hankyoreh

June 24. (Yonhap News)

Women drafted as part of a “volunteer labor corps” at weapons plants and other locations during the Japanese occupation won an appeal in their case demanding compensation from a Japanese munitions company.

The women, most now in their eighties, were subjected to harsh heavy labor conditions while working in the plants as part of the Korean Women’s Volunteer Labor Corps.

Judge Hong Dong-gi of the second civil division of Gwangju High Court issued the appeal ruling on June 24 siding with the plaintiffs - 84-year-old Yang Geum-deok and three other survivors, as well as the family member of a fifth - on most of their charges against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It marked the third appeal decision in favor of conscription victims, after previous ones from Seoul High Court and Busan High Court.

In its ruling the court ordered total compensation payments of 556.2 million won (US$501,000), including 120 million won (US$108,000) each to Yang and two other victims, 100 million won (US$90,100) to a fourth, and 120.8 million won (U$108,800) to a family member participating in the case on behalf of his late wife and younger sister.

Concluding that Mitsubishi “actively collaborated with Japan’s engagement in a war of aggression and used deception and intimidation to enlist thirteen- and fourteen-year-old girls in forced labor,” the court noted that “some victims driven to harsh labor ended up suffering injury and even losing their lives.”

The court also said the terms of Japan’s own domestic law do not remove Mitsubishi’s obligation to “compensation for inhumane and illegal acts.” Japanese courts have previously ruled that the current Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a different entity from the company of the same name during World War II.

“In practical terms, the current company inherited the assets and staff of the old company and should rightly provide compensation,” the South Korean court said.

The survivors in the case were led to join the corps during the war in May 1944 after a Japanese principal told them they could “make money and attend school.” They were sent to a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries aircraft manufacturing plant in Nagoya, where they were subjected to heavy labor for which they received no compensation.

“We victims are all old now, and there isn‘t a lot of time left,” Yang said in court. “Mitsubishi needs to apologize and compensate us right away.”

The plaintiffs filed suit in Japanese court in March 1999 to demand compensation, but lost three trials through Nov. 2008. In Oct. 2012, they took the case to a South Korean court.

Past examples suggest Mitsubishi is likely to buy time before the decision is upheld by the Supreme Court. Even if it is upheld, the compensation procedures are tricky, as nonpayment would require an investigation of assets and compulsory enforcement.

In the meantime, more of the survivors, now in their eighties and nineties, may not live to see compensation - a fact that has many calling for proactive intervention from Seoul.

By Ahn Gwan-ok, Gwangju correspondent

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