Massive anti-Abe rallies held on National Liberation Day
Korean protesters with images of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shout slogans during a rally to mark the Korean Liberation Day from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday. / AP-Yonhap
By Kim Jae-heun
Massive rallies took place throughout Seoul Thursday amid the rain as the nation celebrated the 74th Liberation Day, condemning Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his trade restrictions on Korea.
An association of more than 10 civic groups including the Movement for One Korea and Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities gathered at Seoul Plaza to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the country's liberation from the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule, while discussing ways to address issued related to wartime forced labor.
Japan removed Korea recently from its “whitelist” of trusted trading partners apparently in retaliation to the Korean Supreme Court's verdicts that ordered Japanese firms to compensate individual surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor.
Three survivors of the wartime atrocity ― Lee Chun-sik, Yang Keum-deok and Kim Jeong-ju ― joined the rally to share their stories and asked participants to help solve the historical matter.
Some 2,000 people walked from Seoul Plaza to the former Japanese embassy site in central Seoul, holding hundreds of banners urging Abe to apologize to the victims and compensate them.
“I came out today to participate in the anti-Abe campaign rally. There are not many things I can do against Japan's economic retaliation except joining this protest,” said Kil Tae-gyu, a 31-year-old office worker.
“I read in the news that some Japanese politicians are not taking ongoing protests here seriously because they believe Koreans are hot-tempered and the situation will be resolved soon. But I want to show them this time that Koreans are really angry and we will fight to the end to induce Abe's surrender.”
Those who also held candlelight vigils last Saturday in front of the Japanese embassy relocated to Gwanghwamun Square to continue their fifth protest. This time the rally was jointly held by an association of 750 civic groups as a pan-national candle culture festival, where they called for wider public participation in the ongoing anti-Japan boycott.
They claimed the event was aimed at censuring the Abe administration and not Japanese people, with whom they wish to bring peace together in both countries.
The civic groups also urged people to sign a national petition calling for abolishing the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), which they say allows the expansion of Japan's military influence on the Korean Peninsula.
The protesters argued that the pact was signed by former President Park Geun-hye in 2016 and she did not seek public consensus on it.
The rally crowd was mixed, as a conservative group demanding release of impeached President Park also gathered at Seoul Square in central Seoul. They claimed Park is innocent and the court should free her.
Also, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), a militant labor group, held a national workers' rally at Gwanghwamun Square to reflect on the history of labor struggles since the 1945 liberation and call for the supporting laborers' rights.