Families Sue to Remove Korean Names from Yasukuni War Shrine

Korean families are now suing the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan in order to remove the names of 21,000 Koreans enshrined there for their war time service to imperial Japan during World War II:

Families of Koreans who died while serving as part of the Japanese military during World War II are planning to sue the group that runs the Yasukuni Shrine, considered a symbol of Japan’s war of aggression. The families demanding that memorial tablets of their ancestors and relatives be removed from the shrine.

This is believed to mark the first time Koreans have sued the shrine itself instead of the Japanese government to have family members’ memorial tablets removed.

The group “Anti-Yasukuni Joint Action” announced that it is suing on behalf of the 21,000 Koreans memorialized in Yasukuni, and that it plans to file the suit at Tokyo District Court on the anniversary of the March 1 independence campaign of 1919. The group says it is going to announce the move in a press conference on Friday, December 8, the 64th anniversary of the outbreak of the Pacific War.

One of the little known facts of World War II is the number of Koreans that served in the Imperial Japanese military.  Korean scholars today say those who served were forced to fight in the Japanese military against their will.  This is true in some cases but as was evident by the conviction of a number of Koreans for war crimes after World War II many did serve freely.

So that brings me to the point I want to make, is that if there are Koreans that did serve freely and believed in the Japanese cause, then what’s wrong with them being enshrined at Yasukuni?  Isn’t that what they would have wanted if they believed enough in the Japanese cause to die for it?  That leads me to my next point of how will a court be able to tell the difference between Koreans who served freely and those who were forced into the military in able to determine who should be removed from the shrine?  Plus can relatives legally speak for what the deceased would have wanted in the first place?  This is also taking for granted that the court can even remove the names because Yasukuni is a private shrine and not funded or operated by the government.

Common sense tells me that if immediate family members to the deceased want the name removed then they should remove it, but for a few families to demand that all 21,000 names be removed from Yasukuni seems like a stretch to me.  Imagine if a few families from an ethnic minority in America sued to have all people of that minority removed from the Vietnam War Memorial?  It wouldn’t happen; just like in Japan I don’t see court ordering the removal of any names from Yasukuni either.

However, I did find this paragraph from the article very interesting:

The Korean branch of the anti-Yasukuni group plans to hold an “East Asian Peace Festival” next year for human rights and peace activists from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan in Tokyo next year, and organize a scholarly meeting in New York to make the international community aware of “how Yasukuni is against civilization and peace” before taking its case to the UN Human Rights Commission.

What I find it interesting that this Korean group thinks Yasukuni is “against civilization and peace” and is an issue that needs to be taken up with the UN Human Rights Commission, when just 30 miles north of Seoul is a real human rights issue, North Korea that the majority of Koreans like to ignore and cover for as a “special situation”.  Maybe Yasukuni is a “special situation” to the Japanese as well?

HT: Japan Probe

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James
17 years ago

While there were certainly Koreans who were forced into serving in the Japanese military, the majority of those who died in combat were probably volunteers (It can be argued that many were forced into "volunteering," but there were also many Koreans . I've heard that official forced conscription of Koreans didn't come until later in the war, so the majority of Korean units were still in training when the war ended. Some Koreans served as officers in the military, and there were even some Koreans who died as Kamikaze pilots. It's pretty sad that these families are so blinded by their anti-Japanese nationalist rage that they refuse to acknowledge that some of those 21,000 Koreans enshrined at Yasukuni died as loyal subjects of Imperial Japan and would have probably viewed enshrinement as an honor.

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17 years ago

[…] -GI Korea has made an insightful post about the Koreans who are suing to have the name of every Korean who is enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine removed. Help Japanprobe Grow by sharing this post:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]

Darin
Darin
17 years ago

Korean scholars today say those who served were forced to fight in the Japanese military against their will. This is true in some cases but as was evident by the conviction of a number of Koreans for war crimes after World War II many did serve freely.

Something that will always cause trouble for the left-wing in Korea is that Japan was a country with laws that kept legal records. I think they'll be rather disappointed to find out that all Korean soldiers who died fighting for Japan volunteered to do so.

Japan had two sets of laws for the two sets of Japanese nationals; the outsiders and the insiders. The outsiders (外地人) being those who became Japanese as a result of the Empire, the insiders (内地人) being 'original' Japanese. One of these laws that differed was the military draft. Although Japan began the draft in 1872, it didn't apply to Koreans and other 外地人. It wasn't until 1938 and 1942 when the voluntary enlistment system was widened to Koreans and Taiwanese respectively. Previously, they were not allowed to join the military even if they wanted due to concerns of loyalty.

Yet when Japan started to run out of soldiers, the draft was widened to Koreans in 1944, however the war ended before they completed their training. Meaning that they were never sent to the battle lines, therefore anyone who died fighting was put in the front lines by their own will.

When faced with such information, many times people will say as James mentioned that they were "forced into 'volunteering'". They will claim that if they didn't volunteer, they'd be drafted, so they may as well volunteer. However see above again to be reminded that the draft did not apply to the Koreans.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/朝&eac
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/台&aelig
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/å¿&mdas

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17 years ago

[…] the Meiji era of Japanese history.  Interestingly enough, something you won’t hear too many Koreans talk about, is that over 21,000 Koreans who fought for the Japanese Imperial military during World War II are […]

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17 years ago

[…] -GI Korea has made an insightful post about the Koreans who are suing to have the name of every Korean who is enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine removed. Help Japanprobe Grow by sharing this post:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]

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17 years ago

[…] -GI Korea has made an insightful post about the Koreans who are suing to have the name of every Korean who is enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine removed. Help Japanprobe Grow by sharing this post:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]

trackback
17 years ago

[…] -GI Korea has made an insightful post about the Koreans who are suing to have the name of every Korean who is enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine removed. Help Japanprobe Grow by sharing this post:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]

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