A tour boat departs June 29 from Hashima Island, commonly known as Gunkanjima ('Battleship Island'), off the city of Nagasaki. The island is one of 23 old industrial facilities that gained UNESCO recognition as world heritage 'Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution,' meant to illustrate Japan's rapid transformation from a feudal farming society into an industrial power at the end of the 19th century. | AP

Government downplays forced labor concession in winning UNESCO listing for industrial sites

Japan has won UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Status for 23 industrial sites after conceding to South Korea’s demand that the registration make clear that some of the locations used forced laborers from the Korean Peninsula.

But in their official remarks and statements, Japanese officials avoided using the phrase kyosei rodo (forced labor), and instead used hatarakasareta (were forced to work), which is a more colloquial Japanese expression.

By using this phrase for the domestic audience, Japanese officials were apparently trying to dilute the impression that Tokyo bowed to pressure from South Korea.

Many former forced labors in South Korea have called for compensation from Japan, while the Japanese government has maintained all compensation issues have been settled with the 1965 Japan-South Korea Basic Treaty and an attached accord.

Tokyo had argued that the historical value of the industrial sites, built between 1850 and 1910, has little to do with the wartime recruitment of Korean laborers in the 1940s.

But in an apparent political compromise, at Sunday’s UNESCO committee meeting in Bonn, Germany, Japanese representative Kuni Sato acknowledged that some Koreans “were brought against their will and were forced to work under severe conditions” at some of the industrial sites.

Sato said a large number of people from the Korean Peninsula were forced to work at some of the facilities against their will during the 1940s.

In Tokyo, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters Monday that “this phrase (hatarakasareta ) does not mean kyosei rodo.”

Kan Kimura, a professor at Kobe University and a noted expert on Korean affairs, said in a phone interview with The Japan Times that the phrasing represents “a play on words.”

The use of a less official phrasing would likely be lost on diplomats at the UNESCO committee who would be reading it in English, Kimura said, adding that the Japanese officials probably chose the wording for the sake of their domestic audience.

According to Foreign Ministry officials, Japan has avoided using the phrase “forced labor” because it is the term employed in the 1930 Forced Labor Convention, which Japan ratified in 1932.

The convention bans “forced or compulsory labor.” However, work or services undertaken in an emergency, including during a war, is considered an exception.

A senior Foreign Ministry official claimed that Japan’s compulsory labor service fell within this category of exception and thus was not illegal under the convention. That was the reason Japanese officials preferred to use the phrase “forced to work,” the officials said.

During a news conference Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that Japan’s position on the compensation issues has not changed.

He also claimed that “high-level” South Korean officials had promised not to capitalize on the wording of Sato’s statement to push its claims for compensation issues involving Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule.

The UNESCO committee’s decision covered the “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution,” facilities in eight prefectures that are supposed to symbolize Japan’s rapid industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by adopting Western technologies.

“I am extremely happy that the roots of Japanese manufacturing have been listed as World Heritage,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, thanking companies and locals who have worked to preserve the sites.

Historical sites in South Korea, including the Gongsan-Seong Fortress of the Baekje Dynasty, will also be added to the list, the UNESCO committee decided.

South Korea had for years opposed Japan’s UNESCO bid, saying it overlooks the suffering of Koreans at seven of the sites, including a mine on Hashima Island, nicknamed “Battleship Island.”South Korea’s backing of Japan at the UNESCO meeting could boost momentum for a thaw in relations between the two neighbors. Their leaders last month exchanged visits to each other’s embassy on the 50th anniversary of the treaty that normalized diplomatic relations between the two nations.

In May, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, an expert advisory panel under UNESCO, recommended that the sites should be registered as World Cultural Heritage as witnesses to Japan’s rapid modernization.

At meeting June 21 of their foreign ministers, Japan and South Korea reached a basic agreement to cooperate on heritage listings of each other’s sites.

The UNESCO committee had been scheduled to decide on the new listings Saturday, but it postponed any decision to Sunday to give Japan and South Korea time to coordinate their positions.

The Japanese sites approved Sunday include some facilities that are still at least partly in operation, such as the Nagasaki shipyard.

Next year the committee will consider whether to add churches and other Christian locations in Nagasaki and Kumamoto prefectures. In the past two years, both Mount Fuji and the Tomioka Silk Mill in Gunma Prefecture were added to the list of World Heritage sites.

The council also asked Japan to report on measures to preserve Hashima and other deteriorating facilities by Dec. 1, 2017.

