JAPAN PUSHING WITH IMPUNITY ITS INDUSTRIAL PARKS THAT SPURRED THE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF JAPAN BEFORE THE 20TH CENTURY–EVENTHOUGH MOST OF THE SAME INDUSTRIAL SITES HAVE BEEN USED AS FORCED LABOR CAMPS DURING WW2–AS UNESCO AND THE WORLD HERITAGE OF THE UN IT SEEMS IS NO LONGER INTERESTED IN THE HISTORY OF SUFFERING OF THE PEOPLE ENSLAVED FOR LABOR THAT SUPPORTED THE MILITARILY EMPIRICAL OF JAPAN

South Korea on Thursday condemned as “historic distortion” an effort by Japan to register 19th century industrial facilities as U.N. World Heritage sites, urging full disclosure of Japan’s use of Korean forced labor.

Japan’s move to list the 23 industrial sites, many of them coal mines, shipyards and steel mills dating back to 1850, in a UNESCO program, has stoked anger in South Korea as another attempt to gloss over Japan’s brutal colonial and wartime past.

“Space and time continue. Japan is unable to deny (forced labor) existed, so it is trying to avoid it,” a South Korean foreign ministry official told a small group of Western media.

“It can possibly turn into another case of historic distortion,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Japan’s bid, and South Korea’s objection, are likely to further fuel diplomatic tension between the Asian neighbors, centered on issues stemming from Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

South Korea’s ties with Japan have long been marred by what Seoul sees as Japanese leaders’ reluctance to atone for the country’s wartime past, including a full recognition of its role in forcing Korean women into prostitution at military brothels.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/s-korea-opposes-japans-bid-for-heritage-status-of-industrial-sites