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Demolition Men: The Unmaking of a Memorial Commemorating Wartime Forced Laborers in Gunma (Japan)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
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For almost two decades, Gunma Prefecture has been the site of an intense political struggle over the public representation of the history of wartime forced labor in Japan's public sphere. Following an initiative by a private group, and with the unanimous consent of the prefectural assembly, a memorial dedicated to Korean wartime laborers was set up in a prefectural park in the city of Takasaki in 2004. However, in 2014, the prefecture announced it would not extend permission to maintain the memorial—a decision confirmed by Japan's Supreme Court in June 2022. The debates in Gunma are illustrative of the rise of historical revisionism in twenty-first century Japan and the revisionist campaign to erase the term “forced labor” from Japan's public sphere. The decision taken by Gunma Prefecture in 2014 to ban the memorial was a milestone, not only in this campaign, but also because it triggered massive media interest and encouraged other prefectural administrations to launch similar campaigns of censorship in public spaces.
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1 “Chōsenjin Tsuitōhi. Saikōsai, Jōkoku Juri Sezu Gyakuten Haiso ga Kakunin,” Mainichi Shinbun, 18 June 2022.
2 See Sven Saaler, “Nationalism and History in Contemporary Japan,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 14, Issue 20, No.7 (15 October 2016) (Article ID 4966); Sven Saaler, “Heisei Historiography. Academic History and Public Commemoration in Japan, 1990-2020,” in Japan in the Heisei Era (1989-2019) Multidisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Noriko Murai, Jeff Kingston, and Tina Burrett (London and New York: Routledge, 2022).
3 See Sven Saaler, “Bad War or Good War? History and Politics in Post-war Japan,” in Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan, ed. Jeff Kingston (London and New York: Routledge, 2014); Sven Saaler, “Nationalism and History in Contemporary Japan,” in Asian Nationalisms Reconsidered, ed. Jeff Kingston (London and New York: Routledge).
4 Hatano Sumio, ‘Chōyōkō‘ Mondai to wa Nani ka: Chōsenjin Rōmudōin no Jittai to Nikkan Tairitsu (Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 2020), 66.
5 Tonomura Masaru, Chōsenjin Kyōsei Renkō (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2012), ii.
6 Hiromichi Moteki, “The US, not Japan, was the Aggressor,” Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact; Toshio Tamogami, “Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?”; for an analysis of these developments see Saaler, “Nationalism and History.”
7 Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has joined this campaign—despite the fact that the whitewashing of Japan's role in the war does nothing to improve the nation's international reputation. See Sven Saaler, “Japan's Soft Power and the ‘History Problem’,” in Remembrance—Responsibility—Reconciliation, ed. Lothar Wigger and Marie Dirnberger (Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer / J.B. Metzler, 2022).
8 This section mainly draws on Tonomura, Chōsenjin; and Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘.
9 In the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), for example, between four and ten million people were recruited during the war as rōmusha—conscript labor during the Japanese occupation (1942-1945) – a term still used in Indonesia today. Mass conscription in the archipelago resulted in millions of deaths—Indonesia ranks among the East Asian nations having the highest death tolls during the war. This figure includes workers who died due to harsh labor conditions, disease, and starvation—caused by the Japanese re-allocation of the labor force from food cultivation to activities such as mining, and forced rice deliveries to feed the occupying forces. See Paul H. Kratoska, Asian Labor in the Wartime Japanese Empire: Unknown Histories (New York: Routledge, 2005); Shigeru Sato, War, Nationalism and Peasants: Java Under the Japanese Occupation. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1996.
10 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 110, 228.
11 Quoted in Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 44.
12 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, ch. 1.
13 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, ch. 1; Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, 50. The original plan can be accessed in the online archive JACAR under the reference number A03023603200: Naikaku Shoki Kanchō, ed., Shōwa Jūyon-nendo Rōmu Dōin Jishi Keikaku Kōryō Ni-kan Suru-ken, 1939.
14 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 58-60.
15 Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, 50.
16 Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, 53-56; Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 112-116.
17 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 94f.
18 On the forced recruitment of comfort women and related questions of definition, see Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “Japan's ‘Comfort Women’: It's Time for the Truth (in the Ordinary, Everyday Sense of the Word),” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 5, Issue 3 (1 March 2007) (Article ID 2373).
