Japan to Return Monument to Korea
Asahi Shimbun reports:
A ceremony was held Wednesday at Yasukuni Shrine for the planned return of a Korean monument that commemorates the Korean Peninsula's defeat of Japanese invaders at the end of the 16th century.More:The Japanese and South Korean governments officially requested that the stone monument be sent to the peninsula in an attempt to mend relations between the two countries, and also North Korea.
The monument was created in what is now North Hamgyong, a North Korean province, in the early 18th century to celebrate the failed attempt by warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) to invade the peninsula. Volunteer Korean armies repelled the Japanese attack.So guess where the monument is going:The monument is believed to have been brought to Japan during the Russo-Japan War (1904-1905) by Japanese troops, and later kept at Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the nation's war dead.
The Bukgwandaecheopbi monument, currently held in the Shinto shrine in Tokyo, is scheduled to be airlifted to South Korea at the end of October after protective measures are taken. It will eventually be transferred to North Korea [boldface mine].