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| Hashima Coal Mine off Nagasaki, also known as "Battleship Island" taken on Sept. 29, 2020. (Photo by= Kyodo) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] TOKYO - UNESCO's World Heritage Committee on Thursday adopted a resolution stating that Japan has failed to provide a sufficient explanation regarding the Korean victims of wartime forced labor at a Tokyo information center on industrial locations listed as World Cultural Heritage sites, Kyodo reported. The adoption of the resolution came during a virtual session of the committee that started on Friday.
The resolution concerned the exhibition at the Industrial Heritage Information Center on Koreans who were forced to work in the Hashima Coal Mine off Nagasaki, one of the 23 registered sites. The center featuring the locations grouped as Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution opened in Tokyo in 2020 with the support of the Japanese government, based on recommendations made by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization since 2015, when the sites were inscribed on the World Heritage list.
In the resolution, the committee said it had inspected the center in June and found it did not have sufficient exhibits to inform visitors about the Korean victims of wartime forced labor. The committee also urged Japan to improve the exhibits so that visitors understand that a number of Koreans were forced to engage in hard labor in the Hashima Coal Mine, also known as "Battleship Island," against their will.