19 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 146.
20 Unno Fukuju, “Chōsen no Rōmu Dōin,” in Kindai Nihon to Shokuminchi. Bōchō Suru Teikoku no Jin-ryū 5, ed. Ōe Shinobu et al. (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1993), 117-122; Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 209-211; Tonomura estimates that at least 700,000 Koreans were recruited for relocation to Japan through government-approved avenues of labor recruitment.
21 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 3f; 178.
22 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 179.
23 Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, 68.
24 Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, 70-75.
25 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 97f; 102.
26 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 100-105.
27 Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, 59.
28 Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, 59f; Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 209f.
29 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 63, 65.
30 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 181f, 221.
31 Rudolph J. Rummel, “Statistics of Japanese Democide. Estimates, Calculations, and Sources,” in Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900 (Charlottesville, Virginia: Center for National Security Law, School of Law, University of Virginia, 1997), available online.
32 On the dynamics of repatriation, see Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “Guarding the Borders of Japan: Occupation, Korean War and Frontier Controls,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 9, Issue 8, No. 3 (21 February 2011) (Article ID 3490); and Jonathan Bull and Steven Ivings, “Investigating the Ukishima-maru Incident in Occupied Japan: Survivor Testimonies and Related Documents,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 19, Issue 19, No. 2 (1 October 2021) (Article ID 5638).
33 Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, 90.
34 “No. 8471. Japan and Republic of Korea. Treaty on Basic Relations. Signed at Tokyo, on 22 June 1965,” registered 15 December 1966, United Nations Treaty Series Vol. 583 (New York: United Nations, 1968): 33-49.
35 “Agreement Between Japan and the Republic of Korea Concerning the Settlement of Problems in Regard to Property and Claims and Economic Cooperation,” Wikisource, last modified March 23, 2022.
36 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “Failure of the Republic of Korea to Comply with Obligations Regarding Arbitration under the Agreement on the Settlement of Problem Concerning Property and Claims and on Economic Co-operation Between Japan and the Republic of Korea (Statement by Foreign Minister Taro Kono),” press release (19 July 2019).
37 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “What Are the Facts Regarding Former Civilian Workers From the Korean Peninsula?,” fact sheet (19 November 2020). The Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued its own fact sheet, “FACTS REGARDING THE ISSUE OF FORCED LABOR.”
38 Tonomura, Chōsenjin, 213.
39 Hyonhee Shin, “South Korea Court Dismisses Forced Labor Case Against Japanese Firms,” Reuters, 7 June 2021.
40 Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, iii.
41 Timothy Webster, “The Price of Settlement: World War II Reparations in China, Japan and Korea” New York University Journal of International Law and Politics (JILP), Vol. 51, No. 301, 2019.
42 See William Underwood, “Chinese Forced Labor, the Japanese Government and the Prospects for Redress,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 3, Issue 7 (6 July 2005) (Article ID 1693).
43 “Nishimatsu Lawsuit (Re World War II Forced Labour),” Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, 1 January 1998.
44 “Monument for Chinese Forced Laborers Unveiled in Hiroshima,” Deccan Herald, updated 3 May 2018; Takafumi Hatayama, “Relatives of Chinese Forced Laborers Visit Hiroshima to Attend Memorial Service,” The Chugoku Shimbun, 23 October 2013.
45 Ho-chul Sung, “Mitsubishi Built Memorial for Chinese Forced Labor Victims,” The Chosunilbo, 6 July 2022.
46 Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, iv.
47 Hatano, ‘Chōyōkō‘, 91f.
48 Totsuka Etsurō, “Japan's Colonization of Korea in Light of International Law,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 9, Issue 9, No. 1 (28 February 2011) (Article ID 3493).
49 On UNESCO World Heritage politics, see Christoph Brumann, The Best We Share: Nation, Culture and World-Making in the UNESCO World Heritage Arena (New York: Berghahn Books, 2021).
50 “World Heritage List Statistics,” UNESCO online.
51 “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution. Iron & Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining Inscribed on the World Heritage List,” Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.
