Japan opens Industrial Heritage Information Center, but fails to keep its pledge to honor wartime labor victims

日 또 역사 왜곡...군함도 '강제동원 부인' 전시관 공개In a move expected to further strain already-sour relations between South Korea and Japan,... Tokyo has reneged on its pledge to honor the Korean victims of its wartime forced labor.Kim Hyo-sun reports.After months of delay due to the coronavirus outbreak,... Tokyo opens its Industrial Heritage Information Center on Monday.However, the Japanese government has failed to keep its promise to commemorate the Korean victims of wartime forced labor in the facility built with state funds to celebrate the country's industrial revolution.The information center showcases 23 sites of Tokyo's Meiji Industrial Revolution which were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2015,... including the notorious Hashima Island, also known as Battleship Island,... where many Koreans were forced to work during Japan's colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.When South Korea opposed the UNESCO designation,... Japan vowed to take steps to remember the victims.The reality, however, is starkly different.A private organization which runs the information center is one that has long stressed that there was no forced labor."I have never heard of brutalities on the Hashima Island during the war."The facility only exhibits Tokyo's industrial accomplishments.It also plays video clips of testimonies from some 30 residents that there was no forced labor or discrimination against Koreans.Documents on the conscription of Korean workers are displayed side-by-side with documents on the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea,... reiterating Tokyo's stance that everything has been settled."Japan seems to be covering up history, showcasing it not only to its own citizens but also to foreigners as well."While Tokyo highlights the importance of dialogue to improve the strained ties between the two countries,... its distortion of history continues,.. only further souring bilateral relations between the two neighbors.Kim Hyo-sun, Arirang News.