Protest outside Japan's Mitsubishi over wartime forced labor

About a dozen people protested outside Mitsubishi Heavy Industries hequarters in Tokyo on Friday, demanding Japanese companies pay compensation for ir wartime abuse of Korean laborers. protesters called on companies to accept South Korean supreme court ruling two years ago that severely strained relations between two neighbors. That court on Oct. 30, 2018, ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. to compensate four plaintiffs for ir wartime forced labor at company.

court a month later me a similar ruling on Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, deepening tensions between two countries. South Korea's bitter memories of Japanese atrocities during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korean Peninsula and compensation issues have been a recurring strain on bilateral ties.

Friday's protest was organized by three Japanese civil groups supporting Korean plaintiffs and seeking settlements of or wartime abuses.Standing outside Mitsubishi hequarters building, protestors held up a sign saying “Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi comply with supreme court ruling."

Japan maintains that all wartime compensation issues were settled by a 1965 treaty and that South Korean rulings violate international law. Japanese courts have also rejected compensation demands by South Korean plaintiffs.Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel have said y were cooperating with Japanese government.

Historians say Japan used about 220,000 wartime Korean forced laborers.Japan ackwledged its wartime aggression and apologized to Asian victims in 1995, but has since significantly backpedaled under former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s nationalistic government that lasted nearly eight years.

latest dispute spilled over into tre and military issues, complicating cooperation between two key American allies.Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who replaced Abe after he stepped down due to health issues in mid-September, has said Japan's position on compensation is unchanged and says Seoul should take appropriate actions to restore “healthy” bilateral relations.

(Im Credit: AP) 

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