52 See David Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
53 On the significance of castles in post-1868 Japan, see Oleg Benesch and Ran Zwigenberg, Japan's Castles: Citadels of Modernity in War and Peace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
54 See “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.”
55 Some commentators have noted that Yoshida should also be remembered as a pioneer of the ideology of foreign expansion; see Yasunori Takazane, “Should ‘Gunkanjima’ Be a World Heritage Site? – The Forgotten Scars of Korean Forced Labor,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 13, Issue 28, No. 1 (13 July 2015) (Article ID 4340).
56 See “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.”
57 Takazane, “‘Gunkanjima’.”
58 David Palmer, “Gunkanjima / Battleship Island, Nagasaki: World Heritage Historical Site or Urban Ruins Tourist Attraction?,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 16, Issue 1, no. 4 (1 January 2018) (Article ID 5102).
59 David Palmer, “Japan's World Heritage Miike Coal Mine – Where Prisoners-of-War Worked ‘Like Slaves’,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 19, Issue 13, No. 1 (1 July 2021) (Article ID 5605).
60 Nick Kapur, Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.
61 “Japan Heritage Exhibit Draws Ire from S. Korea on Labor Controversy,” Kyodo News, 15 June 2020.
62 “Japan Explanation of Korean Wartime Forced Labor Insufficient: UNESCO,” Kyodo News, 22 July 2021.
63 For details, see Nikolai Johnsen, “Katō Kōko's Meiji Industrial Revolution - Forgetting Forced Labor to Celebrate Japan's World Heritage Sites, Part 1”, The Asia Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 19, Issue 23, No. 1 (1 December 2021) (Article ID 5652); Nikolai Johnsen, “Katō Kōko's Meiji Industrial Revolution - Forgetting Forced Labor to Celebrate Japan's World Heritage Sites, Part 2,” The Asia Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 19, Issue 24, No. 5 (15 December 2021) (Article ID 5663).
64 See Nikolai Johnsen, “The Sado Gold Mine and Japan's ‘History War’ Versus the Memory of Korean Forced Laborers,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 20, Issue 5, No. 1 (1 March 2022) (Article ID 5686); Justin McCurry, “Japan and South Korea in Row Over Mines That Used Forced Labour,” The Guardian, 19 February 2020.
65 Asahi Shimbun, “Including Sado gold mine site on World Heritage List is ‘difficult’,” Asahi Shimbun, 28 July 2022.
66 Tsuitōhi o Mamoru Kai, ed., Keshisarareta Rekishi o Tadoru (Maebashi: Tsuitōhi o Mamoru Kai, 2018).
67 Founded in 1918 and becoming one of Japan's leading airplane manufacturers, after the war Nakajima merged with what later became automobile manufacturer Subaru.
68 Arakida Susumu, “Gunma no Mori ‘Kioku Hansei soshite Yūkō no Tsuitōhi’ Konryū no Kei'i (ge),” The Kakehashi, 9 February 2022.
69 Hazama-gumi Hyakunenshi Henshū Iinkai, ed., Hazama-gumi Hyakunenshi (Tokyo: Hazama, 1989-1991); see also Arakida, “Gunma no mori,” vol. 2. Hazama-gumi also employed “forcibly relocated” Koreans and Chinese on other construction sites, including Numanokura Power Plant in Fukushima Prefecture (ca. 1,000 Koreans and 712 Chinese), in railroad construction in Yokosuka (200 Koreans), Shinanogawa Hydrogen Plant in Niigata (over 700 Koreans), and an underground factory for Nakajima Aircraft (1,000 POWs from the Chinese Eighth Route Army and 1,000 Koreans from the “Patriotic Labor Corps”). Hazama-gumi hyakunenshi, 715, 720f, 731.
70 Hazama-gumi hyakunenshi, 721.
71 Kuni Sonshi Hensan Iinkai, ed., Kuni Sonshi (Kuni-mura: Kuni-mura, 1973), 691-693.
72 See Arakida, “Gunma no mori,” Vol. 2. The Gunma Prefectural History, published in the 1980s, does mention “conscript labor” (chōyōkō, vol. 8, p. 618) and volunteer school units (ibid.) who worked in war-related factories, but does not explicitly mention Korean forced labor. See Gunma Kenshi Hensan Iinkai-hen, ed., Gunma Tsūshihen 8. Kindai Gendai 2. Sangyō, Keizai (Maebashi: 1989).
