By Kang Seung-woo
The confrontation between Korea and Japan is expanding, with Tokyo creating more buzz regarding its imperialist past and wartime aggression and Seoul standing firm against the rightist moves.
Unlike being limited to absurd remarks in the past, Japan and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are employing a strategy stretching into the area of culture.
The latest tilt is taking place at UNESCO, as a city of the island country is seeking to add suicide notes and letters written by kamikaze pilots during World War II to the institution's World Heritage list.
Approximately 4,000 kamikaze pilots carried out suicide attacks against U.S. naval vessels in the closing stages of WW II.
According to NHK, the Chiran Peace Museum in Minamikyushu has preserved 14,000 letters, farewell notes and poems written by pilots before they left from bases mainly in Kyushu, and submitted 330 to be included in the 2015 UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
Upon hearing the news, Korea voiced objections to the action, saying that the suicide attacks do not represent the outstanding universal value of World Heritage Sites.
Last month, Japan also disclosed its plan to seek recognition from the United Nations agency for its industrial facilities where Koreans were forced to work during the colonial period, from 1910 to 1945, as intangible cultural assets. That was countered by Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which in response pushed to enlist records of Japan's use of wartime sex slaves onto the UNESCO World Heritage list.
"The move is against the primary concept of the UNESCO list," Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, Tuesday.
Along with the UNESCO inclusion, Korea and Japan are also in conflict concerning "comfort woman" ― sex slaves forced into prostitution by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II ― as seen in the United States, where Japan is attempting to remove comfort women statues honoring Asian women and girls.
Last month, the two countries exchanged words about Korea's independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun's memorial hall, set up in China.
The Japanese government called Ahn a terrorist who had been sentenced to death for killing Japan's first Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, while Korea condemned Japan for being ignorant and anti-historic.
The strained ties between the two sides are expected to continue for the time being.
"The Japanese government seems not to want to change its stance in the short-term, so Korea's firm response is likely to follow," said a government official.
"We will seek countermeasures to deal with issues arising from Japan in various ways."
The confrontation between Korea and Japan is expanding, with Tokyo creating more buzz regarding its imperialist past and wartime aggression and Seoul standing firm against the rightist moves.
Unlike being limited to absurd remarks in the past, Japan and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are employing a strategy stretching into the area of culture.
The latest tilt is taking place at UNESCO, as a city of the island country is seeking to add suicide notes and letters written by kamikaze pilots during World War II to the institution's World Heritage list.
Approximately 4,000 kamikaze pilots carried out suicide attacks against U.S. naval vessels in the closing stages of WW II.
According to NHK, the Chiran Peace Museum in Minamikyushu has preserved 14,000 letters, farewell notes and poems written by pilots before they left from bases mainly in Kyushu, and submitted 330 to be included in the 2015 UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
Upon hearing the news, Korea voiced objections to the action, saying that the suicide attacks do not represent the outstanding universal value of World Heritage Sites.
Last month, Japan also disclosed its plan to seek recognition from the United Nations agency for its industrial facilities where Koreans were forced to work during the colonial period, from 1910 to 1945, as intangible cultural assets. That was countered by Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which in response pushed to enlist records of Japan's use of wartime sex slaves onto the UNESCO World Heritage list.
"The move is against the primary concept of the UNESCO list," Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, Tuesday.
Along with the UNESCO inclusion, Korea and Japan are also in conflict concerning "comfort woman" ― sex slaves forced into prostitution by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II ― as seen in the United States, where Japan is attempting to remove comfort women statues honoring Asian women and girls.
Last month, the two countries exchanged words about Korea's independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun's memorial hall, set up in China.
The Japanese government called Ahn a terrorist who had been sentenced to death for killing Japan's first Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, while Korea condemned Japan for being ignorant and anti-historic.
The strained ties between the two sides are expected to continue for the time being.
"The Japanese government seems not to want to change its stance in the short-term, so Korea's firm response is likely to follow," said a government official.
"We will seek countermeasures to deal with issues arising from Japan in various ways."
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