Yang Geum-deok (2nd from R), a South Korean victim of Japan’s wartime forced labor, calls for Japan’s apology for its wrongdoings during its 1910-45 colonial rule in front of the headquarters of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd in Tokyo on June 27, 2019. (Yonhap)
GWANGJU, Jul. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor denounced Tokyo on Thursday for restricting tech material exports in an apparent response to the Korean top court’s rulings on compensation over Japan’s wrongdoings.
Japan said earlier this week it will tighten regulations on exports to South Korea of high-tech chemicals used in semiconductor and smartphone production starting Thursday.
It apparently targets the Korean court’s order for Japanese firms to compensate Korean victims over wartime forced labor.
“Japan is repeating what it did in the past. I am so angry,” Yang Geum-deok, 87, said.
“(Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo) Abe does not appear to have a plan to apologize (to the Korean victims over its wartime wrongdoings), given the country takes economic retaliatory measures. I’ll fight until my last day,” she said.
Kim Jae-rim, an 89-year-old victim, also showed an angry reaction, stressing that Tokyo should apologize for its wartime atrocities and compensate Korean victims.
“Japan is so brazen, at a time when even if Japan kneels and repents for its wrongdoings, I am not sure whether my anger can be soothed,” she added.
In late October, the Supreme Court ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. to compensate four South Koreans for wartime forced labor and unpaid work.
One month later, the court handed down similar rulings against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to pay compensation to 10 former forced laborers.
Japan reacted angrily to the decisions, claiming that all reparation issues linked to its 1910-45 colonial rule were settled in the 1965 state-to-state pact on normalizing diplomatic relations.
A civic group supporting South Korean female victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor said it is considering a campaign to boycott Japanese goods in response to Tokyo’s export curbs.
The group has been calling for consumers not to buy goods produced by Japanese companies that used forced labor during World War II. It is mulling whether to expand its drive to overall Japanese products.
“Japan is taking an irrational attitude,” the group said. “We are considering staging a movement to boycott Japanese products that are usually used in our daily lives.”
(Yonhap)