Historical tensions stemming from Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula have undermined ties between the two U.S. allies in recent years, weighing on their trade and strategic cooperation. South Korean President Park Geun-hye has refused to hold a bilateral summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe until Japan does more for Korean females forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers during the war. Some of the former “comfort women” are threatening to sue Abe in the U.S. if Japan and South Korea fail to reach a satisfactory deal for compensation.

Information from wire reports added

Rebane

Money is always decisive, you know.
- Maria25694
  
  If you are searching for extra cash on the side of about 50-300 dollars every day for freelancing from comfort of your home for 3-4 hrs every day then try this…
Oliver_K_Manuel

The UN was established on 24 Oct 1945 and has successfully prevented nuclear war for the past seventy years.
tisho

I wonder how much money Japan used for briberies and lobbying.
wrle

Why has kyodo not mentioned that the decision was finally settled when japan agreed to include “forced labor” into the description of the sites?
- Liars N. Fools
  
  There are rumors circulating that Abe himself was against any mention of forced labor, and so the Foreign Ministry bureaucrats had to scramble to stop the truth about forced labor being included.
  
  The whole truth about these sites includes the fact that arduous, some times inhumane, conditions prevailed in order to make the industrialization under Meiji — a truly historical development — occur. Most of the people who paid the price in blood, sweat, and tears were Japanese men, women, and even children. In later times “mobilized” labor from Korea and even POWs worked in some of these places.
  
  The whole truth…..that has always been the right answer.
  - Richard Solomon
    
    Capitalism all over the world depended on inhumane, if not dangerous, conditions for its workers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. People worked in mines, steel mills, textile factories, and sweatshops of various kinds for 6 days/70 or more hours a week. They died in accidents and/or from industrial pollution in large numbers until the labor movement began to get laws passed which stopped this kind of exploitation. It still goes on, however, in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, China, and in South
    America. How else do you think we get our clothes, electronic products, etc at such ‘reasonable prices?!?’
    
    It is not surprising but still unfortunate that such sites are ‘celebrated’ as historic without clearly noting this harmful aspect of their history.
  - Liars N. Fools
    
    I do not oppose Japan adding these sites. The transformation of Japan was truly historic, for better or worse. I just want a “whole history” approach to apply. I think that is consistent with what you are saying.
  - Kyle
    
    I agree as well.
Liars N. Fools

The Japanese right wing lost. Japan did what many people demanded, which was to tell the whole truth about these site.

This is from Yonhap:

“There was 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,” Japan’s ambassador to UNESCO Kuni Sato said at the annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee under way in the German city of Bonn.

Good win for truth. A good precedent for Abe Shinzo. Tell the whole truth. Then you will be wholly set free.
- johnniewhite
  
  I do not think so. Truth is being pushed back and the aggressive bully is getting their way. Japanese people are too soft and naive about diplomacy. They must learn lessons if they want to be treated fairly.
  - Bruce Chatwin
    
    Truth is being pushed back by Abe and the LDP and the aggressive bully is getting their way. Japanese people are too soft and naive about politics. They must learn lessons if they want to be treated fairly.
taitai

in the past,the Korean Empire and the Empire of Japan established a new unified political body together and created a new empire by equal merger of both Empires.Korean became First-class people in Japanese Empire.From the legal position,Korean and Japanese were equal.Korean men had eligibility for election in
Japanese islands and Korean formed their own Party and participateded in Japan’s governmental affairs.In addition,police officers inthe Korean Peninsula were almost Korean(the percentage of Korean police officers　were more than 80％).Under　ｔhis situation,How did Japanese forced Korean to bring to Japan or compulsory labor?If Japanese should do so,Japanese must to to Jail by the law.
- The Truth
  
  So do you accept 20% of the police officers in Japan today are CIA officers working for the US government?
- Kyle
  
  Nothing was created together between the Korean empire and the Empire of Japan. It was done by force, the Queen of Korea was murdered because she opposed Japan’s efforts to annex Korea. Moreover, the King of Korea had to take refuge and live for an extended period of time in the Russian Legation Building in Seoul, in fear of his life. King Gojong also sent a secret delegation to the League of Nations attempting to inform the international community that Korea did not willingly accept Japan’s suzerainty on the Korean peninsula. Does this sound like legal cooperative relations between Korea and Japan at the time? No, it was illegal colonization, that perpetuated cultural genocide on the Korean peninsula, in which any Korean who joined Japan was rewarded. But it is important to point out, they had to become Japanese. For example, speak Japanese, have Japanese names, etc.
- GGboyz
  
