Paper short abstract:

In this presentation, I examine the change in government perceptions of wartime forced labor. I will show that revisionist views have gained influence both on the national and the local level, leading to the revision of apologies and the demolition of memorials marking sites of wartime forced labor.

Paper long abstract:

During the Asia-Pacific War (1931-1945), Japan recruited millions of workers through various mechanisms of labor mobilization. To achieve its ultimate objective of victory in the war, the government reallocated laborers, moving them from one sector of the economy to others, and from one region to another. This policy of mobilization and reallocation affected the whole Empire, including the colonial territories. Due to the increasing number of Japanese men being drafted for military service in the last years of the war, an increasing number of women were mobilized to work in war-related factories, while workers from colonial and occupied territories were conscripted in growing numbers to be sent to Japan, where they were allocated to mines or construction sites.

In this presentation, I examine the change in postwar perceptions of wartime labor. I will show that revisionist views have gained influence both on the national and the local level.

Responding to inflammatory media campaigns, such as the launch of the column “History Wars” (rekishisen) by Sankei Shinbun in 2014, several Japanese municipalities have demolished memorials marking the sites of wartime forced labor. Defying academically established definitions, judicial rulings, previous government statements as well as the commonsensical usage of such terms, the national government has shifted its position to one of non-recognition of forced labor, arguing, for example, that “expressions such as ‘forced to work’ … do not mean ‘forced labor’.” (Foreign Minister Kishida, 2015)

However, subtle distinctions were made between the memorials dedicated to Chinese forced laborers and those dedicated to Koreans. As I will show in this presentation, relations with Korea massively deteriorated due to these changes in interpretations, but Sino-Japanese relations remained relatively unaffected.