Japanese historian criticizes Tokyo’s rejection of S. Korea’s Supreme Court ruling on forced labor

Osamu Ota, a Japanese historian and professor at Doshisha University, at an international symposium titled “Envisioning Peace in East Asia from the Chasm of South Korea-Japan Historical Conflict” at the President Hotel in Seoul on Dec. 10.

Osamu Ota attends international symposium on S. Korea-Japan historical conflict in Seoul

Osamu Ota, a Japanese historian and professor at Doshisha University, at an international symposium titled “Envisioning Peace in East Asia from the Chasm of South Korea-Japan Historical Conflict” at the President Hotel in Seoul on Dec. 10.

“It’s wrong for the Japanese government to denounce the South Korean Supreme Court ruling ordering compensation for forced labor mobilization as a ‘violation of international law.’ This is a reckless response that uses the prestige of the term ‘international law’ to obscure the gist of the Supreme Court’s judgment.”

Osamu Ota, a Japanese historian and professor at Doshisha University who majored in contemporary Korean history, criticized Tokyo’s response to the South Korean Supreme Court’s forced labor mobilization ruling on Dec. 10 while attending an international symposium on “Envisioning Peace in East Asia from the Chasm of South Korea-Japan Historical Conflict” at the President Hotel in Seoul. The symposium that day was sponsored by the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences (NRC) and organized by the Korea Legislation Research Institute (KLRI) and the Seoul National University Institute for Japanese Studies.

Stressing that the “South Korean Supreme Court ruling does not repudiate the 1965 South Korea-Japan Claims Settlement Agreement,” Ota explained, “It recognized the Claims Settlement Agreement, and then concluded that the issue of compensation for victims of forced labor mobilization under Japan’s illegal colonization was not resolved by the Claims Settlement Agreement.”

The Japanese government has claimed that the South Korean Supreme Court judgment violates international law by contradicting the Claims Settlement Agreement, which declared the compensation issue “fully and finally resolved.” Ota disputed this argument outright.

“The Supreme Court ruling and the Japanese government interpretation on the Claims Settlement Agreement differ, but the claim that this constitutes a ‘violation of international law’ does not hold water,” he said.

Previously a co-representative of the Association to Demand Full Disclosure of Japan-Korea Agreement Documents, Ota is an intellectual who has been proactive about addressing historical issues, for example by taking part in a statement by Japanese intellectuals calling on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to clearly apologize and express remorse to South Korea and others.

With forced labor mobilization recently surfacing as the chief issue between Seoul and Tokyo, Ota insisted that it is “a matter for Japanese companies to resolve first as the ones named in the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

“If the Japanese companies can resolve the issue while prioritizing the human rights and dignity of the survivors, they will be expressing to the international community that Japan is a society that values human rights,” he suggested.

Ota also criticized the Japanese government and media for their disregard of history.

“The South Korean Supreme Court’s judgment expresses a demand to recognize that inhumane actions were perpetrated by the companies and to restore the human rights of the victims,” he said.

“All Japan does is to reiterate that the matter is ‘completely resolved,’” he added.

Ota went on to point out the limitations of the 1965 Claims Settlement Agreement itself.

“The Claims Settlement Agreement did not hold Japan responsible for colonization and the war, and it included nothing to ‘overcome the past’ through the investigation of forced wartime labor mobilization during the colonization or through measures to demand accountability, an apology, and compensation,” he stressed.

By Kim So-youn, staff reporter

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