Japanese firms vow to challenge South Korean court rulings
South Korean courts order companies to compensate Koreans who were forced to work for them during Japanese colonial rule
Two Japanese companies say they will appeal against verdicts in which they were ordered to compensate South Koreans who were forced to work in the company's factories during the period of Japanese colonial rule of Korea, which ended with the second world war.
The high court in Busan on Tuesday ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay US$71,800 to each of the five Koreans.
We understand that all such claims between the two countries, including compensation for interned labourers, have been completely and conclusively settled under official state agreements
It was the second such ruling against a Japanese company last month. On July 10, the Seoul High Court ordered the Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation to pay US$89,800 to each of four South Korean plaintiffs to compensate them for forced labour.
The Busan court said in its ruling that Mitsubishi forced the South Korean plaintiffs to "toil in poor conditions in Hiroshima and yet failed to pay wages", and "did not provide proper shelter or food after the dropping of an atomic bomb" there in 1945. All five plaintiffs are now deceased; their families represented them in court.
The two rulings were the first in favour of South Koreans in a 16-year legal battle waged in Japan and South Korea, and they could prompt similar lawsuits from other victims or their families. At least 1.2 million Koreans were forced to work for Japan's war efforts in Japan, China and elsewhere, South Korean historians said. Some 300 Japanese companies still in operation are believed to have used forced labour during the colonial period from 1910 to 1945, according to officials in Seoul.
South Korean plaintiffs first sued in Japan in 1997, but Japan's top court dismissed the cases in 2005, saying the 1965 treaty normalising diplomatic ties between Japan and South Korea closed the issue. The companies took the same position in the court cases that were held in South Korea.
"While we have not confirmed the details of the ruling, we understand that all such claims between the two countries, including compensation for interned labourers, have been completely and conclusively settled under official state agreements," a spokesman for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said in a statement reacting to the Busan court's ruling.
If the rulings against Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi are upheld by the Supreme Court in South Korea and the Japanese companies refuse to pay compensation, the plaintiffs could try to have the court seize assets of the companies in South Korea, a step that would certainly escalate into a diplomatic row.
