Nine claimants seek 100 million won each from Mitsubishi


Korean wartime laborers’ first legal victory last week has prompted a chain of similar damage suits by other victims forcefully taken to Japan during the 1910-45 colonial period.

A civic group said that nine Koreans plan to lodge a lawsuit next month here against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., seeking 100 million won ($860,000) in compensation per person for their forced labor between 1944 and 1945.

The plaintiffs including Yang Keum-duk, 84, were conscripted at age 13 to 15 and worked at the Japanese firm’s aviation plant in Nagoya without salary, according to the Gwangju-based group, which represents female forced laborers from World War II.

Japan paid a paltry 99 yen ($1.25) in welfare pension refunds to some of former Korean women workers including Yang last year. They refused the compensation and threw coins in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in October.

She and other laborers lost a similar case in Japan in 1999 and have held 15 rounds of negotiations with Mitsubishi since 2010, the group said.

The association of forcibly conscripted Korean survivors said it is writing to its 21,000 members, asking for participation in class action suits.

The Association for the Pacific War Victims said it has also decided to file collective suits against the Japanese government and businesses. The Seoul-based group will issue statements for negotiations, hold briefing sessions nationwide to assemble plaintiffs and sort them by company.

“The latest Supreme Court decision has lent great weight to bereaved families,” said Yang Sun-im, president of the association.

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of two groups of Koreans claiming compensation from Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel Corp. They demand that the two Japanese companies pay withheld wages and compensation for their forced work from 1941-44.

Upending previous decisions by district and appellate courts in Busan and Seoul, the top court ordered retrials in the two cases, which were filed by nine Koreans and their families in 2000 and 2005.

The court acknowledged for the first time their individual right to seek compensation from the two firms as it was not nullified by a 1965 bilateral agreement between Seoul and Tokyo to settle wartime claims.

“The rulings by Japanese courts were based on the assumption that Japan’s colonial rule was legal. This contrasts with the core value of the Korean Constitution, which regards Japan’s forceful mobilization of Koreans during the period as illegal,” the court said.

While embracing the watershed verdict, Seoul is playing down its impact due to its “civil nature.”

“Despite some discrepancies with the government’s view, the ruling has significance in recognizing the Japanese colonial rule as illegal and respecting the individual right to seek compensation,” a senior government official told reporters Thursday on condition of anonymity.

“However, in all respects, the case is between the victims and the two Japanese firms so that we should wait and see how the retrials play out.”

Seoul maintains that the victims are entitled to pursue compensation both on governmental and individual bases.

In contrast, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura reiterated Friday that the issue was “fully resolved” under the intergovernmental deal that normalized the two countries’ diplomatic ties.

The decades-long argument re-erupted at a delicate time marked by Japan’s constant sovereignty claims over the Korean islets of Dokdo, its falsification of historical facts and failure to apologize to those who were forced to be sex slaves during World War II.

In New Jersey, the U.S., Japanese residents are collecting online signatures to take down a public memorial dedicated to the “comfort women.” More than 5,000 have signed up as of Sunday afternoon.

With additional suits expected to pour in, the two old foes will likely face knotty diplomatic tasks in the coming months.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, nearly 227,000 Koreans have reported their forced labor in Japan. Some scholars estimate that the total number of forced workers between April 1938 and Korea’s liberation in 1945 may have reached 8 million.

“There will be more reports to come,” said Kim Jae-cheon, an official at a fact-finding committee for former conscripted laborers to Japan under the Prime Minister’s Office. “We’ll speed up to calculate the exact figure.”

The committee will continue diplomatic efforts to secure extra lists of victims from Japan, Kim added.

In a separate development, POSCO has decided to spend 10 billion won by 2014 to launch a foundation to compensate the wartime laborers.

The Korean steelmaker was founded in 1973 with the help of a portion of the Japanese indemnity fund under the 1965 compensation deal between the two countries.

“The decision was irrelevant to the latest court ruling because it was made at a board meeting in mid-March as part of our social contribution activities,” a company spokesperson told The Korea Herald.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)