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Names, Bones and Unpaid Wages (1): Reparations for Korean Forced Labor in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

William Underwood
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QUESTION: Choose the correct statement about Korea under Japanese rule.

  1. 1) A government-general was established and Ito Hirobumi was the first governor-general.

  2. 2) Korea was the first foreign territory acquired by Japan after the Meiji Restoration.

  3. 3) The system of giving Koreans Japanese names was implemented at the time of annexation.

  4. 4) Koreans were forcibly transported to Japan during World War II.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 4 , Issue 9 , September 2006 , e9
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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2006

References

Endnotes

[1] Yamada Shoji, Kosho Tadashi and Higuchi Yuichi, Chosenjin Senji Rodo Doin. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2005; 1-2.

[2] Ibid.; 8.

[3] Yamada Shoji and Tanaka Hiroshi, eds., Rinkoku kara no Kokukatsu: Kyosei renko no kigyo sekinin (2). Tokyo: Soshisha, 1996.

[4] Kosho Tadashi, Tanaka Hiroshi, Sato Takeo et al., Nihon Kigyo no Senso Hanzai: Kyosei renko no kigyo sekinin (3). Tokyo: Soshisha, 2000.

[5] Yamada, Kosho and Higuchi 2005.

[6] Prominent among these recent works are Okada Kunihiro, Chosenjin Kyosei Renko ha Atta no ka: Jijutsu ga kataru ‘kyosei renko’ setsu no kyoko. Tokyo: Nihon Seisaku Kenkyu Sentaa, 2003; and Chung Daekyun, Zainichi Kyosei Renko no Shinwa. Tokyo: Bunshun Shinsho, 2004. For a Chikuho-specific denial, see Satani Masayuki, Tanko no Shinjitsu to Eiko: Chosenjin kyosei renko no kyoko. Nogata, Fukuoka: Nippon Kaigi Fukuoka Chikuho Chapter, 2005.

[7] “Kankoku no chosadan ga Nishinomiya chikago kansatsu.” Asahi Shimbun online, Nov. 16, 2005.

[8] See Sheila Miyoshi Jager, “Korean Collaborators: South Korea's truth committees and the forging of a new pan-Korean nationalism.” Japan Focus, June 6, 2005. Available. See also Jaewoo Choo, “Politics, Price of Seoul's Collaboration Probe.” Asia Times Online, March 31, 2005.

[9] See Emanuel Pastreich, “The Balancer: Roh Moo-hyun's vision of Korean politics and the future of northeast Asia.” Japan Focus, August 1, 2005. Available.

[10] “Kyosei doin higai nintei he, Kankokujin moto BC kyu senpan.” Asahi Shimbun online, May 19, 2006. See also Yutaka Shuichi, “’Japanese’ war criminals seek redress.” International Herald Tribune / Asahi Shimbun online, May 20, 2005.

[11] Lee Jin-woo, “200 billion yen for war victims deposited in Japanese bank.” Korea Times online, Oct. 26, 2004. Available. Hun-Joo Cho, “Japan continues to conceal documents on unpaid wages for forced laborers.” Dong-A Ilbo online, Jan. 23, 2005. Available here. Ichikawa Hayami, “Seoul to compensate forced laborers during Japan's 1910-45 colonization.” Asahi Shimbun online, Feb. 23, 2006.

[12] “Bukkyokai, Chosenjin ikotsu chosa ga honkakuka.” Asahi Shimbun online, July 28, 2006.

[13] “’Jinkotsu 10-taibun’ kakunin, Chosenjin ikotsu hakkutsu shuryo.” Asahi Shimbun online (Hokkaido edition), Aug. 26, 2006. “Sarufutsu no senji choyosha, ikotsu 9 tai wo kakunin, Nicchukan kyodo kakkutsu shuryo, DNA kantei he.” Hokkaido Shimbun online, Aug. 25, 2006.

[14] The author accompanied the Korean group and Truth Network members on the Aug. 10, 2006, tour of Chikuho and attended the Aug. 11 public meeting in Fukuoka called “Kankoku- Chosen no Izoku to Tomo ni: Ikotsu Mondai no Kaiketsu he.”

[15] Gavan McCormack, “Disputed Bones: Japan, North Korea and the ‘Nature’ controversy.” Japan Focus, April 18, 2005. Available. “The remains of North Korean victims in Yutenji were fake,” The People's Korea online, Dec. 25, 2004. “Memorial service & symposium on problem of remains of victims of forcible drafting held in Japan,” The People's Korea online, Dec. 25, 2004.

[16] “Chosenjin kyosei renko giseisha no meibo kokai, Chosenjin Kyosei Renko Shinso Chosadan.” Chosen Shinpo online, May 26, 2006. “Senjichu no Chosenjin shibo joho, Hokkaido-Fukuoka de 3000 nin koe.” Asahi Shimbun online, May 24, 2006.

[17] The three April 2006 articles about Aso Mining are available here, here and here, or at the Chosen Shinpo online website.

[18] “Abe defends Japan's denial of entry to North Korean group.” Japan Times online, July 26, 2006.

[19] Ryu Jin, “Panel to compensate victims of colonialism.” Korea Times online, Jan. 17, 2005.

[20] “Roh urges Japan to pay ex-slaves.” International Herald Tribune online, March 2, 2005.

[21] “President Roh slams Japan in Allgemeine Zeitung.” Korea Times online, April 8, 2005.

[22] “Chosenjin ikotsu chosa de joho miotoshi, Tokyo-to, saichosa he.” Asahi Shimbun online, Dec. 2, 2005.

[23] Ichikawa Hayami, “Korean on mission to find his countrymen.” Asahi Shimbun online, Sept. 17, 2005.

