A commentary by the state-run KCNA news agency said the “violent act of fascism” was evidence of Japan’s denial of its wartime history and attempt to glorify colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.

The removal of the tombstone “hurts the wounds” of Korean victims of forced labor and provokes “overwhelming anger,” the media outlet said, calling for the immediate restoration of the monument, which was erected in 2004 by a civic group in a public park in Takasaki to promote public understanding of the history of Japanese colonial rule on the Korean peninsula (1910-1045).

According to KCNA, in Gunma alone, thousands of Koreans were confined in armaments factories, mines, power plants, airports and other wartime facilities. A large number of them died due to the slave-like conditions they were subjected to.

Remembering the victims, compensating their descendants and preventing the repetition of the crimes of the past are a legal duty and a moral obligation by Japanese authorities, he stressed.

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