  Not sure where you got your information but I really suggest you read the proper history books. Everyone, be it Japanese or Koreans, deserves to know “right” history to ensure the people learn from the past and block them from repeating the same errors they made in the past. What Japan is doing now is really blocking a productive relationship with other countries around the region (versus the amount of admiration the Germans are getting). There are certain parts of history that Japan should be admired/acknowledged for, however, there were things done that were not “politically correct” in the past (which is true for most of the empires in the past). The part that is different versus the other “empires” is that the Japanese government is officially involved in manupilating and hiding some of those wrongdoings (i.e. getting involved in changing the contents in the history textbooks…), which is perceived as a threat to the neighboring countries since the younger generation is not fully aware of what happened in the past.
  Personally, I wish Japan would stand up and admit some of the there wrong-doings in the past and step up as a leader in Asia. That takes courage; every leader needs that courage to get the admiration to lead to productive relationships for the future.
  - Xman2014
    
    “Not sure where you got your information”.
    
    I’ll tell you where he got that information. He got it straight from Japanese history text books that they teach their kids over there.
  - Toolonggone
    
    That poster is spreading right-wing propaganda. Don’t take his/her words for it. It doesn’t make any sense.
- Pique Ewe
  
  First Class Citizens?
  
  Well, these so called First Class Citizens were outright ROBBED OF THEIR ANCESTRAL LANDS THEY HAD FOR MANY GENERATIONS by hook and by crook by the Japanese colonizers. These so called First Class Citizens had to give up their treasured sons for cannon fodder, and their daughters (some of them under the age of 15) for sexual slavery, not to mention “mobilized” labor. These First Class Citizens were outright TORTURED WITHIN AN INCH OF THEIR LIVES like my paternal grandfather of Gyeonggi, for daring to own a lot of land, and he was one of the handful of lucky ones who returned alive. These First Class Citizens were used as live bayonet targets for the military cadets, like Generalissimo Park Chung Hee, who sold his own people out, before and after The Forced Occupation and Genteel Mobilization.
  
  Stop making me laugh. And thanks for your Miura Goro, who came in the disguise of a diplomat (namely the Japanese Ambassador to Korea) and then had the cheek to rape and murder and mutilate the corpse of our august Empress Myeongsung, an enlightened monarch and a hero to shine for the ages.
  
  Go buy yourself a clue, please. And then go protest to your own government that CHOOSES to educate their children into such ignorance. You were victimized during WWII by your deluded, dishonest government, and are STILL victimized by its dishonest textbooks and disrespectful attitudes to your people’s intelligence. It really is an insult to intelligent, informed citizens around the world, including your own, and you do have some among you, I know. I feel sadness for an honorable people who do deserve better. Really you do. You are not a bad people, but keep getting duped by your own government.
  
  STAND UP FOR YOURSELVES, FOR ONCE.
  Arigato.
  
  Arigato.
151E

Many Japanese are tired of repeatedly apologising, but this kind of carefully crafted and deliberately ambiguous language – with one message intended for an international audience and quite another for the domestic one – only serves to undermine official Japanese war related apologies and allow distrust and resentment to fester.
Toolonggone

This is very much predictable if you let J-government officials have stakes on the national cultural heritage project. It’s like listening to G.W. Bush’s speech on Gorée Island(which is also listed as the UNESCO World Heritage Site)– a clear attempt to dilute the colonial discourse of Atlantic slave trade for the affirmation of civilization and cultural prosperity.
Ron NJ

Japan whitewashing history again, who would have guessed!
Mohamed Boussetta

The japanese right wing is not as strong as it seems in fact it’s weak they can fool the weak minded japanese but not the world so the outside world should put more pressure on Abe and his allies to stop whitewashing history and hiding the facts
Richard Solomon

Once again Japan admits to its historic misdeeds only under pressure and only in a very general sanitized kind of way! Rather than see this as an opportunity to come clean with S Korea and improve relations Abe, et al did their best to sustain their delusions of grandeur about a ‘beautiful Japan.’ Too bad the S a Koreans did not drive a harder bargain.
- Kyle
  
  They were worried about the backlash on the world stage and in Japan, particularly in light of the 50th anniversary of the normalization of relations. Indeed, there has been some positive signs lately. However, some of this “sanitized” expression of guilt is really dissapointing. One positive to take from this, Japan will have to create an information center at some of these sites to interpret the full history. There will be a measure of accountability as Japan will present the progress at the 2017 World Heritage convention.
Bruce Chatwin

With the USA not paying its dues at UNESCO, it appears that Japan now contributes the most to the UNESCO trough. A cynic might argue that this has something to do with the designation of these Japanese sites as World Heritage sites.
- Kyle
  
  It should be noted that the Korean delegation had support within the World Heritage Committee if they brought the issue to a vote. Therefore, if Korea preferred blocking Japan’s nomination, they probably could have. Instead, they made a compromise.
  
