The judiciary branch has unified its opinion on the abuses of Koreans' human rights during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation.
On Thursday, the Seoul High Court reaffirmed the Japanese government is responsible for compensating former victims of sex slavery forced to work in its military brothels during World War II.
The appellate court’s verdict overturned a lower court’s ruling made two and a half years ago. In April 2021, the Seoul Central District Court dismissed the suit filed by 16 plaintiffs, citing “sovereign immunity.” However, the appeals court recognized Korea’s jurisdiction over the Japanese government, citing customary international laws.
“It is reasonable to consider that there is a common international law that does not recognize state immunity for an illegal act … regardless of whether it was a sovereign act,” it said. The court noted it examined similar cases in foreign countries and new international trends.
That was a forward-looking ruling with historical and legal significance.
There were two lawsuits on compensation for South Korean victims of wartime sex slavery. In January 2021, a division of the same district court ruled in favor of 12 plaintiffs in the “first case.” Three months later, however, a different division dismissed the “second case” filed by 16 plaintiffs. Thursday’s ruling brought unity to the judiciary branch’s judgment. Now, it has no differences in regard to Japanese colonialists’ forceful mobilization of Koreans.
The Japanese government, which has ignored the entire legal proceedings, is unlikely to bring it to the Supreme Court. In the case of compensating for South Korean victims of forced labor during the occupation days, two former Japanese employers appealed but lost at the top court in 2018. That, and the anti-Japanese sentiment in the previous Korean government, had frozen bilateral ties — until the Yoon Suk Yeol administration came up with a solution. Seoul created a fund and gave money to victims.
Despite the legal victory, chances are slim that the plaintiffs will receive compensation from Tokyo. They have not even heard “official apologies” from the Japanese government. Tokyo denies its forceful recruitment of sex slaves. It claims that even if there were some such cases, the 1965 Basic Agreement and the 2015 Comfort Women Accord resolved them.
Most of the victims don’t think so. They believe individuals retain the right to demand indemnity despite the normalization agreement. The former sex slaves’ voices were also entirely ignored in the deal eight years ago.
Immediately after Thursday’s ruling, Tokyo expressed extreme regrets, calling for Seoul to rectify its “breach of international law.” The Japanese government refers to the Korean judiciary branch’s rulings that it sees as defying international accords. As the appeals court noted, however, international precedents support their verdicts.
What the victims want is simple — a “direct” apology and compensation. They want Tokyo to say, “We did it and are sorry.” Nothing more, nothing less. They also want compensation from Tokyo, not Seoul, large or small. At stake here is Japan’s admission of its responsibility.
President Yoon stresses the need to put the past behind to go forward.
However, it takes two to tango. After Seoul decided to compensate forced laborers with its fund in March, Foreign Minister Park Jin hoped Tokyo would “fill the other half of the cup.” Japan has left it half-filled.
Recently, descriptions of wartime sex slavery have disappeared from Japan’s textbooks for grade schoolers. The Yoon administration has set next year’s budget for the Dokdo islets at 380 million won ($290,000), down 25 percent from the year before. It also slashed 73 percent of outlays for rectifying Japan's distortions of history, allotting only 530 million won. Tokyo has set aside 300 million yen (2.7 billion won) to claim the islets, which it calls Takeshima, as its territory.
Many Koreans think the 1965 and 2015 deals were made hastily and wrongly by two presidents, a former Japanese army officer and his daughter.
If Japan refuses to confront its past, the incumbent leader will receive the same treatment from future historians.
In the Korea-Japan relationship, the past is the mirror of the future.