Statue Maintenance

[Anchor Lead]

Statues of Korean workers forced into hard labor during the Japanese occupation period are being erected all over the country. But it is urgent to provide the sculptures with proper maintenance and protection in order to avoid the ordeals experienced by the Statues of Peace.

[Pkg]

A rail-thin young man carrying a pickax. It's a statue of a Korean man forced into hard labor erected at the Yongsang Station Plaza, where conscripted laborers during the Japanese occupation era used to congregate. This statue of forced laborer in Incheon stands next to a Statue of Peace, at the site of a Japanese munition factory. The statue shows a frail father so tormented by hard labor that his ribs are showing through, and his nervous daughter holding onto his hand. Such forced laborer statues are being built all over the country. The statues are already set up in Incheon and Seoul, with the plans to build them in the Jeju and Gyeongnam region within this year, and in Busan next year.

[Soundbite] Park Seok-min(Korean Confederation of Trade Unions) : "The statues are being set up all over the country because the statues were damaged in no specific places. It's to resolve the forced laborer issue and prevent the recurrences of forced labor worldwide."

Now the issue is how to maintain and protect them once they're in place. Some of the roughly 80 Statues of Peace nationwide have suffered damages. One has sustained a dent in the head and another had a bicycle lock placed around its ankle. This is why a plan is underway to register these statues as public sculptures, just like the Statue of Peace in Wonju, Gangwon-do Province.

[Soundbite] Lim Cheol-hee(Employee, Incheon Municipal Gov't) : "Once they're registered as public sculptures, authorized institutions or public employees can maintain them regularly. On-site inspections and regular monitoring through CCTVs would become possible."

If these forced laborer statues are to avoid the same damage suffered by the Statues of Peace, it is important to devise ways to prevent vandalization and maintain them properly.