Mitsubishi Grandmothers
This is the story of Yang Kum-deok, one of many Korean middle-schoolers taken during the 1940s to work in the Mitsubishi factories in Japan. What was presented to be the opportunity of a lifetime soon tragically turned into a living nightmare for her and many others, in which the battle for justice still rages on to this day.
We often hear of the great struggles of history; the leaders and nations fighting for freedom from tyranny. It’s these images that history remembers in monumental events such as the Second World War. Each nation has its own story to tell, but what about the stories that we do not hear of? What about the stories that are so often swept under the rug and forgotten? For some, the dark stains on the conscience still remain.
The History
At the height of the Pacific War in 1944, Japan was in control of most of East and South East Asia. Its reach had extended from Korea in 1910 and had threatened as far as Australia in the South Pacific. Italy had been long defeated by the Allies but Germany was still proving formidable in Europe. The Japanese empire needed labor, resources and increased firepower if it had any chance of winning the war in the Pacific.
In May 1944 Yang Kum-deok was a Jeolla 6th grader in elementary school at the age of 14. Korea had long since been under Japanese rule and the school system had been transformed as such.
One fateful day, the principal entered Yang’s classroom alongside a military officer. “They explained they would send a few students to a female middle school in Japan,” Yang recalls, “with the potential to gain an excellent education and earn lots of money.” Naturally, the opportunity was there for the taking and she volunteered along with the rest of the class.
As Yang was the class representative with excellent grades, the homeroom teacher recommended her highly. She would end up joining a total of 135 young female teenagers from Jeollanamdo, 350 from Chungchungnamdo and 300 from the Chosun area (named the “Chosun Female Labor Squad”) to be transported to Nagoya, Japan.
Yang was the youngest of seven siblings and her parents could sense what was coming. “They knew that it was only a matter of time until the war would be over, because the Japanese were now fighting the US. So my parents didn’t want me to go,” Yang recalls, “but it was too late as I had already been designated by my homeroom teacher. If my parents resisted, they would have been taken to the police station.”
On May 30th, the girls were shipped off to Japan, where they were taken on a three-week trip around the country. But the vacation was short-lived as the true agenda began to show.
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‘Almost every Friday for the past three years, organized protests have been taking place . . . She asks Mitsubishi rhetorically, “Are you simply waiting for us to die?”’
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On arrival in Nagoya, the students were taken straight to the Mitsubishi factory and told that they would work first and study later. Their wages were also to be kept and given to them at an unconfirmed date. Work began at 8am and continued until 6pm, seven days a week. They shared small rooms, around seven students in each, while lunch consisted of small portions of rice and rotten potatoes.
They were kept separate from the Japanese laborers and the one comfort they had was being together with their schoolmates. Work included painting the heavy machinery (including warplanes) and removing the rust from metal with dangerous chemicals.
During the winter they were lucky if their hands were not raw and bleeding. “At first we were very excited when we arrived in Japan, but then it all became clear. We were beaten during work hours and treated like animals,” Yang recalls. The torment would continue for another 20 months
Things got worse as 1945 approached. A massive earthquake rocked Nagoya in December 1944. Six Korean, and many more Japanese, workers were killed as the factory partially collapsed. In January, the US began bombing Nagoya, which forced Mitsubishi to relocate to a rural factory.
When the Japanese empire did finally surrender in August 1945 after a fierce last-gasp effort, the Mitsubishi workers were unaware and were kept on to work for a further two months. “We saw a Japanese person crying in front of the television. We were told to cry also. The Emperor was surrendering, but we didn’t know that at the time. We didn’t know the war was over,” Yang says.
The Ongoing Struggle
In October 1945, the laborers were finally freed and returned home, with the promise that their wages were in the hands of Korean President Rhee Sung-man and would be allocated accordingly. Upon arrival, there was no money. Yang’s homecoming was full of tragic irony.
When asked about coming back to Korea, Yang replies, teary-eyed, “Korea was much worse. People thought I had made a lot of money as a ‘comfort woman’ in Japan. I was seen as an enemy.” Yang’s life after Japan was full of hardships involving the loss of her father soon after her return, an abusive husband and the constant torment of the memories and betrayal. Today she is 81-years-old and has five children, three of which were from her ex-husband’s second marriage.
In 1965, the governments of Japan and Korea struck a deal where all past compensations were to be paid and finalized while pardoning any wrongdoings by Japan. The Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea short-changed the numerous victims over the period of Japanese colonial rule. In 2009, after a 10-year court battle with Mitsubishi, the “Mitsubishi Grandmothers” were offered a mere 99 yen (1,500 won) pension for their pain. The Korean government has given up on the issue altogether.
Today, the fight continues. Seven Mitsubishi Grandmothers are still alive in Gwangju and there are many more around the country. Kim Hee-yong is the pastor with Gwangju’s volunteer organization, the Citizens Community with Mitsubishi Grandmothers, which was formed two years ago. “Our sole purpose is to lead the negotiation for the grandmothers to resolve their sorrows and reach a fair agreement,” he says.
The Gwangju local community consists of 25 volunteers and around 1,000 online members who are supporting their cause. The community corresponds with the other networks around Korea and also the Nagoya Group on Support of Mitsubishi Forced Female Laborers. Conducting her role of translator and bridge between Gwangju and Nagoya, volunteer Jeong Kyeong-hee admits the process is slow but “we have links with the Nagoya group with 1200 members; we are moving in the right direction.” The organization believes that Mitsubishi is finally facing up to the fact that it is an issue that needs to be resolved.
So, what is the aim? The Gwangju organization is looking to help work towards the “One Hundred Thousand Signature Hope Relay” which signifies the number of Koreans sent to work in Japan during occupation. It’s a simple theory: power in numbers, to bring the case hard to Mitsubishi.
Almost every Friday for the past three years, organized protests have been taking place in front of Mitsubishi in Seoul and this has garnered some attention. In June 2010, the Grandmothers went to Japan to talk with Mitsubishi and laid out their case. They are still demanding a formal apology, a fair salary and property promised to them all those years back.
All this has fallen on deaf ears so far. Yang Kum-deok vows to fight on until she passes. She asks Mitsubishi rhetorically, “Are you simply waiting for us to die?”
However, no compensation amount can undo the grief that many were forced to endure during this dark period. “My biggest sorrow comes from my lost youth and the broken life that followed,” Yang says. Korea is not what it used to be and with the organisation growing and the message spreading. Persistence can only lead to justice.
By Julian Raethel
A version of this article appeared in the
November 2011 Gwangju News print edition.