Japan to hand over payroll records on forced Korean laborers

(ATTN: ADDS with new information, comments from para 13)
By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Yonhap) -- Japan has agreed to hand over to South Korea records of
over 200,000 Korean civilians who never got paid after being forced to work for
private Japanese firms during World War II, a Japanese vernacular daily said
Thursday.
After years of refusal, the Japanese government agreed to send the records that
date back more than six decades, when some 5.4 million Koreans were conscripted
to work in the Japanese army, as well as factories and mines in Japan and its
colonial territories.
The documents, to be sent to the Korean government by March, show that about 200
million yen (US$2.2 million) in overdue wages are owed to more than 200,000
living and deceased Korean laborers, according to the Asahi Shimbun's Thursday
edition.
It is the first time for Japan to release records on Koreans who worked in
private Japanese firms. In 2007, the Japanese government sent Seoul payment
records on Koreans who had worked for the Japanese army.
To tackle labor shortages as a result of over-drafting of its men for the
military during World War II, Japan recruited Koreans to work in Japan beginning
in 1939, when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule.
By 1942, amid an increased labor shortage, the Japanese authorities extended the
provisions of its mobilization law to include the involuntary conscription of
Koreans working in factories and mines on the Korean Peninsula and Manchukuo.
In 1945, hundreds of thousands of conscripted Korean laborers in Japan abandoned
their jobs and returned to Korea.
Defining the remaining 600,000 Koreans as foreigners -- even though many them
were long-time residents or had been born in Japan -- Japanese authorities began
to limit their citizenship rights, causing diplomatic tension with Seoul.
South Korea normalized diplomatic ties with Japan through a 1965 accord with the
signing of a treaty on basic relations and supplementary agreements involving
property claims, fishing rights, the legal rights of Koreans in Japan and
economic cooperation.
The accord, however, has been a stumbling block for South Koreans seeking
compensation from the Japanese government for its colonial rule of the peninsula.

Japan claims it is under no obligation to pay the forced Korean laborers, as it
paid $500 million to Seoul in 1965, satisfying all compensation claims. Most of
the money was put toward the development of South Korean steel companies.
Seoul has often maintained an ambiguous position on the issue and began
compensating forced Korean laborers and their families out of its own pocket in
2008.
The government, meanwhile, said it plans to analyze and store the documents
digitally for better access.
The "Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization Under Japanese Imperialism" at the
Office of the Prime Minister said it will set up a special task force to carry
out the work, which may take around six months.
"The documents are expected to help Seoul find out precisely who was conscripted
to work for Japanese companies during the occupation period," a official said.
About 120,000 Koreans who claim they worked in a Japanese company have not been
able to provide proof of their employment. These people, who could not receive
compensation, may be able to apply again once the Japanese data is analyzed in
detail.
At present, Seoul compensates 7,182 workers who have been able to prove they were
forced to work for the Japanese. The new data is expected to increase the number
of state compensation recipients.
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