Posted on 01/18/2005 12:52:34 AM PST by nickcarraway
Declassified documents anger victims' families, stir up potential lawsuits
Confidential documents drawn up between Seoul and Tokyo when normalizing diplomatic ties four decades ago were unveiled to the public yesterday under a court ruling, stirring up long-buried dust on victims of Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of this nation.
The government's partial release of its "X-files," consisting of about 1,200 pages, awakened memories of past victims and their families - and incited new claims for compensation.
"The documents will inevitably become a catalyst for compensation lawsuits from victims of the colonial rule," an official at the Foreign Ministry said. "And with more files to be disclosed in the near future, we are expecting increasing public voices on what was settled forty years ago."
The foreign ministries of both countries have each been holding in safe storage a total of 161 sets of documents of the South Korea-Japan Treaty signed in 1965. But Japan has yet to officially open up its own files.
A total of 57 sets are records relating to victims' compensation issues, and the Seoul Administrative Court in February ordered the government to make five of them public following a 2002 lawsuit by a group of 99 alleged South Korean victims who demanded their right to review the documents.
The initially disclosed five sets of files - drawn up between 1963-65 in the final stages of the 14-year marathon discussion with Japan on normalizing bilateral ties - mainly focused on "victims' compensations."
According to officials, the remaining records will be completely opened up - piecemeal - before Aug. 15, when South Korea celebrates its 60th Liberation Day from Japanese rule.
Most of the secret documents are government reports, minutes of negotiation meetings and official instructions that were carried out on Seoul's demands for financial reparation from Japan for their wartime and colonial atrocities.
South Korean officials said Japan has not made any direct objections about Korea's move to open up the files, and have no serious concerns over whether the release will hinder bilateral relations or even cause any friction.
However, Japan previously was reported to be opposed to the disclosure, partly out of concern it could affect normalization talks with North Korea.
Records in the declassified documents show the South Korean government, then under the Park Chung-hee regime, initially demanded $364 million in compensation for some 1.03 million Koreans conscripted into labor and military service for imperialist Japan. Seoul wanted $1,650 and $2,000 respectively for each South Korean injured and killed during the harsh 35 years of colonial rule.
One major issue not answered in the records is how South Korea arrived at its figure of the killed or wounded.
Nonetheless, controversy will be stirred by the fact that South Korea agreed never to make further compensation demands, either at government or individual level, after working out a $800 million package in grants and soft loans.
Three months before the normalization accord was signed, the amount from Japan was finally set at $300 million in grants and $500 million in soft and commercial loans on condition the money would settle all current and future compensation claims.
This promise has already filtered through the Japanese courts, which have used the Korea-Japan normalization treaty in justifying refusal to accept compensation claims from individual Korean victims.
But the release of the documents here marks the first time that the controversial clause has been officially confirmed by South Korea.
Victims are expected to file a series of lawsuits against the Korean government, which they accuse of depriving them of their right to seek individual compensation and of not fairly redistributing the damages it received from Tokyo.
"Now that various claims are being settled in a lump, how to deal with individual claims should be treated as a domestic issue," a South Korean negotiator was quoted as saying in the declassified minutes of the seventh and final round of normalization talks.
However, the government did not provide adequate compensation to victims, using most of the grants instead for economic development.
The Foreign Ministry said the Park Chung-hee government raised a total of 107.7 billion won from the $300 million in grants but spent only 9.7 percent compensating victims between 1975 and 1977.
The government did not compensate anyone who returned unharmed or injured from forced labor or military service, arguing that in doing so it was treating them the same as people who were not conscripted but sustained injuries.
The eventual number of families compensated for their relatives' deaths was 8,552, considerably lower than what the government put forward in the early stages of the normalization talks.
The government at the time said a total of 1.03 million people were forcefully conscripted into the military or workforce, and 77,000 were killed.
Somebody's gonna have some 'splainin' to do..
Not in South Korea. Park is still revered by most every one of the old farts who would be hunting for compensation. That murderous despot was the guy in charge during 'the good old days,' to the vast majority of them.
Not that Noh and his cronies won't enjoy making the anti-communist Park look bad in their quest to make commies look good.
I am curious as to whether this will trigger the same action in other former Japanese colonized countries. Say Taiwan for instance?
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