[24] “Aso gaisho no kankei kaisha, choyosha ikotsu joho teikyo sezu, Kankoku de hihan.” Yomiuri Shimbun online (Kyushu edition), Dec. 24, 2005.

[25] “Aso gaisho no shinzoku kigyo, tanko shikichinai no Chosenjin ikotsu 6 tai wo henkan.” Yomiuri Shimbun online (Kyushu edition), Feb. 28, 2006.

[26] This account of Korean remains from the Aso Yoshikuma mine is based on an unpublished manuscript received from Hayashi Eidai in July 2006 and follow-up telephone conversations with him.

[27] Christopher Reed, “Family Skeletons: Japan's foreign minister and forced labor by Koreans and Allied POWs.” Japan Focus, April 29, 2006. Available.

[28] Matsubara Hiroshi, “Japan Foreign Minister's Visit to POW Remembrance Service Backfires.” Japan Focus, Aug. 2, 2006. Available.

[29] Yomiuri Shimbun online, Feb. 28, 2006 (Endnote 25).

[30] See W. Donald Smith, “Beyond the Bridge on the River Kwai: Labor mobilization in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Zone.” International Labor and Working-Class History, No. 58, Fall 2001.

[31] Ibid. Despite the prominence within Korean-Japanese relations that the forced labor issue has lately assumed, English accounts are scarce. Besides Smith's 2001 article, Petra Schmidt's extensive 2000 article in the Asia- Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law focuses on the compensation question as well as wartime events. Michael Weiner's Race and Migration in Imperial Japan is a valuable book- length treatment, but it was published in 1994 as the contemporary reparations movement was just gathering steam. The main source for this paper's historical account of Korean forced labor and its postwar legacy is the 2005 Japanese book by Yamada, Kosho and Higuchi cited in Endnote 1.

[32] “Japan's forced labor claims debunked?” Dong-A Ilbo online, Feb. 20, 2006.

[33] Smith 2001.

[34] Doji Shiro and Kawahara Ichiro, “Chosenjin ikotsu kokyo toku: Henkan he torikumi hajimaru.” Asahi Shimbun online (Fukuoka-Kitakyushu edition), Aug. 27, 2005.

[35] Yamada, Kosho and Higuchi 2005; chapter 3.

[36] Nakamura Akemi, “Koreans want answers to slave laborers’ fates.” Japan Times online, July 29, 2006. The figure is attributed to Kansai University professor Uesugi Satoshi, a leader of the Japanese Truth Network.

[37] Yamada, Kosho and Higuchi 2005; 6.

[38] Petra Schmidt, “Japan's Wartime Compensation: Forced Labour.” Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 2 (2000); 1-54.

[39] Yamada, Kosho and Higuchi 2005; 11.

[40] Yamada, Kosho and Higuchi 2005, chapter 7, is the source for this discussion about worker repatriation.

[41] Chang Sokkyong, “Hone ga Kataru: ‘Watashi ha koko ni iru, hayaku kokyo ni kaeshite kure.” Speech by South Korean Truth Commission member at Fukuoka public event called “Kankoku-Chosen no Izoku to Tomo ni: Ikotsu Mondai no Kaiketsu he,” Aug. 11, 2006.

[42] Yamada, Kosho and Higuchi 2005; 259-60. Chapter 7 is the basic source for this section.

[43] “Maegaki,” in Yamada Shoji and Tanaka Hiroshi, ed., Rinkoku kara no Kokukatsu: Kyosei Renko no Kigyo Sekinin (2). Tokyo: Soshisha, 1996; 7.

[44] See Alexis Dudden, Japan's Colonization of Korea: Discourse and Power. University of Hawaii, 2005.

[45] Moriya Yoshihiko, “Nihon Haisen Chokugo no Hokkaido Ishikari Kuchi Taden de no Hikyosei Renko Chugokujin Chosenjin no Toso.” Sasebo Kogyo Koto Senmon Gakko Kenkyu Hokoku, No. 36, 1999.

[46] Yamada, Kosho and Higuchi 2005; 235 and chapter 7.

[47] Main sources for this section are Yamada, Kosho and Higuchi 2005, chapter 7; Kosho Tadashi, “Maegaki” and “Kyosei Renko Mibaraikin ha Dono yo ni Bosshu sareta ka,” in Kosho Tadashi, Tanaka Hiroshi, Sato Takeo et al., Nihon Kigyo no Senso Hanzai: Kyosei Renko no Kigyo Sekinin 3, Tokyo: Soshisha, 2000, 6-8 and 48-72; and Yamamoto Naoyoshi, “Jinken Shingai no Chingin Mibarai,” in Kosho, Tanaka, Sato et al. 2000 (same as preceding reference), 81-90.

[48] Yamada, Kosho and Higuchi 2005; 238.

[49] Ibid.; chapter 7.

[50] Ibid.; chapter 7.

[51] Ibid.; 247.

[52] Ibid.; 232.

[53] Ibid.; chapter 7.

[54] Ibid.; 252.

[55] See Endnote 11.

[56] The basic source for this section is Aoyagi Atsuko and Stephen Wolfe (trans.), Japan's Postwar Responsibility for Forced Draft Mobilization of Koreans, condensed translation of Chosenjin Chohei-Choyo ni taisuru Nihon no Sengo Sekinin. Nagoya: Fubaisha, 2005. See also Yumi Wijers-Hasegawa and William Underwood, “Korean Forced Laborers: redress movement presses Japanese government.” Japan Focus, Feb. 23, 2006. Available. The Japanese state has similarly devalued the suffering of Japanese civilians by refusing to compensate families of the hundreds of thousands killed during the American firebombing of 1944-45. See Hanai Kiroku, “Slighting the Air-Raid Victims.” Japan Times online, Aug. 28, 2006.

[57] Aoyagi and Wolfe 2005; 60.