73 Arakida Susumu, “Gunma no Mori ‘Kioku Hansei soshite Yūkō no Tsuitōhi’ Konryū no Kei'i (Jō),” The Kakehashi, 2 February 2022; see also Fujii Masaki, “Gunma no Mori Tsuitōhi Saiban no Kei'i to Kenpōteki Mondaiten,” Gunma Daigaku Shakai Jōhō Gakubu Kenkyū Ronshū 25 (March 2018): 130.
74 Donations from private citizens amounted to 5.7 million Yen, which paid for the monument itself and the cost of construction. Fujii, “Gunma no Mori,” 130.
75 Author's translation from the Japanese version of the text. For the first version of the inscription, which included the term “forced relocation,” and the full text in Japanese, see Arakida, “Gunma no Mori,” Vol. 1.
76 For more photos, see this blog.
77 “EVZ Foundation,” Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung, Zukunft (EVZ).
78 “Agenda for the Future,” Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung, Zukunft (EVZ).
79 “About Us,” NS Zwangsarbeit. Dokumentationszentrum.
80 On the other hand, Germany remains hesitant to address issues related to its colonialist past. See Max Fisher, “The Long Road Ahead for Colonial Reparations,” The New York Times, 27 August 2022.
81 Sankei Shinbun, “Lie Debunked: Historical Data Show No Forced Labor for Koreans,” Japan Forward 2 August 2017; Sankei Shinbun, “Forced Labor Propaganda: When You've Got No Historical Facts, Use Fake Graffiti,” Japan Forward, 4 August 2017.
82 See the campaign website: “Ganbare Nippon! Zenkoku Kōdō Iinkai” [Let's Go Japan! National Action Committee], Gunma-ken Shibu 2011.
83 “Gunma Kenritsu Kōen ‘Gunma no Mori’ Chōsenjin Kyōsei Renkō Giseisha Tsuitōhi Tekkyo no Ugoki,” Shinbun Akahata, 3 September 2014.
84 See the summary in Gunma Kenpō [Gunma Bulletin], no. 9155 (10 December 2013), 5.
85 Gunma Kenpō, no. 9155, 5. While the League of Nations did indeed recognize the status quo at the time of its foundation in 1919, it was obviously unable to “recognize” (shōdaku) the annexation of Korea in 1910.
86 Gunma Kenpō, no. 9155, 6.
87 Ibid., 9-13.
88 Ibid., 10.
89 Ibid., 10f.
90 See Masami Saito, Motokazu Nogawa, and Tadanori Hayakawa, “Dissecting The Wave of Books on Nippon Kaigi, the Rightwing Mass Movement that Threatens Japan's Future,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 16, Issue 19, No. 1 (1 October 2018) (Article ID 5201).
91 Mainichi Shinbun (Gunma edition), 20 August 2015, 23; Fujii, “Gunma no Mori,” 131.
92 Fujii, “Gunma no Mori,” 132.
93 For a detailed summary of the legal issues involved, see Fujii, “Gunma no Mori.”
94 Sven Saaler, Men in Metal. A Topography of Public Bronze Statuary in Modern Japan (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2020), ch. 3.
95 Mainichi Shinbun (Gunma edition), 15 February 2018, 27.
96 Arakida, “Gunma no Mori,” Vol. 1.
97 Arakida, “Gunma no Mori,” Vol. 1.
98 See Fujii, “Gunma no Mori.”
99 “Gunma no Chōsenjin Tsuitōhi, Genkokura ‘Tekkyo Ōjinai’ Saikōsai Kettei ni Kōgi,” Asahi Shinbun, 20 June 2022.
100 Fujii, “Gunma no Mori,” 132.
101 On Abe's role in the movement for historical revisionism, see Saaler, “Nationalism and History”; Saaler, “Nationalism and History”; Saaler, “Heisei Historiography”; Saaler, “Japan's Soft Power.”
102 See the minutes of the National Diet here.
103 Baba Nobuyuki, “Shitsumon Honbun Jōhō. ‘Kyōsei Unkō’ ‘Kyōsei Rōdō’ to Iu Hyōgen ni kan suru Shitsumon Chūisho,” The House of Representatives, Japan (16 April 2021).
