Here is the latest dust up between Korea and Japan:
South Korean foreign ministry spokesman, Noh Kyu-duk, issues a statement on Nov. 29, 2018 in this photo provided by Yonhap News TV. (Yonhap)
The South Korean government urged Japan on Thursday to refrain from “overreacting” to Seoul court rulings against a Japanese firm for wartime forced labor.
“It’s very regrettable that the Japanese government is continuing to respond excessively to our judiciary’s ruling, and (we) call for its restraint,” the foreign ministry’s spokesman, Noh Kyu-duk, said at a press briefing.
He said it’s natural for an administration to respect a court decision in a democracy.
The ministry called in Japan’s ambassador to Seoul, Yasumasa Nagamine, to deliver a direct protest message.
The ambassador did not answer a reporter’s question while entering the ministry building in Seoul.
Hours earlier, the Supreme Court ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. to compensate 10 Koreans who worked at its shipyard and other production facilities in Hiroshima and Nagoya in 1944 with no pay and a bereaved family member of another on two separate suits.
The court upheld two appellate court judgments — one that ordered Mitsubishi to disburse 100-120 million won (US$89,000-109,000) to each of four female victims, and the relative, and the other that ordered it to pay 80 million won each to six elderly men.
In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono immediately described the verdicts as “very regrettable and unacceptable.”
He argued that they run counter to the 1965 pact between the governments of the neighboring countries on normalizing bilateral diplomatic ties. He said all reparation issues related to Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea were settled through the accord. [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link, but the 1965 pact signed saw $500 million from Japan given to South Korea. The ROK government at the time could have compensated everyone back then with that money, however it was instead used for the overall development of the country such as improving infrastructure. The money ultimately helped with the country’s economic development at the expense of direct compensation to those effected by Japan’s colonial rule. This is why Japan is so strongly against the court rulings they feel they have already paid compensation.
With that all said when is the ROK government going to launch lawsuits on behalf of victims of North Korea’s kidnappings and provocations in far more recent times than Japan’s colonial rule that began over a century ago?
Here is an update on the story of a US Army nurse set on fire by a civilian co-worker at the hospital at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Her supervisors ignored her pleas for months before the attack to do something about the guy. Now she is launching a lawsuit against the Army:
Before and after photos of 1st Lt. Katie Blanchard, who was set on fire by a civilian Army employee in 2016. (Facebook)
One year ago, an Army civilian who tossed a water bottle full of gasoline onto his supervisor and lit a match was sentenced by a judge to 20 years in prison for attempted murder.
The Feres doctrine prevents service members and their families from suing the Defense Department in the event of injury or death, but for 1st Lt. Katie Blanchard, that is beside the point. In September, she filed a personal injury claim against the Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she was working at Munson Army Health Center at the time of the September 2016 assault.
“Is it okay for us to have gross negligence and zero accountability in the military? Because if you look at my case, that’s what it is,” Blanchard told Army Times in a Wednesday phone interview. “Zero accountability for the way they treated me and the things that they missed that will forever affect my life.”
Blanchard, 28, is asking for just under $3.5 million to cover some of the costs of the permanent disabilities she faces, after more than 100 surgeries to date and an intense battle with post-traumatic stress. [Army Times]
I recommend reading the whole thing at the link because she was obviously failed by her leadership at Ft. Leavenworth. With that said the other failure I see in this case is the difficulty with trying to fire government civilian workers. I wonder how much that played into the attitude her superiors had with dealing with her co-worker?
With that all said it is going to be interesting to see how this lawsuit plays out because if the Army can be sued for negligence this will open a Pandora’s Box of lawsuits against the Army.
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