Japan's proposal that its Sado mines be added to the 2023 Unesco World Heritage List is more than just a cultural-driven effort. It is a showcase of the inward-looking politics of Japan's conservative establishment to use particular events from the past to fit a desired narrative for the present, to purify the record of Japan's imperialism.
Reigniting the controversy over the several-hundred-year-old gold mines of Sado Island has brought tensions between Japan and South Korea back to the fore. The issue comes at the time when the world needs the old adversaries to unite in tackling the challenges of emerging Indo-Pacific issues, such as China's threats against Taiwan and other state claimants of the West Philippine Sea, Vietnam's East Sea -- or what the Chinese Communist Party calls the "South China Sea". There is also the significant matter of how North Korea's latest weapons are threatening the rules-based regional order.
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