Civic groups urge Hatoyama to apologize for Japan's war crimes

By Kim Boram
SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korean civic groups representing victims of
Japan's colonial aggressions staged rallies Thursday, a day ahead of Japanese
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's visit here, renewing their demands for
compensation and an apology from Tokyo.
"We welcome Hatoyama, who has shown a flexible attitude toward historical
issues," members from 33 civic groups said at a press conference in front of the
Japanese embassy in downtown Seoul. "He has already spoken many times about
settling the past between South Korea and Japan, as well as Japan's war history."

"Nevertheless, we have come together today because concerns are as high as
expectations," they said in a joint statement.
"We demand an apology and due compensation from the Japanese government for all
South Korean victims of Japan's wartime wrongdoings, including comfort women and
forcibly mobilized laborers," they said.
The civic groups also said South Korean President Lee Myung-bak should press
Hatoyama during their summit Friday to resolve the two nation's historical
issues.
Seoul and Tokyo are in long-running dispute over the legacy of Japan's
colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945. Historical records show that
Japan drafted hundreds of thousands of Koreans to work at coal mines and military
facilities, and coerced women to serve as sex slaves for its soldiers in and
outside of Japan.
The disputes have grown in intensity with Japan's claim to a set of South
Korea-controlled islets in the East Sea, and repeated pilgrimages by senior
Japanese officials to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Class-A war
criminals. The visits to the shrine are a recurring irritant to many of Japan's
neighbors that were victims of its wartime aggressions.
Hatoyama has said he will not visit the shrine.
The civic groups also demanded that the Japanese government remove tablets
bearing the names of South Koreans, mostly those drafted by the Japanese army,
that are enshrined in Yasukuni Shrine.
brk@yna.co.kr
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