hankyoreh

Forced labor victim Lee Chun-sik breaks into tears during a reading of a letter from an elementary school student during a press conference calling for Japan to provide compensation and a proper apology in Seoul on Oct. 30. (Baek So-ah, staff photographer)

With Oct. 30 marking one year since a South Korean Supreme Court ruling on forced labor mobilization, survivors announced plans to send a message to the UN and international community calling for a restoration of their human rights and an apology and compensation from the Japanese government.

The groups MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society and Joint Action for Resolution of the Forced Labor Mobilization Issue and Past Issues

with Japan announced during a press conference “to demand restoration of the victims’ human rights on the first anniversary of the imperial Japanese forced labor conscription compensation ruling” at the MINBYUN main conference room in Seoul’s Seocho neighborhood that day that they had submitted a related petition to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

One of the people attending the press conference on Wednesday was Yang Geum-deok, a 90-year-woman and a plaintiff in the case against Mitsubishi. “A total of 138 people were mobilized from five cities [during the Japanese colonial occupation]. I still can’t forget that number. Thinking about how Koreans were treated like animals makes me angry. I hope [Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe will hurry up and apologize,” Yang said.

Yang was joined at the press conference by 95-year-old Lee Chun-sik, a plaintiff in the case against Nippon Steel. “I’m grateful for everything. I want to thank the whole nation for their help. There’s so much I’d like to say, but I’m too choked up to get the words out. I’m sorry about that,” Lee said.

Lee wiped away his tears as he held up a letter from a student at Dorim Elementary School in Incheon. The letter said, “On the news, you apologized to us, but this isn’t your fault, it’s the fault of Japan for conscripting you. The countries apologized to each other, but they haven’t apologized to the victims. So you shouldn’t cry or thank anyone. Make sure you stay in good health and good spirits, OK?”

The petition that Yang and Lee submitted to the UNHRC asked the Japanese government and companies to acknowledge the history of forced mobilization during Japan’s colonial occupation and to take responsibility for that history by engaging in dialogue with the victims.

“To date, the international community has never commented about or intervened in matters related to forced labor. I think this will be our first chance to put pressure on the Japanese government and corporations,” said Kim Gi-nam, chair of MINBYUN’s International Solidarity Committee and the person in charge of processing the petition. Submitting the petition opens the door for UN special rapporteurs sending a letter to the Japanese government or visiting Japan themselves in order to investigate human rights abuses and ask for this issue to be addressed.

MINBYUN said that 28 victims in Seoul have taken part in 21 lawsuits and that 54 victims in Gwangju have taken part in nine lawsuits since the Supreme Court reached a final decision in the forced labor case. A total of 11 companies are targeted by these lawsuits: not only Nippon Steel and Nachi-Fujikoshi, which were the defendants in the original lawsuits, but also companies like Furukawa Machinery and Metal and Sumiseki Holdings.

Though some of these companies don’t hold any assets in South Korea, the victims have decided to press ahead with the lawsuits. “We’ve informed the plaintiffs that, even if they win their lawsuit, they can’t force companies without [any domestic assets] to pay compensation. But we’re going ahead with the lawsuits because some of the plaintiffs still want the courts to rule that [Japan] broke the law and want to get an apology,” said Choe Yong-geun, a lawyer representing the forced labor cases.

KTCU plans to collect 1 million signatures for ILO petition

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is also getting involved with a plan to collect 1 million signatures from union members and like-minded citizens for a petition asking the Japanese government and companies to take responsibility. The KCTU intends to submit the petition and signatures to the general meeting of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in June 2020.

“Because Korea hasn’t ratified the ILO convention banning forced labor, it can’t lodge a complaint against Japan on that issue. The KCTU will be collecting signatures for a petition asking our government to ratify that convention,” said KCTU Vice Chair Eom Mi-gyeong.

Although a year has passed since the Supreme Court’s decision, the campaign to compensate the victims is moving slowly. In the lawsuit against Nippon Steel (Lee Chun-sik is one of the plaintiffs there), the Pohang branch of the Daegu District Court seized 194,794 shares of PNR stock, worth 765 million won (US$659,079), from Nippon Steel. This past July, the court sent the company an official questionnaire as part of the liquidation process, but so far it hasn’t received a response.

“The questionnaire has already reached Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but there’s no way for us to ascertain its delivery status inside Japan. If the questionnaire is returned in three or four months, we could regard that as the company waiving its right to defend [against the liquidation],” said an official with the Daegu District Court.

“If Japan returns the documents once again, we can move ahead with liquidation through service by publication,” said Kim Se-eun, a lawyer on the legal team representing the victims of forced labor. Service by publication refers to the process of serving a summons or legal document regarding a lawsuit by publishing it in a general-circulation newspaper when a defendant cannot or refuses to accept the legal documents.

When the National Court Administration, under South Korea’s Supreme Court, sent its document regarding its decision to order the asset seizure to Japan, Japan’s Foreign Ministry returned the documents instead of forwarding it to Nippon Steel. According to the Hague Service Convention, the Japanese government was supposed to include a document specifying why the judicial decision hadn’t been served, but the Ministry omitted that step when it returned the document. Currently, the judicial decision has been sent back to Japan at the request of the forced labor legal team.

By Jang Ye-ji, staff reporter

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