2023-05-27 08:04:00
Discussion on compensation for forced labor held in Tokyo, Japan
Lee Hee-ja, CEO of the Victim Compensation Association, “apology is compensation”
Rainwater forms on the statue of a forced laborer in front of Yongsan Station in Seoul. Reporter Kwon Do-hyun
At a forum on compensation for forced labor held in Tokyo, Japan, civic groups in Korea and Japan said, “What the victims of forced labor wanted was an apology, not money.”
“I thought an apology was compensation,” said Lee Hee-ja, co-representative of the Pacific War Victims’ Compensation Promotion Council, at a discussion held on the 27th at the Rengo Hall in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo.
Representative Lee continued, “The victims of forced labor did not say anything regarding the amount of money.” Because I didn’t want to pass it on,” he explained.
“The Korean government is pushing for reimbursement by a third party, which is causing a complicated problem,” he said. It doesn’t end with a political solution,” he criticized.
Previously, the Yoon Seok-yeol government presented a ‘third party reimbursement proposal’ to solve the compensation problem only with funds from Korean companies without the participation of Japanese war criminal companies. South Korea and Japan held their third summit in two months, starting with the Tokyo summit in March, but Japan did not issue any messages of apology to the victims of forced labor. Academics criticized this as “humiliation diplomacy with no practical benefit.”
At a press conference on March 13, victims of forced labor, Lee Chun-shik, Yang Geum-deok, and Kim Seong-ju, publicly expressed their opposition to the government plan and demanded an apology from Japan. However, on the 21st of the same month, President Yoon said, “In our society, there are forces that seek political gain while shouting exclusive nationalism and anti-Japan,” and said that there was no need for an additional apology from the Japanese government.
In response, Attorney Akihiko Oguchi said, “Forcible conscription by the Japanese Empire is a matter of human rights,” and that the position of the Korean victims should not be ignored. Attorney Oguchi is supporting a lawsuit filed by the bereaved families of soldiers and civilians from the Korean Peninsula, who were illegally enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, in a Japanese court asking them to be removed from the enshrinement.
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