Ignoring the History of Foreign Forced Labour at Japan's ‘Sites of the Meiji Industrial Revolution'

What is it about?

Controversy has engulfed Japan’s ‘Sites of the Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding, and Coal Mining’ since their UNESCO World Heritage inscription in 2015. During World War II, the most significant of these sites in Kyushu used thousands of Korean and Chinese forced laborers, along with thousands of Allied POWs as slave laborers. The Japanese government refused to fully acknowledge this history between 2015 and 2021 in its public historical displays, ignoring its 2015 agreement to do so and subsequent criticisms raised by South Korea and other affected nations. This chapter focuses on the sites most crucial to Japan’s development of heavy industry where forced and slave labour was used: the Gunkanjima and Miike coal mines; Nagasaki Shipbuilding complex; and Yahata Steel Works.

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Why is it important?

The chapter challenges the official Japanese government version of "Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution" that is World Heritage inscribed. It argues for a full history of these sites, including the role of workers over time and an accurate accounting for technological change. It also argues that Japan's failure to accurately present this history to the public by excluding the history of forced labor (Korean, but also Chinese and Allied POWs) has contributed to ongoing tensions between South Korea and Japan, and to trauma for many Koreans with family ties to former forced laborers.