hankyoreh

Hideki Yano

In May 2012, the South Korean Supreme Court ruled that Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal, a Japanese company implicated in war crimes during World War II, had to pay 100 million won (US$84,041) in compensation to each victim plaintiff of forced labor conscription during the Japanese occupation of Korea.

“I believe that Nippon Steel will comply with the South Korean Supreme Court’s decision in some way or another,” Hideki Yano optimistically predicted in an interview with the Hankyoreh at the time of the ruling seven years ago. Yano, now 69, is secretary-general of the civic group Japan-Korea Joint Action for Legislation to Compensation Korean Victims of Forced Labor (Joint Action). At the time, Nippon Steel’s management had declared at a general shareholders’ meeting that “while the ruling is unfortunate, we will have no choice but to comply if it is finalized.” In other words, its only option was to comply with the ruling if it hoped to continue doing business in Asia.

Yano finally showed his tears at a press conference in Japan soon after the final Supreme Court judgment in October of last year. He also had tears in his eyes when he met the Hankyoreh on May 9 near Seoul Central District Court in Seoul’s Seocho neighborhood. What had happened in the interim?

The case, which was deferred to the Seoul High Court in seven years ago, did not receive a final Supreme Court ruling until last year. In the meantime, the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in Japan, and the Supreme Court under the Park Geun-hye administration in South Korea (2013–17) delayed its ruling in the renewed appeal for over five years after receiving the case again. Recently, allegations have emerged that the judiciary and executive branches attempted a “transaction” of sorts over the case.

“I first came to know forced conscription survivor Yeo Woon-taek in 1995,” Yano recalled. “He would always talk to himself, saying things like, ‘My very life has been controlled by Japan. If I had just received my wages, I could have bought a few cattle.’”

“It was heartbreaking to think that he ended up passing away without ever seeing that final court victory,” he said.

Through Joint Action, Yano has been working since 1995 to urge the Japanese government and businesses to apologize and provide compensation for the colonial occupation, while providing support for over 24 years for the survivors’ legal battle. Involved in the labor movement while working as a government employee in Tokyo’s Chiyoda ward, Yano received a request in 1995 from Zainichi Korean conscription survivors asking for help in the victims’ legal battle. At the time, he had been deeply shocked by the accounts from the so-called “comfort women,” survivors of colonial-era sexual slavery under the Japanese military. In 1997, he assisted two forced labor survivors – the late Yeo Woon-taek and Shin Cheon-su – in filing suit with Osaka District Court to demand compensation and unpaid wages from Nippon Steel and the Japanese government. Since then, he has traveled back and forth between South Korea and Japan for a total of eight trials (three in Japan, five in South Korea). Five survivors filed suit for damages against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at Busan District Court on May 1, 2000, and another four against Nippon Steel Central District Court in 2005; the final rulings were made last year.

“With labor issues, things are resolved in some way when layoffs are rescinded and workers are reinstated and compensation, but issues like these don’t get easily resolved,” he said. “In Japan, we lost our cases through the third trial. In South Korea, we had five trials, including the first and second and the renewed appeal. I see the final victory recorded in this 23-year battle as evidence that the victims have survived.”

After repeated requested for discussions with the Japanese government and companies, the survivors are now proceeding with compulsory enforcement procedures. On May 1 – which marked both the Labor Day holiday and the first day of the Reiwa era after Crown Prince Naruhito’s ascent to the imperial throne – they began final procedures to dispose of the companies’ stock in South Korea and convert it to cash. The presiding courts have now received applications for disposal orders on PNR shares belonging to Nippon Steel and Daesung Nachi Hydraulics shares belonging to Fujikoshi. The Japanese government has resorted to what amount to intimidation tactics, threatening to “take prompt countermeasures”; the Japanese companies have taken refuge behind the government. With the South Korean government keeping mum, all the survivors can do now is wait for the court rulings.

“Nippon Steel has consistently complied with the trials, and it certainly was happy to accept the results when it won in the first and second trials. But after losing the final ruling, all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘We won’t comply.’ Isn’t that strange?” Yano said.

“It isn’t right, and it’s not logical. These are civil cases between individual victims and private companies; the Japanese government can’t just insert itself willy-nilly in the results of these cases.”

Even judicial resolutions have their limits. Between 2005 and 2012, around 220,000 people were recognized as forced mobilization survivors by the Commission on Verification and Support for the Victims of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Colonialism in Korea; only a small minority of them are able to file lawsuits. Approval would be needed to include the victims who have been unable to receive restitution by the law. According to Yano, an ultimate resolution to the forced conscription issue would require the South Korean and Japanese governments to take action. In his view, a possible model can be found in Germany’s Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future, which applied profits from companies using forced labor during the Nazi era to compensate victims. This would only be possible if the South Korean government and National Assembly break their current silence and take action.

Yano has encouraged reflection from Japan in press conferences and assemblies, making five to six trips between South Korea and Japan each year. Recently, he donated 134.5 million won (US$113,031) toward the establishment of the Museum of Japanese Colonial History in Seoul’s Yongsan district. The funding was raised from around 800 members of the public throughout Japan and 12 civic groups. Yano has been described by some as “Japan’s living conscience,” but he has also been labeled as “the biggest anti-Japanese figure of them all.”

Yano maintains that he can never give up what he is doing.

“Once, I received a call on my mobile phone from someone yelling at me. ‘Are you really Japanese?’ they asked me. And I answered, ‘Well, I’m living as one right now,” he recalled with a laugh.

“My friends and acquaintances are always worried about me, but it’s not that big a threat,” he continued.

“I made a promise to the victims that we were going to take this to court together and win together, and that’s a promise I have to keep. Campaigning to support the victims is like eating breakfast to me. It’s become part of my life.”

By Ko Han-sol, staff reporter

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