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Tokyo should stop hiding the shameful history of the Sado mines.
Japan is pushing ahead again with a plan to obtain UNESCO World Heritage recognition for a complex of former mines linked to wartime forced labor. On Thursday, the Japanese government submitted a revised version of a recommendation letter for the Sado mines to UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Japan submitted a letter of recommendation to nominate the mines to UNESCO in February, but the U.N. agency cited "insufficiency" in the content of the application. The additional information requested by UNESCO involved sections of a former waterway used to collect gold dust. Japan reportedly plans to submit a final version no later than Feb. 1 next year after consultations with UNESCO.
South Korea has opposed the registration as inappropriate, citing Japan's wartime exploitation of Korean laborers. Seoul said Koreans brought to Japan during its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula were forced into hard labor at the time.
Japan's fresh push for the Sado mines, once the world's largest gold producer, is quite regrettable. If Japan wants to share the mines as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it's common sense that the island country should reflect on the complete history of the mines, located on an island in northern Japan.
But in its latest recommendation letter, the Japanese government also excluded its 20th-century wartime atrocity against Koreans, as it did in February. Instead, Tokyo limited the range of application for the mine only to the Edo era from the 16th century till the mid-19th century. Given that thousands of Koreans were victims of forced labor there during World War II, Japan's attempt to hide its shameful history is certainly an affront to the international community.
At a time when the neighboring countries are making efforts to boost relations after a long hiatus, Japan's fresh move for UNESCO recognition is certain to pour cold water on these efforts. The Japanese government should end its attempt to list the Sado mines, keeping in mind that it could send the fragile relationship between Seoul and Tokyo into a tailspin. .
