On November 24, 2024, Japan held a memorial event at the Sado Gold Mines in Niigata, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to honor the workers who labored there. South Korean officials, who were invited, refused to attend. Instead, they held their own ceremony the next day to remember Koreans who were forced to work in the mines during Japan’s colonial rule.
“The Sado Gold Mines, added to the UNESCO World Heritage List on July 27, have become a point of contention over Japan’s colonial-era exploitation of Koreans.”
Critics accuse Japan of trying to downplay this history. Similar disputes arose in 2015 when Japan’s industrial sites, linked to forced labor, were also recognized as World Heritage under the name “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution.”
In both cases, “Japan has claimed that wartime history is unrelated to the cultural value of these sites.” While Japan promised UNESCO to provide a complete historical account, its portrayal excludes key facts about Korean workers forced into labor, avoiding acknowledgment of them as victims.
Diplomatic Sensitivities vs. Historical Accuracy
What’s especially concerning is “how both UNESCO and the current South Korean government seem willing to accept this rewriting of history,” overlooking the erasure of Korean victims to maintain better diplomatic ties.
When Japan’s Meiji industrial sites were added to the UNESCO list in 2015, “Japan initially promised to acknowledge the history of ‘a large number of Koreans and others’ who were ‘brought against their will and made to work in harsh conditions.’”
However, not long after, then-Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida minimized this promise, claiming that “‘forced to work’ was not the same as ‘forced labor.’” This argument relied on the idea that, as subjects of the Japanese Empire, Koreans could be legally required to work during the war under certain rules.
Historical Revisions: A Pattern of Denial
Since 2020, when an information center in Tokyo opened to educate the public about this history, “Japan has instead promoted a version of events that glosses over the truth.” It portrays Koreans and Japanese as working together peacefully, avoids mentioning “Koreans” directly, and instead refers to them as “workers from the Korean Peninsula.”
This subtle erasure dismisses Korean identity and echoes the colonial term “hantoujin” (peninsula people), used during colonial rule to deny Koreans their individuality. During that time, Koreans, as colonial subjects, were not granted the full rights of Japanese citizens—another overlooked truth.
The center also leaves out key evidence, such as “testimonies from Korean workers and Japanese supervisors, which describe how Koreans faced discrimination, physical abuse, forced extensions of work contracts, and hazardous conditions.”
The Sado Gold Mines: A Mirror of History
Japan’s handling of the Sado Gold Mines, where “at least 1,519 Koreans were forced to work under brutal conditions during World War II,” follows the same pattern. In its reports to UNESCO, Japan consistently uses the phrase “‘workers from the Korean Peninsula’ while avoiding acknowledgment of the forced nature of their labor.” It even claims the working environment was “‘non-discriminatory,’ ignoring well-documented historical facts.”
During the World Heritage listing ceremony, a Japanese representative stated that “an exhibition including Korean workers had been established and that annual memorials for ‘all workers’ at the mines would be held.” South Korea’s representative optimistically suggested this might ease concerns about Japan’s failure to recognize Korean experiences at the industrial sites listed in 2015.
However, the exhibition, titled The Life of Mine Workers, Including Those from the Korean Peninsula, avoids addressing the forced and inhumane conditions Korean laborers endured. By blending their experiences with those of Japanese workers, “it effectively denies the reality of foreign forced labor and the hardships faced by Korean victims.” Similarly, the memorial held on November 24 failed to acknowledge Korean forced labor.
Instead of serving as a moment of recognition, “the memorial risks solidifying a distorted narrative that suggests all workers at the mines endured similar struggles for Japan’s wartime efforts.”
Such misrepresentation is more damaging than not holding a memorial at all. It silences the victims and undermines the ongoing fight for truthful historical acknowledgment.
A Diplomatic Balancing Act
Japan’s continued refusal to acknowledge wartime forced labor has long hindered progress in its relationship with South Korea. However, the current South Korean government appears more focused on improving diplomatic ties than addressing historical injustices and the lingering effects of colonial rule.
In an effort to frame the Sado Gold Mines’ UNESCO inscription as a diplomatic success, “South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs even changed the phrase ‘all workers’ to ‘Korean workers’ in a summary of Japan’s official statement for the Korean public.”
This short-term strategy risks damaging South Korea-Japan relations in the future. With public support for the current South Korean government at record lows, any future administration may face pressure to reverse these decisions to regain trust.
A Global Call for Truth
As global attention increasingly shifts toward decolonization and inclusive storytelling, “UNESCO’s acceptance of Japan’s dismissal of Korean victims’ experiences is deeply concerning.” Although UNESCO urged Japan in 2021 to honor its promise to acknowledge the history of Korean and other forced laborers at the Meiji industrial sites, it has not taken action to enforce compliance or consider removing the sites’ World Heritage status.
Despite this unresolved issue, UNESCO approved the Sado Gold Mines’ inscription, “undermining its own credibility and supporting historical revisionism.” It could have delayed the designation until Japan addressed the historical erasure at previously recognized sites.
These events underline the importance of understanding East Asia’s modern history in a global context.
“If we aim to pursue decolonization, we must adopt a broader perspective that includes patterns of colonialism beyond Europe and the Americas.”
By highlighting various forms of imperialism and their lasting impacts, we can help people worldwide identify and confront the colonial injustices and exploitation still happening in many parts of the world today.
