Sooki Park, Gwangju City Councilor, to Hold Forum on Establishing "Museum of Japanese Forced Mobilization History"

"Preserving Lawsuit Records Containing Victims' Resentment and Sorrow Is Essential"
2:00 p.m. on June 12, 4th Floor Meeting Room, Gwangju City Council

Sooki Park, Gwangju City Councilor.

Sooki Park, a Gwangju City Councilor from the Democratic Party of Korea representing Gwangsan District 5, announced on June 11 that she will hold a policy forum at 2:00 p.m. on June 12 in the meeting room on the fourth floor of the city council. The forum will be held to mark the 80th anniversary of Liberation and to discuss how to remember and carry on the history of Japanese colonial rule.

The forum is expected to raise the need for establishing a "Museum of Japanese Forced Mobilization History" and to reaffirm the importance of the "struggle for remembrance" in response to Japan's distortion of history.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, as of January this year, there are only 640 survivors of forced mobilization nationwide. This number has sharply decreased each year, with 264 survivors passing away in the past year alone, down from 904 last year.

During the forum: ▲ Hyekyung Jung, head of the Japanese War Relics Network, will present cases focusing on "the current state and utilization plans for domestic Japanese war relics"; ▲ Gukon Lee, director of the Citizens' Group for Japanese Forced Mobilization, will expose human rights conditions through "the testimonies of eight victims mobilized to the Kanebo spinning factory in Gwangju"; and ▲ Seongtae No, director of the Namdo History Research Institute, will present the necessity of establishing a "Museum of Japanese Forced Mobilization History" by highlighting the anti-Japanese struggle led by the late Geumju Lee, who was the head of the Gwangju Bereaved Families Association for Pacific War Victims.

Councilor Park stated, "Gwangju has taken the lead in legal struggles against Japan for the restoration of human rights and postwar settlement for victims of forced mobilization, centered around the Gwangju Bereaved Families Association for Pacific War Victims." She emphasized, "The records of lawsuits against Japan, which contain the victims' resentment and sorrow, have yet to find a proper place for preservation. It is necessary to discuss the establishment of a museum dedicated to the history of Japanese forced mobilization."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.