Subverting and Reinforcing the Heritage Discourse of Japan's Battleship Island: Two Museums' Engagement with Fu No Isan, Identity, and Memory

During the Asia-Pacific War (1937-1945), the Japanese empire forcibly enlisted Korean laborers to support its ambitious mobilization. Most labored in coal mines and heavy industries such as shipbuilding, and the hostile conditions, ranging from extreme weather to beatings, led to injuries, disease, and death. This tumultuous history resonates deeply within recent international debates about Japan's push for internationally recognized heritage sites. In 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated a collection of twenty-three industrial heritage locations across Japan as World Heritage Sites. One site in particular, Hashima—popularly known as Gunkanjima (“Battleship Island”)—in Nagasaki, often stands at the forefront of the controversies surrounding the inscribed sites. This poster provides a comparative analysis of two organizations—the Nagasaki Museum for Human Rights and Peace and the Gunkanjima Digital Museum—and their positions within the larger debates on Korean forced labor at the iconic “Battleship Island.” The Nagasaki Human Rights Museum, a private, non-profit institution run without government or corporate aid, focuses on the intersection of Japan's war responsibility and Nagasaki's heritage sites, while the Digital Museum, being part of the Japanese government's official interpretation plan with UNESCO, centers around Hashima's value as a World Heritage Site.

Specifically, this poster discusses the ways in which the museums contribute to what Laurajane Smith identifies as the “authorized heritage discourse” (AHD), which involves the legitimization and regulation of historical and cultural narratives by powerful institutions, such as UNESCO and national governments. Furthermore, it analyzes the museums' engagement with fu no isan, translated as “negative legacy” or “negative heritage,” as well as identity and memory. The Nagasaki Human Rights Museum—with its tragic narrative of Korean forced labor—subverts the AHD by embracing the dual definition of fu no isan, allowing for a reflection of identity, and acknowledging the plurality of memory. In contrast, the Digital Museum's nostalgic celebration of Hashima reinforces the AHD, as it avoids any mention of fu no isan, promotes the identity of former islanders to a national and international level, and equates the islanders' memories as fact to debunk allegations of forced labor.

The poster format elevates the presentation of this research through its inclusion of photographs and maps. These photographs include the exhibits of both museums and the island of Hashima itself to better display the differences between each institutions’ engagement with the AHD. Furthermore, a map of Nagasaki will establish how the location of each museum plays into the tourism industry of the city. For instance, the Gunkanjima Digital Museum is strategically placed among other tourist attractions, such as the Glover Gardens and Oura Cathedral, to increase accessibility for foreign visitors, whereas the Nagasaki Human Rights Museum is located on a quiet hill with less foot traffic. Ultimately, these museums are part of a larger discourse around the reckoning with Japan’s war history on the national and international level.