Unesco has decided to grant world heritage status to more than 20 old industrial sites in Japan after officials from the country agreed to acknowledge that some of them used Korean forced labourers before and during the Second World War.
The 23 Meiji period (1868-1912) sites include coalmines and shipyards that Japan says contributed to its transformation from feudalism into a successful modern economy.
South Korea, however, had opposed the application for world heritage status unless clear reference was made to the use of an estimated 60,000 labourers forced to work at seven of the sites, including the island coalmine Gunkanjima, during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.
Conscripted labour from Korea After the U.N. body’s 21-member panel in Bonn postponed a decision for 24 hours until Sunday to give the two sides more time to negotiate, Japan agreed to acknowledge the use of conscripted labour.
“Japan is prepared to 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 in the 1940s at some of the sites,” the Japanese delegation to Unesco said in a statement.
Most forced labourers have died, but some survivors are still seeking compensation from Japan through the courts. Japan had initially resisted South Korean pressure, saying its application referred to a period up to 1910, before foreign labourers were put to work at the sites.
While South Korea’s government welcomed the agreement, after months of negotiations, politicians in Tokyo attempted to play down the significance of Japan’s concession. Local supporters celebrated the sites’ inclusion, which is expected to boost tourism and opens up sources of funding for preservation work. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2015
