Originally published on July 23, 2020.
This chapter recounts Koko Kato’s nearly two-hour discussion with Hideki Yano at the Industrial Heritage Information Centre.
Kato states that Yano had not yet visited Gunkanjima when he made his presentation in Germany in 2015 portraying the island as “Hell Island.”
The chapter also addresses the Japanese government’s response to campaigns opposing the World Heritage inscription and the international public-relations environment surrounding historical disputes.

2020-07-23
This chapter was originally published on July 23, 2020, continuing the discussion based on an article by Koko Kato, Managing Director of the National Congress of Industrial Heritage, published in the monthly magazine Hanada.
The preceding chapter addressed Kato’s criticism of an Asahi Shimbun article whose prominent use of a Gunkanjima photograph, she argued, created an impression different from the article’s actual account of the Takashima coal mine.
This chapter moves to Kato’s discussion with Hideki Yano at the Industrial Heritage Information Centre, the presence of an Asahi Shimbun reporter during that exchange, Yano’s visit to Gunkanjima only after its World Heritage inscription, and Japan’s response to international campaigns concerning the site.
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2020-07-23
While I was explaining to Mr. Yano that “Asahi’s reporting is wrong,” the Asahi reporter who had stayed close beside him—although at the time I did not know that he was an Asahi reporter—simply stood there listening in silence.
The following continues from the preceding chapter.
The Japanese Government’s Gentlemanly Pose
While I was explaining to Mr. Yano that “Asahi’s reporting is wrong,” the Asahi reporter who had stayed close beside him—although at the time I did not know that he was an Asahi reporter—simply stood there listening in silence.
In the end, I debated Mr. Yano for nearly two hours, but whenever I raised questions, he merely gave evasive answers, and we remained at an impasse.
It seemed to me that Mr. Yano was hiding something.
There was one other thing that surprised me when I spoke with Mr. Yano during his visit to the Centre.
Mr. Yano told me that he visited Gunkanjima for the first time only after it had been inscribed as a World Heritage site.
I discovered that when he was making his major presentation in Germany, he had never once set foot on Gunkanjima.
Former island resident Yoichi Nakamura confronted Mr. Yano and was unable to contain his emotions, saying, “So you were the one who did it?
It brings tears to my eyes.”
It is an extremely serious matter that the statements of someone who did not know the island at all implanted throughout the world the impression that “Gunkanjima was Hell Island” and helped create what came to be treated as an established view.
However, the Japanese government also bears responsibility.
At the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in 2015, South Korean civic groups virtually surrounded the venue with panels opposing the inscription and distributed pamphlets bearing English messages such as “A Stolen Country, Abducted People” and “Can Your Conscience Bear It?”
I assume officials from the Japanese Embassy in Germany also saw this, but I have never heard that they protested.
To put it bluntly, I think the Japanese government is far too concerned with maintaining a gentlemanly appearance.
Whenever South Korea disseminates something incorrect, Japan should protest immediately.
Otherwise, it cannot counter South Korea’s aggressive propaganda.
After returning from the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting, I contacted overseas PR companies one after another because I felt that we somehow had to counter South Korean propaganda.
But people at the PR companies all told me essentially the same thing.
“Taking on South Korea is difficult.
Most of the top positions at international PR companies in the Asia-Pacific region are occupied by people of Korean background.
And the South Korean government spends a considerable amount of money on historical issues.”
To be continued.