By Mark Peterson
Professor emeritus at Brigham Young University

Not very often in life or in politics do you get a second chance, but Japan has one now. Sitting in front of Japan is the decision made on July 12 by the UNESCO World Heritage Sites Selection Committee that offers Japan a second chance to do the right thing.

When Japan applied for World Heritage status for its 23 sites from the Meiji Industrial Revolution including Hashima (Battleship) Island, it agreed on a provision to include in signage at the sites and in brochures and internet pages the facts that at many of these sites, particularly Hashima, Koreans were brought in against their will to work under slave-like conditions. The situation was particularly grievous during the war years of 1931-45.

In a recent meeting, the UNESCO committee wrote in its minutes and public announcements that Japan was expected to keep its word and include information on the use of forced labor at these sites. Japan agreed to do so in 2015, when the sites were officially selected and proclaimed, but did not keep its agreement. Shock! There was no mention of the exploitation of foreign laborers — mostly Koreans, Chinese and other captured prisoners of war who were used in the mines and factories.

Japan has a real problem. Certain Japanese government officials have used the phrase "to protect the image of Japan." The image of Japan -- we all know what that is. We know what they did in World War II. Starting with the attack on Pearl Harbor, to the invasions of China, Southeast Asia and islands in the Pacific, to the kidnapping of women to serve in state-run brothels, to the abuse of prisoners of war (POWs) including the Bataan Death March, to the use of POWs and others as forced laborers -- the list goes on and on. So we know what the image of Japan is. We also know how the country is trying to "beautify that image," unlike its wartime ally Germany, which has openly, honestly and repeatedly confessed its war crimes and has reaffirmed never to do so again. Not so for Japan.

Japan's abuse of Korea started long before World War II. From the 13th to the 16th centuries, Japanese pirates murdered and robbed their way along the coasts of Korea and China. The worst thing Japan did was invading Korea in 1592 with one of the largest armies on the planet in those days. After seven years of killing and plundering on the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese left two million to four million people dead; others were kidnapped and taken as slaves to Japan. The peninsula's economy was ruined and the land despoiled. Homes, buildings and anything that could burn were torched; the numbers of buildings that predate the Japanese invasion are so few, mainly several Buddhist temples in remote mountains.

And yet, the historical abuse of Korea by Japan does not end there. In 1895, when its war machine was just starting to rev up, Japan picked a war with China — but most of the fighting took place on Korean soil. Then in 1905, Japan picked a war with Russia, and most of the fighting was in Korean waters, and some on Korean soil. And before Japan took over Korea in 1910, the Japanese murdered Korean Empress Myeongseong on the grounds of Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul. On Oct. 8, 1885, a small group of Japanese assassins broke into the palace, killed the empress and desecrated her body. This was yet another Japanese offense against Korea.

Japan in 1910 forced an annexation treaty on Korea, and without much fanfare or forewarning, the Koreans were caught off guard with something totally unexpected. Gradually, anti-Japanese forces in Korea organized themselves despite the efforts of Japanese police and "thought police," who could arrest someone for "thinking" the wrong thing. Still, Korea held protests at both the national and international level against the Japanese with the death of the last deposed king through the March First Independence Movement of 1919. Again, Koreans who stood up to the Japanese were killed, arrested and tortured. One famous case was the Jeamni Massacre of April 15, 1919, in which a church housing 26 Koreans including children was set on fire by Japanese soldiers, killing all inside. A Japanese general at the time wrote in his journal that the incident would damage Japan's reputation if word got out, and the Japanese tried to cover it up. Again, the issue is Japan's image or reputation.

In 1923, one of the worst race riots occurred in Tokyo after the Great Kanto Earthquake. Japanese thought Koreans in Japan were guilty of looting and other crimes, so the murderous rampage that ensued resulted in the killing of about 6,000 Korean residents of Tokyo.

Then with the forced occupation of Korea by Japanese military and civilian forces came the exploitation of the Korean people and their land and farms. In the end, Koreans were left poverty stricken and hopeless. But they knew they could overcome Japan's oppression and eventually rebuilt their country from one of the poorest in the world after Japanese occupation and the subsequent Korean War to one of the richest today. Thus Korea succeeded despite repeated Japanese predations throughout history.

What does Japan hope to accomplish by hiding and trying to beautify its horrific history of invasions and murder of Koreans? The Japanese government and the more right-wing elements of the country are the only proponents of the myth of a good image of Japan. Many Japanese -- possibly the majority -- are ashamed of how their country treated Korea and want to own up to it. They are willing to abide by the decisions of the UNESCO committee to openly and honestly tell the truth of the exploitation of forced labor in mines and factories. But Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the more conservative elements of Japanese society refuse to retell the story with all its shameful details.

But Japan has a second chance — more like its 1,000th chance — to do the right thing. As far as the UNESCO committee is concerned, it's a very simple matter: Japan only needs to come clean that its early industrial sites benefited from the forced labor of Koreans and others. This is history that Japan is obviously trying to hide. Japan pledged to indicate historical facts when the industrial sites were accepted for the UNESCO list, but has failed to do so. Called on the carpet by the committee earlier this month for avoiding the obvious, Japan is now being asked again to be honest and do the right thing. Will they? Don’t bet more than lunch on this one.


Mark Peterson is professor emeritus at Brigham Young University, where he taught Korean studies for more than 30 years. Since retiring in 2018, he has run the YouTube channel "The Frog Outside the Well."