UNESCO urges Japan to let world know of Hashima Island's brutal history
  • 6 years ago
In other news... Japan's Hashima Island is where hundreds of Korean workers were forced to toil in coal mines.
While Tokyo has failed to implement its promise to let the world know of the island's brutal history,... UNESCO urged Japan to inform the world and seek dialogue with South Korea regarding the matter.
Kim Hyo-sun has this story.
UNESCO has urged Japan to tell the world about the brutality committed against the forced laborers of Korea who worked on Japan's Hashima Island during its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
The decision came at UNESCO's 42nd session of the World Heritage Committee on Wednesday,... during which the international body reviewed the follow-up measures promised by Japan when its 23 industrial facilities including those on Hashima Island, which is located off the coast of Nagasaki in southern Japan, were registered as World Cultural Heritage sites back in 2015.
Tokyo promised to inform the world about the dark side of Hashima's history.
Yet, the fortress-like island which attracts thousands of visitors annually,... is only introduced as a coal mine that was opened in the 1940s.
And breaking the promise it made to UNESCO,... Japan dropped the word "forced" when referring to those who worked on the island, falsely saying that Koreans provided "voluntary help."
UNESCO called for the faithful implementation of its recommendations,... while urging Japan and South Korea to engage in dialogue on the issue.
Seoul's foreign ministry called such decision "meaningful,"... adding it will continue to seek dialogue with Tokyo as well as the international community.
The South Korean government's report says about 500 to 800 Koreans are estimated to have been forced to work under harsh conditions on the island,... and over one-hundred died from malnutrition or accidents.
Kim Hyo-sun, Arirang News.
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