemed to be keeping its promise to UNESCO by revealing its plans to set up an information center to address the history of the Meiji Industrial Revolution sites,…including Hashima Island,… but the Korean government says it sees straight through Tokyo’s plan.
Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its regret on Tuesday over Japan’s implementation report on helping visitors understand the “full history” of the sites.
Citing the agreement Japan made to have the island listed as a world heritage site, the Korean government urged Japan take appropriate measures sincerely, and quickly.
In 2015, Japan had promised UNESCO that it would establish information centers and take appropriate measures to address its forced labor of Koreans on the island and commemorate the victims.
While nothing had been done for the past two years,… Japan on Monday announced it will set up an information center on the Meiji Industrial Revolution sites in Tokyo by 2019.
But this sparked even more criticism among Koreans,.. as the plan of setting up a center over one-thousand kilometers away from Hashima Island is seen as an insincere, reluctant move made to seemingly comply with UNESCO’s recommendation.
Moreover, with Japan planning to include the overall history of the industrial revolution, and stories of Japanese workers,… the move is seen to downsize the hardships faced by the Korean laborers.
From 1940 to 1945, between five hundred to eight hundred Koreans were forcibly taken to Hashima Island to work for little pay and hardly any food.
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.
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