[LINK] "WWII Lawsuits Muddy Effort to Ease Japan-South Korea Tension"

[rfmcdonald]

Sam Kim of Bloomberg looks at how ongoing legal issues are hindering improvements in relations between Japan and South Korea.

South Korean activists are complicating President Park Geun Hye’s tentative steps to improve ties with Japan, by turning to courts to seek recognition they were forced to work for Japanese companies, used as sex slaves or suffered after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

A South Korean court Wednesday ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to pay five South Koreans compensation for forced labor prior to Japan’s defeat in World War II. A planned appeal could take the case to the Supreme Court, where two similar cases are pending. Further muddying the issue is a threat this week by women forced into sexual servitude to file a suit against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the U.S.

A separate court Friday turned down a suit by 79 Koreans who worked in Hiroshima during the war. The plaintiffs demanded that the South Korean government either pay them 10 million won ($9,000) each or press Japan harder to compenstate them for their suffering after the nuclear bomb was dropped. Their leader Sung Rak Koo said he will appeal the court decision.

The legal wrangling contrasts with recent efforts by the nations’ leaders to repair ties that have soured over a territorial dispute and Park’s demands for further Japanese repentance over its World War II aggression. Park, who has refused to hold a bilateral summit with Abe, joined him in calling for a fresh start at ceremonies Monday to mark 50 years of diplomatic ties. The spat is weighing on trade and strategic cooperation between the two U.S. allies.

“No start is new unless all sins are redressed,” said Kim Han Su, 97, an activist who was made to work at a Mitsubishi Heavy shipyard in the southern Japanese port of Nagasaki from 1944 to 1945. “Park and Abe are hiding their heads in the sand if they are trying to bury historical wrongdoing,” said Kim, who isn’t one of the plaintiffs.