Supreme Court confirms Park Chung-hee’s blood oath not a forgery

Posted on : 2017-02-01 16:25 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Judge orders three defendants to pay damages to the Center for Historical Truth and Justice
Former President Park Chung-hee while in the Japanese military. President Park Geun-hye. “Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Collaborators” (published by the Center for Historical Truth and Justice in 2009)
Former President Park Chung-hee while in the Japanese military. President Park Geun-hye. “Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Collaborators” (published by the Center for Historical Truth and Justice in 2009)

The South Korean Supreme Court has confirmed a damages ruling against Kang Yong-seok, the lawyer who argued that former president Park Chung-hee’s blood oath of allegiance to Japan was a forgery. The blood oath appears in the “Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Collaborators,” published by the Center for Historical Truth and Justice.

The first panel of the Supreme Court (presided over by Justice Kim Shin) announced on Jan. 31 that it had upheld the lower court‘s ruling in a damages lawsuit that the Center for Historical Truth and Justice filed against Kang Yong-seok, former KBS announcer Jung Mi-hong and a member of the far right Ilbe website, also surnamed Kang. The court ordered Kang Yong-seok to pay 5 million won (US$4,335) and Jung and Kang (the Ilbe member) to pay 3 million won (US$2,600) in damages.

Based on an article that appeared in the Mar. 31, 1939, issue of the Manchukuo Daily, the “Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Collaborators” (published by the Center for Historical Truth and Justice in 2009) stated that Park Chung-hee volunteered to serve as an officer in the Manchukuo army and that he had written a pledge in his own blood. The Manchukou Daily reported that when Park applied to the military, the person reviewing his application had been moved by receiving Park’s letter, in which he stated he was “firmly resolved to sacrifice [his] life for the nation with the spirit and vitality of which a Japanese person would not be ashamed,” along with a piece of paper on which he had written in his own blood “Park Chung-hee, loyalty through a single death.”

But during a lecture in 2012, Kang Yong-seok argued that “Park’s blood oath is a bizarre fiction that was concocted by the Institute for Korean Historical Studies, which is today’s Center for Historical Truth and Justice.” In 2013, Jung and Kang (the Ilbe member) posted on Twitter that the article about Park’s blood oath was a fabrication.

But both the district court and an appeals court sided with the plaintiff in the damages lawsuit against the three people, concluding that the article about the blood oath in the Manchukuo Daily was not a forgery. “The remarks by the defendants should not be regarded as an argument from diverse historical viewpoints. By making arbitrary claims that portray falsehoods as if they were verified facts, the defendants transgressed the boundaries of the freedom of expression,” the district court concluded in Oct. 2015.

“The statements made by the defendants go beyond the tolerable level of academic ideas that may be raised from diverse historical viewpoints. Their statements degraded the social standing and reputation of the Center for Historical Truth and Justice,” the appeals court ruled in Oct. 2016, concluding that the center had not actually fabricated the article from the Manchukuo Daily.

The Center for Historical Truth and Justice also asked the authorities to prosecute the three people for defamation, but the prosecutors closed the case without filing charges. When the center filed an objection, the court ordered the prosecutors to file charges against Jung. The prosecutors did so in May 2016, though they declined to charge the two Kangs.

By Kim Min-kyung, staff reporter

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