Japan Institute for National Fundamentals

　　　　　The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recently inscribed the sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution on the World Cultural Heritage list. When the inscription was approved at a UNESCO committee, a Japanese ambassador said in an address that Korean workers were "forced to work under harsh conditions" at some of these industrial sites. South Korea had opposed the inscription, claiming internationally that Koreans were made to work in “forced labor” at these sites. Japan used vague expressions to compromise with South Korea on the inscription without making any fact-based rebuttal against the South Korean claim, indicating the long-lasting pattern of Japan's diplomatic defeat over historical disputes. As South Korea's international claim had been well anticipated, Japan's Foreign Ministry had been required to find facts regarding Japan's wartime mobilization of Korean workers and publicize the facts through easy-to-understand documents in English and other foreign languages.

South Korea's diplomatic war against Japan over history
　　　　　The South Korean government officially declared a war on history against Japan in 2005. Then South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun asserted he could not leave Japan attempting to justify its history of aggression and colonial rule and hold fast to hegemony. He then spent massive government funds on creating the East Asian History Foundation and launched diplomatic campaigns to criticize Japan over historical disputes across the world. South Korea still continues the anti-Japan campaigns.
　　　　　In the same year, then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi issued a statement to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, apologizing for Japan's aggression and colonial rule. But the Japanese government failed to consider that it should look into historical facts and create international public relations arrangements to publicize such facts from the viewpoint of defending Japan's national interests.
　　　　　With a strong sense of crisis, I authored a book that year titled “The Truth about the Japan-South Korea History Issues: Who have fabricated Coercive Recruitment of Koreans or Comfort Women Problem?”” I made the following points in the book:

Facts deviated far from forced labor
　　　　　(1) Between 1939 and 1945 when the National Mobilization Law was in effect in Japan, the number of Koreans in Japan increased by 1.2 million, reaching 2 million by the end of World War II. But the number of Korean workers mobilized under the law was 320,000, comprising 15% of the total Koreans in Japan and 25% of the increase. Others voluntarily chose to live in Japan.
　　　　　(2) Given the industrialization gap between the Korean Peninsula and Japan proper, and male labor shortages under the military draft system in Japan, there were many Koreans attempting to work in Japan, including those who illegally entered Japan. During the mobilization period, some 20,000 Koreans were arrested for their illegal entry into Japan and deported back to the peninsula. Among them were those who even disguised themselves as recruited workers to enter Japan.
　　　　　(3) The law attempted to mobilize Korean workers (through job offering, government arrangement and recruitment) for the military industry. But the attempt ended up in failure. During the “job offering” period between 1939 and 1941, the number of Koreans who came individually to Japan to take jobs was three times more than the number who were mobilized. During the “government arrangement” and “recruitment” periods between 1942 and 1945, 40% of mobilized Korean workers quit their arranged jobs and switched to better-paying jobs.
　　　　　(4) Working conditions for recruited Korean workers were not bad. A Korean worker at a factory in Hiroshima testified that he was paid 140 yen monthly and provided with a soft bed in a new boardinghouse room, enjoying a drinking party every night. Another worker escaped from a factory in Osaka and went to a Korean-run construction camp in Tokyo. Then, he got white rice, beef and unrefined sake even in the final days of the war in 1945 and immediately found a job paid 15 yen a day.
　　　　　Unless Japan looks into and sort out facts in preparation for any diplomatic war, it may continue to lose.

Tsutomu Nishioka is Planning Committee Member, Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, and Professor at Tokyo Christian University.