  Japan has a history of writing exceptional, highly detailed nomination dossiers. Many times the nomination files are over 1,000 pages. This is one reason, Japan is often successful in inscribing their world heritage nominations. I am also certain Japanese monetary contributions don’t hurt!
Kyle

Yes, you mention some improvements that came during the Japanese Colonial Period. This is a period from 1910 – 1945, though some would say by 1905 Japan controlled Korea fully (35-40 years). Japan which is a developed country by the late 19th century naturally brought elements of development to the Korean peninsula. This is true with most colonies. The British built railways in India, the Spanish built churches in the Americas that “educated” the indigenous population, and Japan built some of Korea’s earliest modern infrastructure. Yet, you assume Korea would never have done this by themselves? You also assume this helped Korea purposefully? I’ve been to Gunsan, an important port city created by Japan. It was used primarily to export rice from Korea to Japan, this was a Japanese operation, local Korean’s got next to nothing. In fact, 50% of Korea’s rice cultivation was exported to Japan in the 1930′s.

You promote the false proposition that the colonizer brought civilization, therefore they were “good” and “decent”. How mistaken, ignorant, and disgusting this notion truly is. Were the 500+ Native American tribes in North America unintelligent because they did not attend European schools? Moreover, you did not dispute that murder and coercion took place when Japan established their control over Korea. You also ignored the fact that Koreans were often forced to bow at Shinto Shrines daily, that schools were no longer allowed to teach in Korean for much of the Colonial Period. By the way, the only reason Japan allowed newspapers to publish in Korean is that the majority of Koreans at the time could not read Chinese characters!

Japan is not particularly worse or better than many colonial nations, some of them were a great deal less cruel, but the colonization of Korea was a crime, it was illegal, and it almost destroyed Korean language and culture. Go to the Tokyo National Museum and ask a docent how many Korean artifacts they have, not on display, but in the archives.

You are incredibly hypocritical. You use various facts to justify Japan’s Colonial rule of Korea. You mentioned George Akita, here is a quote from him that I think you should take to heart. “I have no desire to “justify (Japan’s) history of invasion and occupation,” let alone “its intention to realize its hegemonism again,” as Korean President Roh Moo Hyun put it in an address to his nation last March 23.” Akita quotes Roh at the start of his essay. He also quotes Jung Suk Koo, who asserted that the Japanese fail to understand “the deep scar that the country suffered over the 36-year-long colonial rule.” – Japan Times

If you wish for me to keep educating you, feel free to keep posting. My services are of no charge, vanquishing ignorance is reward enough.
- taitai
  
  What you are writing is not logical and not true eigher so I completely fed up with you.First.After the annexation of Korea by Japan ,All Korean became First Class citizens so Korean had proprietary rights　in a position of equal Japanese so It was impossible that Japanese robbed the profits of Korean Japanese bought Rice produced by Korean for a mere trifle is illigal at that time.
  In Korea where no modern state system was established, the ownership system for land was not clear, and thus yangban （traditional ruling class or nobles of dynastic Korea during the Joseon Dynasty） often grabbed land with violence and peasants kept fighting over the land.
  On the other hand, researchers such as Lee Yong-hoon of the Seoul National University say that the ‘land requisition by Empire of Japan’ taught in South Korea is a myth, and the Korean land incorporated by Japan was only 10% from the viewpoint of objective figure.
  
  According to Japan Department of Agriculture at that day,In 1905,Even southern Korean Peninsula which had high agronomic performance,could produced only 162 liters but After Japan’s annexation of Korea, the Chosen Sokan-fu succeeded the increase of rice production in Korea to approximately 30,00 0 million liters.Those facts are clearly written in JAPAN IN KOREA ”written by George Akita,You should read it.
  - Toolonggone
    
    >What you are writing is not logical and not true eigher so I completely fed up with you.
    
    Translation: “I’m not gonna follow your argument because I don’t like it.”
    
