"Withdraw Unauthorized Yasukuni Enshrinement": Korean Families File Third Lawsuit

During the Japanese colonial period, the families of Korean soldiers and military personnel who were forcibly mobilized and enshrined without consent at Yasukuni Shrine in Japan have filed another lawsuit in a Japanese court, demanding their relatives be removed from the enshrinement.

A person involved in the lawsuit demanding the withdrawal of unauthorized enshrinement at Yasukuni Shrine. Minjokmunje Research Institute

According to the Minjokmunje Research Institute and other sources on September 19, six family members, including Park Sunyeop (age 56), a grandchild of one of the victims, filed a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on this day, demanding the withdrawal of the enshrinement and an official apology. Three members of Park's family are each seeking 400,000 yen in compensation, while the other three plaintiffs are each claiming 1.2 million yen.

The institute explained, "This third lawsuit is currently the only ongoing postwar compensation lawsuit in Japan related to the forced mobilization of Koreans," adding, "In this third lawsuit, the grandchildren's generation has participated as plaintiffs."

The Japanese government provided Yasukuni Shrine not only with the names of its own soldiers who died during the Pacific War, but also with the names of Koreans who were forcibly conscripted and killed. As a result, it is known that more than 20,000 Koreans were enshrined together with Japanese Class A war criminals.

The fact that Koreans were enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine only became known in the 1990s. Since then, families and civic groups have filed several lawsuits in the 2000s, but Japanese courts have dismissed all of them.

In January of this year, the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed by 27 Korean family members seeking to cancel the enshrinement, stating that "the 20-year exclusion period has passed." At that time, the plaintiffs symbolically requested 1 yen (about 9 KRW) per person in damages.