S. Korean forced laborers to seek review for Japan's 99-yen refund plan

(ATTN: UPDATES with details in 2nd bottom para)
GWANGJU, Jan. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korean women who were forced to work for a
Japanese company during World War II will seek a review of the Japanese
government's recent decision to pay them a mere 99 yen in a welfare pension
refund, a civic group here said Monday.
Last month, seven South Korean women received the meager fund after having filed
suit against the Japanese government to claim the value of the welfare pension
fund that they paid into while working at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries around 1944
and 1945.
They were outraged at the decision and criticized Japan for not reflecting the
inflationary value of the amount they had originally paid.
A South Korean private organization to help the female laborers said that they
will help the seven women petition for a review in cooperation with Japanese
civic groups by Jan. 15.
"The Japanese government has paid a mere 99 yen, worth only two packs of noodle,
and makes a fool of the forced laborers," they said in a statement at a press
conference.
The group said that it will hold an one-person protest in front of an affiliate
of the Japanese company in Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul, and launch a
petition-signing campaign to urge the firm to apologize.
During its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, Tokyo forced hundreds of
thousands of Koreans to work in coal mines and military facilities in and around
the country to support its war efforts.
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