104 Suga Yoshihide (Prime Minister), “Tōben Honbun Jōhō. Shūgiin Giin Baba Nobuyuki-kun Teishutsu ‘Kyōsei Unkō’ ‘Kyōsei Rōdō’ to Iu Hyōgen ni kan Suru Shitsumon ni taishi, Besshi Tōbensho o Sōfu Suru,” The House of Representatives, Japan (27 April 2021).
105 “Japan Times Says Editorial Policy Unchanged Despite Revised WWII Terms,” Kyodo News, 7 December 2018.
106 See “To Our Readers: Internal Review of ‘Comfort Women’ and ‘Wartime Labor’ Descriptions,” The Japan Times, 20 March 2020.
107 The early installments in the series were later published in book form: Sankei Shinbun-sha, ed., Rekishisen. Asahi Shinbun ga Sekai ni maita ‘Ianfu’ no Uso o Utsu (Tokyo: Sankei Shinbun Shuppan, 2014).
108 See Richard Evans, “Michael Gove's History Wars,” The Guardian, 13 July 2013.
109 Justin Aukema, SENSEKI: Memories, Narratives, and Ideologies at Japanese War Sites (Ph.D dissertation, Sophia University, 2020.
110 “Iizuka Shiei Reien no Shikichinai ‘Chōsen-jin Tsuitō-hi’ de ‘Kyōsei Renkō‘ nado to Hinan Fukuoka,” The Sankei News, 20 May 2014.
111 See, for example, “Heisei 28-nen dai-5kai. Iizuka-shi Gikai Kaigiroku dai-3go” (9 December 2016).
112 See Sven Saaler, Politics, Memory and Public Opinion (München: Iudicium, 2005).
113 Philip Seaton, “The Nationalist Assault on Japan's Local Peace Museums: The Conversion of Peace Osaka,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus, Vol. 13, Issue 30, No. 3 (27 July 2015) (Article ID 4348).
114 “Memorial for Korean Victims of 1923 Massacre Held Amid Koike Controversy,” The Mainichi, 2 September 2017.
115 For the case of the Aichi Triennale, see Philip Brasor, “Outrage over Aichi Triennale Exhibition Ignites Debate over Freedom of Expression in Art,” The Japan Times, 17 August 2019; and David McNeill, “Freedom Fighting: Nagoya's Censored Art Exhibition and the ‘Comfort Women’ Controversy,” The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Forum, Vol. 17, Issue 20, No. 3 (15 October 2019) (Article ID 5320).
116 “Bijutsu Hyōronkan Renmei, Shirakawa Yoshio Sakuhin no Shuppin Torikeshi de Gunma Kinbi ni Kōgi Seimei, Bijutsutechō, 2 June 2017.
117 Hatachi Kota, “Tekkyo Sareta ‘Chōsenjin Kyōsei Unkō Tsuitōhi’ Towareta Tenji no ‘Chūritsusei’ to wa,” BuzzFeed News, 26 May 2017.
118 Numbers of visitors to history-related museums, compiled by the author from museum websites, museum newsletters, local and prefectural bulletins, and information provided directly by museums.
119 See Dorothea Mladenova, “The Statue of Peace in Berlin: How the Nationalist Reading of Japan's Wartime ‘Comfort Women’ Backfired,” The Asia-Pacific Journal / Japan Focus Vol. 20, Issue 4 (15 February 2022) (Article ID 5683).
120 For the experience of New Orleans, which was one of the first cities to do so, see Jonathan Bachman, “New Orleans Removes Last of Four Statues Linked to Pro-Slavery Era,” Reuters, 19 May 2017.
121 Benoit Nyemba, “Belgian King Reiterates Regrets for Colonial Past in Congo but No Apology,” Reuters, 9 June 2022.
122 For Richard Evans' criticism of former Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, see Richard Evans, “The Demented Dalek: Michael Gove,” London Review of Books 41, no. 17 (12 September 2019); see also Richard Evans, “Short Cuts. Rewritten History,” London Review of Books 48, no. 23 (2 December 2021).
123 Cited in Morris-Suzuki, “Japan's ‘Comfort Women’.”
124 See Saaler, “Japan's Soft Power.”
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