日帝末期 强制動員 犧牲者 遺骸問題의 本質과 解決을 위한 提言

The Disposition of the Forcefully-Mobilized Korean Labors' Mortal Body in Japan

This paper is, so to speak, a result of loads of surveying, researching of the victims of the forceful mobilization by the Japanese Imperialism, and referencing of the information offered by some civil organizations and the South Korean government. When the Japanese Imperialism broke out war against the China, the cases of forceful mobilization into the war place were about 7,900,000. Among the Korean people who had been forcefully mobilized to the Japan mainland or other places in Asia, from 200,000 to 600,000 people were just guessed to be deceased outside Korea, or during their journey to motherland after the war. But the Japanese government has not shown any mercy to inform the family of the deceased of the death notice. Rarely the Japanese government notified the death to the surviving family with the details of the situation of the remains. Even most of the notices, not many, were just a kind of death notice without any further information. As a result, the remains of the deceased Korean in Japan have remained as unknowns. The Japanese government, munitions factories, and war plants which positively had performed the forceful mobilization of the Korean laborers did not provide the surviving families with any minimal mercy informing notice of the deceased after the war. neither did in the matter of the returning of the remains. The Japanese government only focused its administrative efforts to the Japanese victims, acting in bad faith to other foreign victims including Koreans, even trying to cover up the traces of forceful mobilization: the Japanese government, knowing the fact of the burying of the Korean laborers in certain places in Japan, did not give a care to excavate the places, identify the remains, and announce the related materials owned by particular local offices or Buddhist temples to the surviving families. This insincerity of the Japanese government for 60 years after the end of the war made the matter of the identification, returning of the remains which have been supposed to be Koreans' in Japan more complex that ever. As the life of a person is precious so is the death of the person. The matter of the remains can not be under control of government or certain civil organizations: the Korean and the Japanese government have not a right to deal with the matter of the remains exclusively without informing of the surviving family. The opinions of the related victims, surviving families, stand above any of theme. The matter of the remains of Koreans in Japan stays at the top of the forceful mobilization by Japan. So this problem should be dealt from the cue of the forceful mobilization by Japan during the colonial period: the end of the remains matter also can be completed with the complete investigations of the forceful mobilization by the Japanese Imperialism.