Among the victims of forced labor by Japanese companies, only 15 cases have been confirmed by the Supreme Court.
Then, why is there no news of the confirmation of compensation for other victims yet?
Reporter Kim Sang-hoon met Grandmother Kim Jeong-ju, who had spent 20 years in a court battle and was now 92 years old.
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A 13-year-old girl boarded a ship bound for Japan in the early spring of 1945.
I thought I was meeting her sister while she was studying abroad, but she arrived at an airplane parts factory.
[Grandmother Kim Jeong-ju (last year 2019)]
“I burst into tears and said ‘Mom, Mom’… I cried and sang Arirang because I didn’t know why we came here…” An older
sister who was taken to Mitsubishi, and a younger sister who suffered heavy labor in Fujikoshi.
In 2000, her sister, now in her 70s, started a lawsuit in Japan for damages.
[Grandmother Kim Jung-ju (Last 2012, Headquarters, Fujikoshi, Tokyo)]
“Let’s talk, let’s talk…”
The sisters who lost side by side knocked on the door of our court again.
In the end, her sister Kim Seong-ju, grandmother, received a 100 million won compensation judgment from the Supreme Court in 2018.
However, her younger sister, Kim Jung-ju, is still with her grandmother.
It’s been 20 years since she went to her first fight in Japan, and it’s been 10 years since she found a Korean court.
In particular, the Supreme Court has just stopped the trial for four and a half years, even though it is the same as the sister’s case.
[Grandmother Kim Jeong-ju]
“There was no word to say to have a trial even in the courtroom. It was so unfair… I think I was betrayed again in Korea.”
A total of 9 cases have been suspended in the Supreme Court for 4 or 5 years.
Only 10 out of 50 victims of forced labor are alive.
The late Mitsubishi victim Yang Young-soo passed away last May and the late Kim Jae-rim last month.
[The late Kim Jae-rim grandmother (last year 2015)]
“Isn’t it really unfair and resentful?”
When I asked the Supreme Court, it only repeated its position that the trial was in progress안전놀이터.
Lee Gyun-yong, the new Chief Justice nominee, only replied, “I will clarify my position at the hearing.”