hankyoreh

81-years-old and had served in the women labor corps in Japan during World War II

“What is this 99 yen?” shouted Yang Geum-deok with tears flowing down her face. “Give me back my youth,” Yang repeated until she collapsed. Yang had taken a 5:00 a.m. bus from Gwangju to come to Seoul. Her face was red with fatigue, anger and disappointment. She said she was not treated as a person 65 years ago and nothing has changed since.

At 11:00 a.m. Thursday, some 20 members of a group of South Korean women who had been forced to serve in the women’s labor corps during World War II, including Yang and Kim Seong-ju, both 81-years-old, held an emergency press conference in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul’s Junghak neighborhood.

The Japanese government has decided to belatedly respond to a request submitted by Yang and others in 1998 for their pensions with disbursement of 99 yen (about 1,300 won) each. During the colonial era, the women had been forced to work at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries factory in Nagoya, but were never paid. Apart from a lawsuit for their wages, Yang and others had also filed an administrative suit to collect their pensions.

During the press conference, the women said the 99 yen pension payments once again made sport of the victims, and declared that they would not accept them. They also said that although Japan’s highest court had thrown out their case based on the determination that the 1965 treaty between Korea and Japan normalizing relations and brought such matters to a conclusion, the Japanese government should still account for its belated decision to pay the women a mere 99 yen.

Other victims forced into labor for Japan participated in the press conference. Yeo Un-taek, age 88, who was forced to Japan in 1943 to work in a steel factory for two years, said he similarly had been at the receiving end of a Japanese government decision to pay him 316 yen (4,080 Won) in 2004. He added that South Korea has also done nothing to compensate him.

The women’s group launched a signature campaign in May and has been holding demonstrations calling on Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which is remaining silent about its colonial-era forced labor mobilizations, to apologize. Lee Guk-eon, secretary general of the group, said the women are furious and disappointed at the “99 yen” decision, and were considering whether to file a protest with the Japanese government.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]