Japan should handle historical issues with an honest and responsible attitude, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday in response to Japan's failure to mention any forced labor on the Sado Island Gold Mines during World War II at its conservation document for the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
"The forced conscription and enslavement of laborers from China, the Korean Peninsula, and other Asian countries constituted a grave crime committed by the Japanese militarists during its period of external aggression and colonial rule," said Guo Jiakun, the spokesman, at a press conference in Beijing.
"Japan should face up to and reflect on its history, address historical issues with an honest and responsible attitude, and take concrete actions to win trust from its Asian neighbors and the rest of the international community," said the spokesman.
The Sado Island Gold Mines is a serial property located on Sado Island, some 35 kilometers west of the Niigata Prefecture coast in Japan. Thousands of Koreans were forced by Imperial Japan into heavy labor for the gold mine, which was turned into facilities to manufacture war-related materials during the WWII when the Korean Peninsula was under Japan's colonial rule, according to historians from South Korea.
The mine, shut down in 1989, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2024.
China urges Japan to handle historical issues with honest attitude
