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Gunkanjima (Hashima) Island, off the coast of Nagasaki, where hundreds of Koreans were mobilized to perform forced labor in the Pacific War. (Hankyoreh archives)

The South Korean government appears to be preparing to send an emergency letter to UNESCO to raise issues over distorted historical content related to Gunkanjima (Hashima) Island exhibited at an industrial heritage information center in Tokyo.

On June 16, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced that it was “considering various measures, including sending a letter to UNESCO.” At the time of its registration of Gunkanjima and 22 other modern industry sites in Japan on the World Heritage List in 2015, Japan acknowledged that many Koreans had been forced by the Japanese empire to work at sites including Gunkanjima. But the industrial heritage information center unveiled on June 14 included only eyewitness accounts and archival materials that denied the existence of forced labor by Koreans. MOFA plans to complain to UNESCO about the distortion of history by Japan.

A video exhibit on Hashima (Gunkanjima), an island where hundreds of Koreans were mobilized for forced labor during the Pacific War, the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo. (provided by the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo)

“In addition to considering whether to send a letter from the government, we also plan to engage in diplomatic efforts to share the message locally about Japan’s problematic behavior through the South Korean ambassador to UNESCO and other means,” a MOFA official said.

The South Korean public also plans to raise the issue at the 44th World Heritage Commission meeting, which has been postponed until November due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A day earlier on June 15, MOFA summoned Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koji Tomita to strongly protest the absence of any exhibit commemorating victims of forced labor -- despite a previous pledge from the Japanese government that the center would be established as a measure to remember the victims -- and to urge immediate corrective action.

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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