SEOUL/IRVINE, CALIFORNIA ¨C Last Oct. 30, South Korea¡¯s Supreme Court ruled that Japanese steel-maker Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. should compensate four colonial-era laborers 100 million won ($87,680) each. According to South Korean government data, Imperial Japan conscripted around 780,000 Korean laborers during its 35-year occupation. Tokyo maintains that all historical compensation issues between the two nations were settled under the 1965 treaty that re-established diplomatic relations and offered $800 million in grants and loans.
On Jan. 9, Tokyo requested diplomatic consultations with Seoul after a South Korean court approved the seizure of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp.¡¯s domestic assets, calling the move ¡°extremely regrettable.¡± South Korean President Moon Jae-in replied in his Jan. 10 New Year¡¯s address that many South Koreans felt the 1965 treaty did not fairly compensate individual victims. Moon claimed that such views were ¡°not created by the government but by unfortunate history,¡± and ¡°we should respect the court ruling.¡±
Respecting the court ruling is a normative claim, which reasonable people may disagree with. However, the claim that such views were ¡°not created by the government¡± is an empirical one that is demonstrably false. Since the United States replaced the pro-Japanese colonial regime with an anti-Japanese, anti-communist one (Syngman Rhee, 1948-1960), ruling parties in South Korea have continuously promoted a biased, selective view of neighboring countries while censoring views to the contrary.
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