The special prime ministerial commission on forced labor during the Japanese colonial occupation began accepting reports about victims' experiences on February 1 and now the first round of the process has concluded. The commission says some 190,000 people have filed reports, excluding those submitted to Korean diplomatic missions overseas.
The fact that it is only 60 years after Liberation that the government has commenced on a full-scale inquiry into damage resulting from colonial rule is one of the most shameful parts of modern Korean history. It is frustrating to see Korean government officials burning incense at holding sites for the remains of Koreans taken to Japan as forced laborers, sites neglected by the Japanese government. A forced laborer who was 25 at Liberation is 85 if he is still alive. Victims will have limited memory and since the government has never shown any interest in the issue few families have kept evidential documentation in an organized fashion. The commission's working-level staff reportedly express sadness at the thought of how much more substantial the results of their work would have been had it gotten underway 10 years ago.
The Japanese government should rightly be condemned for keeping its official documentation about people taken away in the name of military and labor conscription thoroughly hidden from the negotiation process ahead of the normalization of relations. Whatever the reasons, however, Korea share's no small part of the wrong for having neglected the work of collecting documentation and clarifying the truth. The first important thing will be to learn about what happened based on direct testimony from victims and their families and on primary documentation. The National Assembly needs to engage in serious discussion about how victims will be compensated. There also needs to be frank dialogue with Japan's government and civil society about how to treat the wounds of forced mobilization that have yet to heal.
The Hankyoreh, 2 July 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial]Finally Surveying Harm by Colonial Government |
