hankyoreh

A coalition of Japanese civic groups has made a pamphlet regarding the issue of forced labor under Japan’s imperial military. In October 2018, the South Korean Supreme Court ruled that victims of forced labor were entitled to compensation from Japanese companies that forcibly mobilized workers during Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea and the Pacific War. Since then, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration has consistently adopted the stance that all compensation claims involving historical issue was settled in a 1965 treaty between the South Korean and Japanese governments, and that individual claims are no longer valid. The coalition of Japanese has created a pamphlet explaining to ordinary Japanese citizens about the forced labor issue, and has been circulating it among the Japanese public. The photo shows forced labor victim Lee Chun-sik, 95, after the South Korean Supreme Court ruling in October 2018.