Lesson of One-day Delay

The winning point was reduced from three to one in the last moment. It is not about World Cup Soccer, but diplomacy over cultural heritage. United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization decided to register “the remains of industrial revolution in Japan in Meiji era” to World Cultural Heritage on Sunday. Defending against the argument from South Korea that the facilities had been places for forced labor of the Koreans, Japan made a compromise to approve that inconvenient fact related to the remains. Diplomacy based on domestic complacency was dismissed again in the international society.

Japanese students learn in history class that industrial progress in Meiji era was a symbol of getting rid of its old feudalism and made foundation of modern Japan as a developed country in Asia. Japanese government recommended twenty-three industrial facilities, including Mitsubishi Shipyard in Nagasaki or government own ironworks in Kitakyushu, for World Cultural Heritages two years ago.

Soon after a consultation committee of UNESCO recommended those facilities for World Heritage in this May, South Korea opposed the candidacy, raising the negative history of forced labor. After competitive lobbying both by Japan and South Korea, World Heritage Committee of UNESCO postponed the decision of registration from Saturday to Sunday, urging concrete agreement between those disputers.

The reason why Japan was reluctant to admit the forced labor was simple. Japanese government thought that the Koreans would raise further demands of compensation for human trafficking from Korean Peninsula, once Japan accept the argument of South Korea. Japanese bureaucrats can only recognize things through benefits and losses of money.

With calculation of negative impact on historical dispute between the two nations, Japan decided to accept Korean argument. Japanese delegation released a statement to make clear the history that many people in Korean Peninsula was send to Japan against their will and forced hard labor under deteriorated environment in some facilities. It was a promise to abide by a recommendation from UNESCO that Japan would need to make an effort to explain the whole history of the old facilities.

Once a Japanese Prime Minister revision history of international relations as he likes, every nation can do the same thing. Undermining international mutual understanding, like questioning the facts on comfort women, may cause backlashes from international society, which may lead to another defeat. It is important for the Japanese in being proud of its own history to consider its impact on the others.