Japanese officials yesterday celebrated the UN cultural body’s approval of world heritage status for 23 historic sites showing the nation’s transformation from feudal isolation into an industrial power at the end of the 19th century.
Seoul portrayed the decision as a diplomatic win after Japan also agreed to acknowledge its history of forcing tens of thousands of South Koreans, Chinese and World War II prisoners of war to work at dozens of factories, mines and other industrial facilities, conscripted to fill labor shortages especially toward the end of the war.
China called for a better accounting from Tokyo on its past forced labor practices.
“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,” a Japanese delegation said in a statement.
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se said the nation was pleased that the sites were recognized “in the form that takes account of our legitimate concerns.”
Japanese officials expressed their delight with the UNESCO listings, which include Gunkanjima, or “Battleship Island,” a former coal mine on a fortress island off Japan’s southwest coast.
China’s Xinhua news agency cited Beijing’s UNESCO envoy as questioning Japan’s recognition of past events.
“There still lacks an adequate account from Japan of the whole facts surrounding the use of forced labor,” it cited Chinese UNESCO ambassador Zhang Xiuqin (張秀琴) as saying.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) yesterday said that “Japan should win trust from its Asian neighbors and the international community with practical actions.”
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