Records of Korean, Japanese outcast groups’ cooperation named UNESCO world heritage items

Records of Korean, Japanese outcast groups’ cooperation named UNESCO world heritage items. May. 26, 2016 07:18. by 도쿄=장원재특파원 peacechaos@donga.com.

Records of exchanges during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea between groups that fought against discriminations the two countries have been recognized in the UNESCO Memory of the World Regional Register for Asia and Pacific. The documents are exchanges between the Hyeongpyeongsa in Korea and the Suiheisha in Japan that advocated the abolition of discrimination against outcast groups at the bottom of each country’s society. The Hyeongpyeongsa was a social movement group founded in 1923 in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province to campaign for the abolition of discrimination against “baekjeong,” or butchers who were considered an “untouchable” outcast group of Korea. The Suiheisha was founded in 1922 in Japan to defend the interests of the former pariah caste of “burakumin.”

The two groups started their exchanges in 1924, sending congratulatory messages to their respective events. According to the records of the Suiheisha’s third meeting in March 1924, the Japanese group passed a proposal calling for contacting Korea’s Hyeongpyeongsa, whose motto was similar to that of the Suiheisha. The meeting also approved a proposal for supporting a movement for the abolition of discrimination against Koreans living in Japan. In 1923, the Japanese group made a resolution for seeking international solidarity among discriminated minorities. Exchanges with the Hyeongpyeongsa were made as part of the resolution.

The registered documents include five relics from the collection of the Suiheisha Museum in Nara Prefecture, Japan, such as a Suiheisha member’s diary recording the process of the group’s founding and an article from the group’s organ.

Moriyasu Toshiji, former director of the Suiheisha Museum who took the initiative in the registration of the documents, told the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun that while the South Korea-Japan relations are in a stalemate, remembering the history of cooperation between the two countries’ outcast groups could help calm down both sides.

The UNESCO Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific has been selecting regional Memory of the World registers since 1998. The regional registers are different from the Memory of the World heritages designated by the UNESCO International Advisory Committee.