뉴스레터

“The plaintiff’s father, Dong Seon-hong, was born on January 9, 1911; he was forced into the Navy in 1941, and died on 25 October 1944 in the North Pacific. He was improperly enshrined inside the Tokyo War Shrine in October 1959 without notice to his bereaved family.”

I am Dong Jeong-nam, the plaintiff in this trial. The son of Dong Seon-hong who was enshrined into TWS. I would like to tell my story to the judges and lawyers, as well as those who have gathered for this trial.

I was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1944. My father was already forced to work. So I have never seen my father's face, and I have no memory of him. My father worked at the Mitsubishi factory in Nagoya, and all my family lived in Nagoya. When the company was ordered to mobilize in March 1943 and the Koreans were forced to mobilize, my father went with them as a guide. But he didn’t come home and lost contact. Since March 1945, when the bombing in Nagoya became worse, my mother returned to the house of Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do. Since then, I and my two sisters have grown up under my grandfather and grandmother. It happened when I was three.

As I got married, had children, and got older, I became more and more aware of finding records about my father. I thought it was a good thing to do, so I studied Japanese alone to find my father's traces. And in early 1990, I went to Minato District, Nagoya city, where I was born and my family lived. It all changed, and there were buildings like warehouses. So I asked Minato District Office, Nagoya City Hall, Aichi Prefecture Office if there was a record of my father. But I could only hear that all the records were burned by the air strike.

But I wasn't deterred. I heard from my aunt that my father was working at the Mitsubishi factory and was mobilized to the Chishima training center in 1944, and I had the expectation that my father would live somewhere. So in May 1997, I visited the Korean Consulate in Vladivostok. Thankfully, the consulate helped me advertise in the local media New Koryo Newspaper. But I couldn’t hear anything about my father.

I'm determined to find trace of my father. About a decade after I started tracking his footsteps and traces, I found his name on the Navy's death list. The father was assigned to the Ominato Facility and died on October 25, 1944, in the North Pacific. It was recorded that many people, including my father, died on the same date, at the same place. I also went to the Naval Training Center in Ominato, Aomori Prefecture. I went to Hokkaido to get closer to the place where my father died, and I went to Sakhalin. Looking at the North Pacific Ocean, I called out the name of my father who was only left in pictures.

Your Honor, and everyone in this courtroom. Do you know how I felt at the time? I don't want to be hurt or distressed by Japan anymore. Two years ago, on September 6, 2013, I saw more detailed and shocking traces of my father in the "Public Survey of the Navy". My father was deployed to the Chishima facility in Ominato and worked at Kitachishima. On October 25, 1944, Hakuyo Maru was sunk and disappeared, so he was announced as a war dead in September 1946. My father, who died in the cold sea, missing his family without returning home. I can't bear to be sad when I think of him. But there was something that was most shocked and angry. It was a round seal with a document that stated that my father was enshrined in TWS on July 31, 1959. But TWS said there were no remains, only a list of names with my father's name on it. I was angry that my father was enthrined as a 'God' in TWS.

It was a moment when all those efforts that I had spent long and long years looking for my father were futile. I didn’t know where my father died, and I didn’t know how he died. I lived with the expectation that he might be alive. So I wandered all over Japan to find his traces and went to Russia. We do not even know if his remains have sunk into the sea or what happened. But how do we understand that the Japanese government has enshrined in TWS without contacting family members? I just couldn't understand that TWS was ‘using’ my father as a ‘god’. I will not ask why the Japanese government enshrined my father in TWS. I don't want to argue. I'm just strongly demanding that TWS remove my father's name right now. My father is a Korean, not a Japanese. He was not dead for the Emperor. It is unfair to die young because of the war caused by Japanese imperialism, and to enshrined him to TWS. I cannot forgive Japan. It is common sense to inform the family that he died, and to ask whether to enshrine in TWS or not. Is it still colonial? I strongly urge the Japanese government to remove my father's name from TWS once again.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of liberation. I was angry when I heard Abe's statement a while ago. I did not expect Abe, who visited TWS, but there was no truth in the contents of the statement. Without mentioning a word about the Koreans suffering from colonial rule, what does he reflect on and apologize to anyone? Victims like me live in pain. But how does he seem to solve all the problems? The whole world is laughing because such a person talks about peace, visits TWS, ignores the peace constitution, and tries to make Japan a war-capable country again. I think the Japanese government should sincerely apologize to the victims and take responsibility for concrete action. And TWS should remove my father's name. Don't make excuses anymore, don't force us to suffer.