A tunnel in Sado Mine on an island off Niigata Prefecture. Japan intends to have the mine listed as a World Heritage site. / Courtesy of Northeast Asian History Foundation (Kang Dong-jin)

The dispute between Korea and Japan over Tokyo’s attempt to add a wartime forced labor-related mine to the UNESCO World Heritage list can only be resolved when the two nations show respect for each other, according to Nam Sang-gu, director-general of the Northeast Asian History Foundation. 

In this regard, Nam urges Japan to understand why Korea is concerned over the potential distortion of the mine’s history in the course of its World Heritage listing. 

Last December, Tokyo announced that it wanted to list the former gold mine on Sado Island as a World Heritage site. This increased tensions between the two countries over the issue of forced labor during World War II. Imperial Japan was in control of Korea from 1910 to 1945, and more than a thousand Koreans were involuntarily conscripted to work in Sado Mine in the years just before Japan’s surrender.

“The entire dispute arises from focusing on different parts of history,” Nam said. 

According to the historian, gold was mined on Sado from the 1600s until it was shut down in 1989. A large amount of the gold was dug manually during the Edo period (1603-1867), and since this was a very rare feat from a world historical point of view, Japan is trying to have the mine recognized as a World Heritage site. 

However, from 1939, Japan began to mobilize Koreans to dig gold and other minerals needed to fuel its war machine – “forcibly” according to Korea, and “voluntarily” according to Japan. 

To avoid this controversy, Japan is moving to nominate only the mine’s Edo period history for World Heritage review, excluding the controversial World War II years. 

“At least 1,200 Koreans were forced to work in the mine, so Korea says that part of history should be included, but Japan seeks to show only the period before the 1868 Meiji Industrial Revolution, saying the [Edo period] gold mining was meaningful regardless of the alleged forced labor of Koreans,” Nam said. 

“Such a large amount of gold mining means Japan had highly skilled workers, which is a proud historical fact. However, showing only the splendid part of the entire history of the mine may cover up the part of Koreans being forced to labor there from 1939 to 1945. That’s why Korea is bringing up the issue.” 

Northeast Asian History Foundation Director-General Nam Sang-gu discusses Sado Mine, a proposed World Heritage site in Japan. 

Japan claims that there was no “forced” labor; the Koreans voluntarily came to make money. 

In the chronology uncovered by Nam, Japan began recruiting volunteers in 1938. From 1939, the Japanese Government General of Korea received applications from companies that needed labor and helped recruit workers in designated numbers from specific regions. In the Sado Mine’s case, mostly people from Korea’s central Chungcheong provinces were recruited. But starting in September 1944 – after quotas could not be filled – Japan forcibly conscripted Korean laborers. 

According to Nam, written evidence of forced labor exists in addition to statements from Koreans who testified that while working on Sado they had been poorly fed and beaten. 

He cited a 1944 report in which an inspector from the Japanese government wrote that candidate workers in Korea who had been informed that they would be sent to a mine had chosen to run away and hide. Consequently, actions akin to kidnapping were taking place with recruiters breaking into Korean homes at night or yanking people out of fields. 

“This shows there was forced labor even before the conscription started in September 1944,” Nam said. 

Another reason Koreans are apprehensive is Japan’s earlier stance on Hashima Island: The mine on Hashima (better known as “Battleship Island”) is one of the 23 Meiji Industrial Revolution sites that were listed as World Heritage in 2015. Korea contends that 500-800 Koreans were forced to work there between 1943 and 1945 and that 122 of them died as a result. 

Japan promised to take steps to show the full history of the site after Korea and other Asian nations protested the move to list Hashima Island despite the wartime forced labor issue. Even though UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee expressed “strong regret” over Japan’s reluctance to cover the entire history of the site in July 2021, Japan has yet to follow directives, opting instead to continue to distort history in exhibitions about that site. 

“Japan made a promise in 2015 [regarding Hashima Island], but hasn’t kept it for the last seven years. So it is absurd [for them] to seek another World Heritage registration that is linked to wartime forced labor,” Nam said. “Given this situation where a promise has not been kept and no trust has been built, another listing will only bring additional conflict.” 

Nam pointed out that other nations with a history of invasion have clearly stated their dark history of forced labor, citing official German narratives at its Volklingen Ironworks and Mines of Rammelsberg sites. 

For future relations 

Relations between Korea and Japan have been at a low ebb in recent years, mainly from such historical and territorial disputes as wartime forced labor and sexual slavery as well as Korea’s Dokdo Island in the East Sea that the Japanese government also claims. The two countries’ leaders have tried to mend ties in the name of mutual development, but solutions that satisfy both sides have yet to be found. 

To solve the discord, Nam suggests the neighboring countries respect and understand each other based on objective facts. 

“Korea also acknowledges that the gold mining on Sado Island was unique and is thus meaningful world history. Korea is not saying it won’t recognize that fact because of the forced labor issue,” Nam said. 

He urged Japan to see the issues based on its own previously stated perception of history: “invasion and colonial rule was a wrong, unjustifiable act.”

That perception was reflected in a 1995 statement by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama: In it, the Japanese leader apologized and expressed remorse, particularly to those in Asian countries, for causing damage and suffering during the War and colonial rule. It was also in a 1998 joint statement from President Kim Dae-jung and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi – the then-leaders of Korea and Japan – in which the prime minister accepted and apologized for the historical fact that colonial rule had caused damage and pain to the Korean people. 

“Based on that perception, Japan needs to try harder to understand why Korea objects to the mine being listed as World Heritage, why Koreans raise the issue of forced labor. Then it has to try to give this facility a more objective historical understanding and clearer evaluation,” Nam said. 

“Focusing on a gold mine’s grand period will not erase its later history from memories. Recalling just the glorious portion of a historical record is not an appropriate way to remember a facility. Only when the full history is shown, can a facility be assessed objectively and properly.” 

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