Hashima Island (端島; or simply Hashima, as -shima is a Japanese suffix for ‘island’), commonly called Gunkanjima (軍艦島; meaning ‘Battleship Island’), is an abandoned island off Nagasaki, lying about 15 kilometres (8 nautical miles) from the centre of the city. It is one of 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture. The island’s most notable features are its abandoned concrete buildings, undisturbed except by nature, and the surrounding seawall. While the island is a symbol of the rapid industrialisation of Japan, it is also a reminder of Japanese war crimes as a site of forced labour prior to and during World War II.
Immediately after the UNESCO WHC meeting, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida rejected the idea that Koreans were “forced labourers”, and claimed that they were instead “requisitioned against their will” to work.
Um, that’s what ‘forced labor’ is, ya dumb fart.
Good ol’ Japan, at it with the racism again.