    That’s what your first statement suggests.
  - Kyle
    
    Once again you ignore all the facts that destroy your flimsy argument. I have acknowledged Japan rapidly improved and built the first real modern infrastructure on the Korean peninsula. This fact does not give Japan the right to occupy and run the affairs of the Korean state for 40 years.
    
    You also propose Japan’s actions equally benefited Japanese and Korean citizens, this is completely false. Sure there were a couple Japanese believers that truly thought they were helping Korea, but the reality was the colonization of the Korean peninsula was exploitation. In almost every way, Japanese citizens in the Korean Peninsula occupied a higher status than the average Korean person. Moreover, the Koreans who most quickly realized that the power in Korea was Japan, cooperation was the logical choice to improve their status. Therefore, this is why there is both deep resistance during the colonial period, but also quite a lot of cooperation with the Japanese. For example, Korean men in the Japanese military voluntarily.
    
    I am not arguing the Yangban were benevolent landlords, some were, most were not. I am not arguing Japan did nothing positive al all on the Korean peninsula. Simply put, Japan as a colonizer illegally occupied another country, and ran their state affairs for about 40 years. In so doing, they benefited the most economically, while most Koreans were quickly shoved into the modern world, their language and culture were nearly extinguished. This is a fact of history, there is very little argument in this regard, even amongst some of the historians you cite.
    
    It is surprising, and downright mind-boggling that you think because Japan introduced more modern infrastructure to the Korean peninsula, that makes everything perfectly ok? In your logic (even in 2015), the United States, Japan, Russia (or whichever country) would be in their rights to invade and occupy another country for 40 years as long as they made improvements to their infrastructure and economy? They could even murder some of their leaders, set up stations for forced sexual slavery during wartime, ban their language, practice forced labor, change family names, and transport unique and important cultural treasure to their own country. This would be all fine and good, if the colonizer made improvements to the countries infrastructure and economy? If you say yes, you are a complete ignoramus.
  - Forest2014
    
    Kyle, You kept calling taitai ignorant. Skipping all the details,
    how come so many refugees tried to escape to Japan before/during(/even after) Korean War if Japanese and their ruling were such terrible. Were they still to claiming over their language , their culture even after Japan accepted to settle in Japan?
    
    Whatever you talked, sounds too naiive and unrealistic, and taitai is right, looks biased.
    
    I mean, in survival, I would nt care my nationality, what I speak, I wear, cultural habit, especially if it is after knowing how miserable being exploited, abused by handful privileged class, living day-to-day from hand to mouth.
    
    Aren’t you able to say so because you in modern S.Korea are not like them, just guessing how things were like 100 years ago? Well, it would be good sample to judge if anyone can ask how normal citizen of north korea now really thinks.
    
    One thing, please define illegality of Japan’s annexation in relation to the international law and the names of legal experts (non-korean international legal experts) who confirmed it was illegal(except korean propagand, Alexis Dudden please)
  - Kyle
    
    After nearly 40 years of colonial rule, you can imagine there was a lot of Koreans that become part of the Japanese regime. Meaning, there children know only Japanese, they had sons in the Japanese army, or they benifited from cooperating with Japanese officials and or businesses. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense that there would be many Koreans who left for Japan.
    
    The illegality of the annexation of Korea is that it was done by force, indeed King Gojong felt his life was threatened and took refuge in the Russian legation. Documents were even forged. This however, was not very different than US treaties with native americans or British treaties with its colonies. In a modern context it is without a doubt illegal. If you prefer to follow the common law practices of 19th century Colonizers that’s your perogitive.
    
    I have no interest in making imperial Japan out to be this hellish country, worse than other Colonizers. What I will defend against however, is the statements that attempt to justify Japan’s action, without any acknowledgement of guilt or responsibility for wrongdoing. Korea is not without fault, because it has not helped foster an atmosphere of reconciliation, but instead trying to force sincere apologetic acts. Yet. Taitai and his ilk only provide warped and deluded statements that are far more than naive, but ignorant in the extreme.
  - Bruce Chatwin
    
    Brandon Palmer, co-author with George Akita of “The Japanese Colonial Legacy in Korea: 1910-1945: A New Perspective”, accepted the 2014 Japan Study Encouragement Award from the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals. Palmer’s co-author, George Akita, sat on the board recommending the 2014 award. Henry Scott Stokes also sat on the board. The board recommending the 2015 award included Akita, Stokes, Palmer, and Kevin Doak. The right-wing, revisionist Japan Institute for National Fundamentals is chaired by Yoshiko Sakurai and Shinataro Ishihara is a director. Many of the board members are also members of the right-wing, revisionist organisation Nippon Kaigi.
    
