Japanese Crime of Destruction and Plunder of Korean Cultural Assets in the Past (15) -from Friend.com.kp

From Friend.com.kp

http://friend.com.kp/index.php/articles/view/5508 h

 

In the book entitled “Korean cultural assets in Japan and Japanese responsibility”, a Japanese disclosed the Japanese crime as follows: The two or three years from 1904 were the period of laying of a foundation for colonizing Korea, when a great digging was performed on about 2 000 tombs including the mausoleum of Koryo dynasty in Kaesong, Kanghwa Island, Haeju and other areas. The Japanese troops went so far as to use explosives in broad daylight to rob more than 100 000 items of celadon and other grave goods.

In the event of digging a mausoleum, a huge digging troop of invaders comprised of scores of Japanese gendarmes and policemen, ignorant of the structure of the mausoleum, blasted the northern part of the tomb pile to find an exit and plundered a great deal of vestiges.

After having occupied Korea by armed forces, Japanese imperialists announced the “Rules of preservation of the historic remains and relics” before publishing the “Relics survey plan” for five years. It aimed at digging more old tombs to loot relics.

The pure depredatory character of this plan is proved in the composition and behavior of the “Survey committee of the Korean relics and remains” organized for the execution of this plan.

This 25-member committee organized in the central advisory council was consisted mostly of high-ranking officials of government-general and there were only one or two professional archeologists. They unearthed hundreds of old tombs including those in the Koryo time within two or three months since its inception and plundered many cultural assets leaving none of the scientific excavation materials