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An association of supporters and family members of South Korean victims of forced mobilization and labor under the Japanese colonial occupation celebrate the South Korean Supreme Court’s ruling that Nippon and Sumitomo Metal must pay reparations to the victims on Oct. 30 in Seoul. (Kim Myoung-jin

Mitsunobu Nakata, a 64-year-old Japanese man, can still recall the words former Nippon Steel (now Nippon and Sumitomo Metal) conscripted worker Yeo Woon-taek spoke at a 1997 trial in Japan to demand damages for being forced into labor under the Japanese empire.

“If I had been paid wages back then, I could have bought six cattle, and with that kind of money, my life would have been different,” Yeo said at the time.

Nakata and Keishi Ueda, 60, stood before the Supreme Court building in Seoul’s Seocho neighborhood on Oct. 30 shortly before the court pronounced its judgment in a case filed by forced labor victims demanding damages from a Japanese company implicated in war crimes. Nakata was holding Yeo’s funeral portrait; Ueda held another portrait showing fellow forced labor victim Shin Cheon-su.

Yeo and Shin had joined Lee Choon-sik, 94, in filing the case demanding damages from Nippon Steel, but ultimately passed away amid delays in the trial’s progress. The two Japanese men picked up copies of the ruling in favor of the plaintiffs from the Supreme Court that day on Yeo and Shin’s behalf.

Why were they holding up portraits of forced labor victims? The two men were civil servants of the Japanese government at the time Yeo and Shin filed suit with Osaka District Court in 1997 to demand damages and unpaid wages. They went on to establish an association to support the trials related to Nippon Steel’s conscripted workers, observing the subsequent trial proceedings in South Korea as well as Japan.

“I felt close to Korea because I know a lot of Zainichi Koreans,” Nakata explained, adding that there was “also a strong mood at the time that issues related to historical actions should not be resolved.”

Ueda explained, “I began supporting the trials after hearing the conscription victims asking for ‘help.’ As I watched the trials of the years, I started to feel like it was a kind of family.”

Yeo did not trust the two Japanese men immediately. Ueda recalled his first meeting with him.

“When he was being tried in Japan, I said I’d pick up a toothbrush for him, and he refused, saying, ‘If you give a Japanese person money, how can you trust you’ll get any change back?’” Ueda said. “I could really sense that he had nothing in Japan he felt he could trust.”

But as the trials continued, the two grew close enough that Yeo would end up singing boat songs to Ueda.

In 2003, the Supreme Court of Japan confirmed the verdict against Yeo and Shin. Feeling “deeply disappointed that there seemed to be no justice in Japan,” Ueda decided to work with Nakata to support the legal action in South Korea. Consulting a list of deposits that included information about unpaid wages, he traveled around the country looking for other victims to take part in the lawsuit. It was during this time that he met another plaintiff in the recent Supreme Court decision, Kim Gyu-su, who passed away in June.

“I was beaten what I tried to flee [the Japanese factory],” Kim told him. “More than the unpaid salary, I will never forget how unfairly I was treated even when I worked hard.”

After the Supreme Court’s decision was announced, Nakata stressed, “The victims don’t have much time left. Nippon Steel and the Japanese government need to compensate them for damages as soon as possible.”

Ueda added, “South Korea and Japan have both overlooked victims of war and colonial occupation.”

“Japan also has victims of war, and the South Korean government has turned its back on the victims of colonial occupation. With this ruling, we need to create a new relationship between South Korea and Japan where the rights of victims of forced mobilization and labor and the [Japanese military] comfort women survivors have been restored,” he said.

By Kim Min-kyoung, staff reporter

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