Japan Hotel Removes Monument to Korean Independence Activist Ahn Jung-geun Amid Conservative Protests

TOKYO, June 11 (Yonhap) -- A hotel in southwestern Japan has decided to remove a stone monument honoring a Korean independence activist from the early days of Japan's colonial rule, its website showed Thursday, after protests from the conservative bloc in the country.

Kochi Kuroshio Hotel, located in the Kochi Prefecture, said in a notice it will remove the monument to Ahn Jung-geun from its compound by Friday, according to the website.

The monument was erected Saturday with an initiative led by a Seoul-based organization dedicated to honoring Ahn's legacy and the Japan-Korea Friendship Association.

Ahn, one of the most revered independence fighters in Korea, is known for assassinating Hirobumi Ito, then the Japanese resident-general of Korea, in the Chinese city of Harbin in 1909, less than a year before Korea was formally annexed by Japan.

On Wednesday, Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported strong backlash from conservatives in Japan was behind the hotel's decision to remove the monument.

The stone monument carries an inscription highlighting bilateral friendship between Korea and Japan and "peace in the East," a concept Ahn advocated throughout his life.

Hotel officials claimed that they had not been aware of the inscription's meaning and its historical context until the unveiling ceremony.

The civic group honoring Ahn has said the monument would promote the ideals of peace and shared prosperity and send a message of reconciliation and cooperation to future generations.

The monument was the fourth to be erected in Japan in honor of Ahn.