    Kevin Doak, who writes the forward to Akita and Palmer’s book, is also the winner of a prize awarded by the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals. Doak’s chair at Georgetown is paid for by the Nippon Foundation which traces its history back to self-declared fascist Ryoichi Sasakawa’s Sasakawa Foundation.
Kyle

I say congratulations to Japan (and Korea) for another World Heritage site inscription, thank you to the Korea delegation for taking the high road and making an acceptable compromise. Lastly, an acknowledgment that the Japanese delegation at the world heritage conference admitted more, (ambiguous language or not) concerning the forced labor issue than any Japanese politicians ever has.
龍誉紫暮

Force labour, what like the Africans kidnapped from their homes shipped off to the U.S. force to work as slaves, beaten, raped or murdered… Try looking at the human violations by whites before attacking Japan, racist fools.
- Kyle
  
  Research the African Burial Grounds National Monument.
  
  Research The Fredrick Douglas National Historic Site.
  
  Research the Booker T Washington National Monument.
  
  Research Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument.
  
  There are literally tens of thousands of books about Slavery in the United States, there are dozens of Nationally designated sites committed to educating the public and future generations of the dark periods in US History.
  
  While I personally feel there is plenty of room for improvement, and there are still so many stories to tell and learn from; you might want to ask yourself now: What is the difference in regards to Japan’s dark period of history? How is it told? Where in Japan can you learn it?
Bruce Chatwin

Brandon Palmer, co-author with George Akita of “The Japanese Colonial Legacy in Korea: 1910-1945: A New Perspective”, accepted the 2014 Japan Study Encouragement Award from the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals. Palmer’s co-author, George Akita, sat on the board recommending the 2014 award. Henry Scott Stokes also sat on the board. The board recommending the 2015 award included Akita, Stokes, Palmer, and Kevin Doak. The right-wing, revisionist Japan Institute for National Fundamentals is chaired by Yoshiko Sakurai and Shinataro Ishihara is a director. Many of the board members are also members of the right-wing, revisionist organisation Nippon Kaigi.

Kevin Doak, who writes the forward to Akita and Palmer’s book, is also the winner of a prize awarded by the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals. Doak’s chair at Georgetown is paid for by the Nippon Foundation which traces its history back to self-declared fascist Ryoichi Sasakawa’s Sasakawa Foundation.

I believe that Rhee Yong-hoon is a professor emeritus of at Seoul National University. Funny that you should make that distinction with regard to Akita but not Lee.

BTW, nice cut and paste from the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals website.

Here’s another quote from Alleyne Ireland, the scholar you and Yoshiko Sakurai like to quote so much: “The measures taken (by the Japanese) to stamp out the (Korean) Independence Movement of 1919, stupid, cruel, and unjustifiable as some of them undoubtedly were, accomplished their purpose.”
You mention Saito’s time as Governor General of Korea, but fail to mention anything about the two Governors that came before him or the seven who came after. How about Kuniaki Koiso?
- taitai
  
  Please don’t cut and paste a tiny part of Alleyne Ireland’s book “The new Korea”without reading throughout Alleyne Ireland’s book.Ireland emphasizes that the land reform implemented by the Japanese was aimed at helping poor tenant farmers, noting: “I have formed the opinion that Korea today is infinitely better governed than it ever was under its own native rulers, that it is better governed than most self-governing countries … (the government-general) having in view as well the cultural and economic development of the people as the technique of administration.”
  - Bruce Chatwin
    
    “Please don’t cut and paste a tiny part of Alleyne Ireland’s book”
    
    Then you respond with a cut and paste a tiny part of Alleyne Ireland’s book. What’s up with that?
    
    No comment on who pay Akita’s bills?
    
    No comment on Rhee?
    
    No comment on the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals?
    
    No comment on the “stupid, cruel, and unjustifiable” actions taken by the Japanese in Korea?
    
    No comment on Kuniaki Koiso?
Bruce Chatwin

Are you claiming that the Kempeitai did not terrorize the Korean population after Saito, as you claim, abolished the organization (which is frequently compared to the Gestapo)?
tisho

Then it all makes sense. They don’t want to lose their biggest donor.

TOKYO (12 a.m.)

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Government downplays forced labor concession in winning UNESCO listing for industrial sites

by Reiji Yoshida

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