Koreans who paid for Japan

By KIROKU HANAI
The Japan Times
Monday, Nov. 26, 2007

This summer I visited several monuments in Hiroshima and Okinawa that console the souls of Koreans who died during the Pacific War while living in Japan or serving in the Japanese military. It was a heart-wrenching experience.

Among the monuments I visited, the cenotaph in Hiroshima is dedicated to about 20,000 Koreans who perished in the Aug. 6, 1945, U.S. atomic bombing. In Okinawa, the monument in Itoman is dedicated to about 10,000 Koreans. Memorials in the village of Tokashiki, the city of Ginowan and the village of Yomitan are dedicated to Korean civilian workers recruited by the Japanese military and Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers.

Mournful inscriptions on the memorials describe how the Koreans were forcibly recruited to work for the wartime Japan, experienced extreme hardships and died without returning to their homeland.

Among the Korean victims of the war are former Class-B and -C war criminals who were from the Korean Peninsula under Japanese colonial rule. Some of them were executed, but their souls received no condolences from compatriots. Others were not welcomed back to their native country and are growing old in Japan.

As a result of war-crimes trials held by individual allied countries after the war, 23 Koreans were executed and 125 others were given fixed-term prison sentences. It has been 50 years since the last convicted Korean war criminal was released from prison.

Even after the San Francisco Peace Treaty took effect, Koreans were forced to serve time at Tokyo's Sugamo Prison on the grounds they had Japanese nationality when convicted.

After they were released, they were neglected by the Japanese government, without receiving apologies or compensation, on the grounds that they were no longer Japanese nationals. They received cold treatment from their fatherland and Korean residents in Japan, too, being regarded as pro-Japanese collaborators and sympathizers.

Among the convicted Korean war criminals, two committed suicide in despair and two others spent the rest of their lives in mental institutions. In 1955, former Korean war criminals and families of Koreans who were executed established the group Doshinkai to support one another and conduct negotiations with the Japanese government.

In 1956, the group petitioned the Japanese government for ¥5 million each in compensation to the families of those executed and ¥500 for each day of detention to those imprisoned. The group has repeated the same demands whenever a new Japanese administration was established, but the government has always promised only to "properly deal with the demands." Thus it has taken no action regarding the petitions.

After Japan and South Korea in 1965 concluded the treaty on basic relations between the two countries and the claims agreement, the Japanese government rejected all demands for state compensation, saying the claims issue had been completely settled in the bilateral negotiations. The South Korean government also took a negative attitude on compensation on the grounds that the claims agreement did not apply, since the issue stemmed from events that occurred after the war ended Aug. 15, 1945.

Koreans and Taiwanese forcibly recruited as civilian workers by the Japanese military began work as guards of prisoners of war on the southern war front in 1942. In violation of international law, the Japanese forces not only failed to provide enough food to the POWs but also forced them to work under brutal conditions. The POWs held a grudge against the guards, many of whom were from the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan. They were prosecuted as Class-B and -C war criminals on charges of abusing the POWs. Many Korean and Taiwanese civilians were executed for Japan's war conduct.

In war-crimes trials by the allied powers, defense counsels for the former civilians argued that consideration should be given to the fact that they were forcibly recruited as residents of colonies. But the courts paid no heed and imposed harsh sentences on them. Western powers that had colonies in Asia probably feared that inquiries into colonial issues could raise questions about their own colonialism. Therein lay limits to the trials that were held to carry out the final settlements of the Pacific War.

In 1991, Doshinkai members unhappy with the unreasonable treatment given to war criminals who were from Japanese colonies filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court to demand apologies and compensation from the Japanese government. Following lower-court proceedings, the Supreme Court ultimately rejected the suit in 1999 but ruled that the government should admit its responsibility for its failure to properly treat the former war criminals and solve the problem through legislative action. Following the ruling, Doshinkai petitioned successive Japanese administrations as well as lawmakers for legislative action to mandate compensation. But there are as yet no prospects for settlement.

Under a newly enacted law, meanwhile, the South Korean government conducted inquiries into the forceful recruitment of residents from Korea while under colonial rule and concluded in June 2006 that the Korean Class-B and-C war criminals were victims of such recruitment. This action restored honor to the former war criminals.

But that is not enough for Doshinkai. The group is seeking the complete redemption of the former war criminals in Japan through legislative action, and last month submitted a petition to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, demanding that the government apologize and offer compensation to the victims.

Last February, the families of the dead former Class-B and -C war criminals formed a group in South Korea. In April, the Japanese and Korean groups submitted a co-signed petition to the South Korean national parliament, calling on it to seek apologies and compensation from the Japanese government and Diet and to demand the immediate removal of the Class-B and -C Korean war criminals from the list of those honored at Yasukuni Shrine, which received no permission from their families for honoring them.

The Japanese government's indecisive attitude over policy matters, compared with the stance of the South Korean government, is highly deplorable. While South Korea last April concluded a free-trade agreement with the United States, Tokyo has yet to start preparations for FTA talks with Washington in the face of opposition from Japanese farmers.

Doshinkai members dilly-dallied for many years in petitioning the South Korean government because of their feelings of guilt over their perceived collaboration with Japan. But in 2005, Doshinkai petitioned the South Korean government and legislators for the restoration of honor for the former Korean war criminals. In less than a year, South Korea officially admitted that the war criminals were victims of Japanese war conduct.

Japan bears direct responsibility for the plight of former Class-B and -C war criminals from Korea. But the Japanese government has failed to take legislative action to pay compensation to those war criminals, even after the South Korean government took action. This is highly lamentable. The average age of former Korean war criminals is 85. Therefore, the Japanese government should take prompt action to show its sincerity in meeting their demands.

Kiroku Hanai is a journalist and former editorial writer for the Tokyo Shimbun.