A network of mines on a Japanese island notorious for wartime forced labour was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list on Saturday after South Korea withdrew its objections to the listing.
The Sado Gold and Silver Mine, now a popular tourist spot, is thought to have begun operations in the 12th century and continued production until after World War II.
Japan had argued for the site’s inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List, citing its long history and the artisanal mining techniques used there at a time when European mines were moving towards mechanisation.
When the proposal was first put forward, the South Korean government opposed it, citing the forced labor of Koreans during World War II, when Japan occupied the Korean peninsula.
UNESCO approved the inscription of the mine at a committee meeting in New Delhi on Saturday following an application for inscription that highlighted archaeological preservation of the mine’s “mining activities and social and labour organisation”.
“I wholeheartedly welcome the inscription and would like to express my sincere respect for the many years of hard work of the local people who have made this possible,” Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said in a statement.
The effort to get the site inscribed as a World Heritage Site has been in the works for many years, inspired by the inscription of a silver mine in the Shimane region of western Japan as a World Heritage Site.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it agreed to the inscription “on the condition that Japan faithfully implements the recommendations, reflects the ‘full history’ of the Sado Gold Mine, and takes positive steps to that end.”
Historians argue that the conditions of employment at the mines effectively amounted to forced labor, with Korean workers facing much worse conditions than their Japanese counterparts.
“Discrimination existed,” Asano Toyotomi, a professor of Japanese political history at Waseda University, told AFP in 2022.
“Their working conditions were very bad and dangerous. They were assigned the most dangerous jobs.”
Also added to the list on Saturday was Beijing Central Axis, a complex of former imperial palaces and gardens in the Chinese capital.
The UNESCO committee’s meeting continues until Wednesday.
Bar Tomo Guru/mtp
