Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Japan’s Unesco bid omits history of slave labour, former POWs claim
Former US prisoners of war have expressed “serious reservations” about Tokyo’s application to have several industrial facilities recognised as World Heritage sites, saying many were used as “industrial prisons” for slave labourers in the Second World War.
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Japan’s Unesco bid omits history of slave labour, former POWs claim
Julian Ryall in Tokyo
30 June 2015
Former US prisoners of war have expressed “serious reservations” about Tokyo’s application to have several industrial facilities recognised as World Heritage sites, saying many were used as “industrial prisons” for slave labourers in the Second World War.
Japan has applied to Unesco, the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, to have 23 industrial sites across southern Japan granted World Heritage status, with the 39th session of the committee that approves requests opening in Bonn, Germany, yesterday.
The campaign has ignited fierce criticism among nations that felt the full force of Japan’s colonial years - notably South Korea and China - as well as from former POWs who were used as slave labourers in mines, shipyards, factories and foundries.
Jan Thompson, president of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, has written to the Paris headquarters of Unesco to express her concerns about the nomination of the “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Kyushu-Yamaguchi and Related Areas”.
In her letter, a copy of which has been seen by the South China Morning Post, Thompson writes: “I have serious reservations about whether the application meets the Unesco criteria of ‘universal value’ and meaning.”
“Japan’s use of Allied POW slave labour in its corporate metal and mineral mines is an essential part of POW history, and a central and long-term feature of the history of the nominated sites,” Thompson wrote.
“From late Meiji onward, Japan used forced convict labour in its extractive industries and created ‘industrial prisons’ to supply workers to factories and mills at private companies. The Japanese World Heritage nomination focuses on the history of Japan’s mining and steel industries, but completely omits the history of POW labour,” she added.
“As such, it violates Unesco’s mandate of ensuring that World Heritage sites have ‘outstanding universal value’.”
Thompson - whose father was in the US Navy and held at the Fukuoka 3B Camp and at Mukden - insists that her association “does not object to Japan highlighting its modern history”, but adds that “the story is incomplete without a full and complete history of the use of slave labour”.
Japan’s nomination fails to make any mention of the 11,876 POWs who worked at or near the nominated sites for companies such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Ube Industries and Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp.
Another company that put POWs to work was the Aso Group, which operated mines in Kyushu. Taro Aso, the serving deputy prime minister, was chairman of Aso Mining from 1973 to 1979, when he went into politics. His brother now heads the Aso Group.
Until 2009, Aso had refused to confirm that his company had employed slave labourers during the war. Evidence unearthed by opposition politicians in the archives of the Health and Welfare Ministry proved that 101 British, 197 Australian and two Dutch prisoners were held at the coal mine, along with several thousand Korean forced labourers.
Thompson’s letter points out nationals from six of the 21 nations on the Unesco World Heritage committee meeting in Bonn were held in Japan. As well as POWs from India, Malaysia, Jamaica, Finland, Poland and Portugal, there were thousands of Koreans who were used as conscripted labour during the war.
“It is our hope that Japan can be persuaded to amend its application to tell the full history of their industrialisation by including its history of POW labour,” Thompson wrote. “We believe this request is reasonable. It enriches the nomination by conveying the totality of the story, helping it transcend national boundaries, and highlighting its universal importance.
“After all,” she added, “the many visitors to the nominated World Heritage sites who will arrive at Fukuoka International Airport will land on runways originally levelled and constructed by British, American and Dutch prisoners of war.”
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