A Liar ends in a cliff
You’ve got no place to hide.
Now Keep Your Promises!
Refusing installation of exhibits on victims
History distortion on Koreans’ forced labor
Denying forced labor in Battleship Island
A recent UNESCO investigation has reconfirmed that Japan has in fact distorted the history of forced labor of Koreans on Hashima Island(a.k.a. Battleship Island), which was registered as a World Heritage site.
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre has published a report on its homepage of a decision that Japanese industrial facilities such as the Hashima island has distorted the history of forced labor.
This report pointed out that the facilities have not properly notified the fact that people including Koreans were forced into labor in the 1940s.
Above all, the World Heritage Committee sent a message of “great regret” that Japan has not taken proper action on commemorating the deceased, and especially that at first Japan did not keep its promises to inform the world of the history of forced labor by the Japanese Imperialist era.
In the past, the Japanese government has promised that it will display exhibits in 2015 that commemorate the forced laborers at the meiji industrial sites including the Hashima Island.
However, the heritage information center that opened in Shinjuku Tokyo in June 2020 did not display any testimony of victims and distorted history by only displaying Hashima residents’ testimonies that they have never seen ethnic discrimination nor forced labor.
VANK believes that now is an opportunity to inform the world of the reality of the Japanese government’s history distortion, which has been reconfirmed by UNESCO’s investigation that Japan has in fact distorted the history of forced labor of Koreans.
Therefore, VANK created posters in Korean and English that criticize the Japanese government’s repetitive lies towards the UNESCO and the international community of the truth of Hashima Island and the history of forced labor on Koreans.
The poster features Japanese government, wearing the Rising Sun Flag symbolizing Japanese Imperialism, running towards the verge of a cliff while being criticized by the international community as the Japanese government is “Refusing installation of exhibits on victims”, “History distortion on Koreans’ forced labor”, and “Denying forced labor in Battleship Island”.
The poster also includes phrases telling the Japanese government that there is no place to hide for a liar and the liar eventually ends in a cliff, so the Japanese government should keep its promises towards the international community.
The poster also describes a global petition that disclose Japanese government’s history distortion of Hashima Island to the global community.