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Roundup: Thousands of South Koreans to suit Japanese firms for wartime exploitation

Xinhua, February 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

At least 1,000 South Koreans who were forced to work for Japanese companies during World War II are planning to file the largest class-action suit of its kind for damages inflicted by their former employers.

"More than 1,000 victims and bereaved families said they will join the class-action suit. After legal review, the suit will be filed with the Seoul Central District Court against 66 Japanese firms," Chang Duk-hwan, secretary general of the Asia Victims of the Pacific War Family of the Deceased Association of the Korea, said in a phone interview Thursday.

According to Chang, some 7.8 million Koreans were coerced into working for about 4,000 Japanese companies during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. The Koreans performed dangerous tasks without being paid.

Though most of the Japanese companies disappeared after the end of WWII, 66 companies, including Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Aso and Nissan, are still in operation.

Japanese companies have denied responsibility, insisting that the issue was resolved by a 1965 treaty, which normalized diplomatic ties between Seoul and Tokyo.

The South Korean Supreme Court ruled in May 2012 that individual claims for damages still exist despite the 1965 treaty, triggering a wave of such suits against Japanese firms.

In June 2014, the South Korean victims' association filed a class-action suit, with 252 victims and bereaved families, against the Japanese companies.

On Wednesday, three South Korean women in their mid-80s held a press conference in the southwestern city of Gwangju, saying that they were paid 199 yen (1.68 U.S. dollars) by the Japanese government as compensation for withdrawing from Japan's national pension scheme.

The three were forced to work for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for more than a year from May 1944 when they were teenagers. The women, producing military supplies for the Imperial Japan, had suffered from hard labor, hunger, beating and a lack of payment.

"It made everyone speechless. 199 yen ... there is no insult worse than such insults." a civic group supporting the victims told reporters in Gwangju.

South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper denounced Japan for dismissing the "wailing" of old victims, saying that Japan could not shun responsibility with makeshift measures.

From 1910 to 1945, Japan lured at least 700,000 young Koreans into hard labor, lying that they would be allowed to go to school in exchange for the work, according to local broadcaster YTN.

Another five South Korean women also filed a suit against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The South Korean court ruled in 2013 that the Japanese company should pay a total of 680 million won (621,000 dollars) to the victims. The suit is under trial by the Gwangju appeals court. Endi