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NOTICE No.2
December 9, 2020
Mr. Yasuhiro Umeda, Attonery-at-Law
Legal Department, General Affairs Bureau,
Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)
2-2-1 Jinnan, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
NOTIFIER Hashima Islanders for Historical Truths
AGENT FOR NOTIFIER
Ichiro Kitaura, Attorney-at-Law
Legal Professional Corporation Trust & Service
Yodoyabashi NAO Building 9F
4-3-6 Imabashi, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka
TEL 06-6229-8811
FAX 06-6229-1200
I, Ichiro Kitaura, Attorney-at-Law, am writing on behalf of “Hashima Islanders for Historical Truths” (hereinafter is referred to as “Hashima Islanders”) to present this letter (Notice No. 2) to you, who belongs to the Legal Department of General Affairs Bureau of Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) (hereinafter is referred to as “NHK”). This notice is related to the letter ,“Transmission and Fax Form” dated December 7, 2020 (hereinafter is referred to as “Transmission Form No. 1”) responded to the “Letter of Protest and Demand,” which was sent to NHK, dated November 20, 2020 (hereinafter is referred to as the “Notice No. 1”).
According to Transmission Form No. 1, NHK has been currently preparing a response to our Notice No. 1 and will respond by the end of this year and has requested us to wait for “a little longer.”
If NHK is to secures a little more time to conduct a detailed investigation of the facts pointed out by Hashima Islanders as in Notice No. 1, as well as to secure time to face the objective facts in order to make a clear and sincere public response, Hashima Islanders will not deny such sincere and honest attitude of NHK.
However, if NHK intentionally delays its response until the end of the year, and if that response will to be as insincere or vague as the response of NHK to other news reports that can already be found on the internet, then we would have to say that that is simply a cynical attempt to take advantage of the year-end and New Year’s season in order to effectively block and reduce the strength of the islanders’ opposition.
In this case, even if HNK extends the deadline for your response, as long as HNK is preparing such a response, Hashima Islanders will not be able to overlook such an act because it deems equivalent to being deceived.
Therefore, based on the assumption that Hashima Islanders trusts that you and NHK are not thinking to deceive us as mentioned above, we request NHK to respond to us by Monday, December 28th, 2020 for the deadline you mentioned as “year-end” in your Transmission Form No. 1. The response can be faxed as well.
Hence, we here reiterate the demands of Hashima Islanders towards NHK specified in Notice No. 1 along with the new deadline as below:
Hashima Islanders demand that NHK is to [1] thoroughly investigate the background and causes of the fact that the part of the short film that is supposed to be inside the mining tunnels of Hashima Coal Mine is not the actual footage inside the mining tunnels of Hashima Coal Mine. Moreover, publish the results of the investigation, whether favorable or unfavorable to NHK; and [2] promptly report to the world, including Korea, that the part of the short film that is supposedly inside the tunnels of Hashima Island was a fiction, and that the correction would be made known to the public; [3] have at least all of the footage of the mining tunnels in this short film be completely recovered from its users, including National History Museum of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Occupation located in Korea (Busan), without any copies remaining; and, [4] we request that NHK takes appropriate measures to make a formal, sincere, and properly polite apology in a form of writing to each and every former island residents (survivors) who lived on Hashima Island during the war and to their bereaved family members, who have also been deeply hurt and had their pride and self-respect crushed as well over a long period of time due to this fiction (as well as misunderstanding and infamy caused by this fiction) in relation to Hashima Island. This short film fabricated by NHK was essentially spread around the world and acted as the starting point (one of the sources of information) for the proliferation of incorrect information and falsified history.
In other words, Hashima Islanders request that NHK is to report the results of the investigation of [1] as aforementioned in an open letter addressed to us by you by Monday, December 28, 2020 by considering of the response of NHK as in your Transmission Form No. 1, and at the same time, NHK is to provide a concrete response to the above items from [2] to [4], indicating that you have in fact started to take action or have taken measures.
In the case that NHK does not respond by the above-mentioned deadline (December 28, 2020), or even if NHK does, if the content of their response is deemed to be vague, sophomoric, or evasive, Hashima Islanders will have no choice but to: <1> promptly file a complaint with the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO), claiming that the program in question violates Broadcasting Act Articles 4, Paragraph 1, Act No. 2 (principle of political impartiality), Act No. 3 (prohibition of distortion of facts), and Act No. 4 (the points at issue must be verified from multiple perspectives where there are opposing opinions concerning an issue), and <2> file a class-action lawsuit against NHK for compensating damages against their unlawful act.
If Hashima Islanders do not receive a concrete, clear, and sincere response from NHK by the above deadline, we hereby notify you that we will be forced to take decisive measures, not only in the form of lawsuits and other procedures, but also in our appeal to the public (society).
If you have any opinions or questions in regard to this matter, Notice No. 1, or any matters related to this document (Notice No. 2), please contact me directly.
This letter will be posted today (as of December 9, 2020) to NHK (address to you) by Registered Content-Certified Mail and it will be faxed (the original text prior to the content-certified mail was sent).
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Japan Post Holding Co., Ltd. certifies that this letter was received and mailed by Registered Content-Certified Mail No. 61380 of December 9, 2020. [Two postmarks]