The Monument of Mourning was removed. But the history of Japan’s perpetration cannot be annulled. The epitaph says ‘Memory, Remorse and Friendship’, which laments Korean laborers taken to Japan with force for cruel labor during the colonial period. The local authority, saying the monument as being ‘detrimental to the public interests’, has dismantled it. The incident will bring criminal consequences.
RETROGRESSION TO HISTORY AND DEMOCRACY
The monument was constructed in 2004 by the citizens’ group in the Forest Park for Residents in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture. The organization had investigated on the history of mobilization of Korean workers before and during the wartime, having an anxiety in mind that if we did not hear of the voices at this moment, the historic fact might vanish in the people’s memory.
According to the survey by the former Ministry of Health and Welfare, the total number of laborers taken from the Korean Peninsula in order to continue the war counts 667,684. In the Gunma Prefecture there existed at least 18 locations where approximately 4,600 Korean workers were forced to work harshly. Many of them died due to hard labor, and, after the WWII, they were left out from the compensation scheme on account that they are Koreans.
The prefectural assembly had agreed on construction unanimously, but…
In 2001 the local assembly unanimously approved the decision to build a memorial in the forest park: the civic group had appealed that the mobilization of laborers in the wartime was made as the state’s policy and, therefore, that the monument should primarily be built up in a public space, requesting the local authorities to provide a site. At that time thanks to the Murayama’s Statement, which commemorated the 50 years after the end of WWII, the society as a whole had an initiative to face sincerely the history of assault by Japan on Korea under the colonial reign.
In 2014, however, the prefectural authority did not accept the application to keep the memorial longer; it said that ‘the monument itself provokes controversies and thus it should not stay in the park where people enjoy and relax’. Reportedly, protest messages had been sent on social media to the local government which had permitted the establishment of the monument and phone calls had been made parallelly since around the year 2012.
The local government explained that participants in the memorial rallies in front of the monument had uttered openly to the effect of ‘forced labor’, the term which had not been described in the inscription, and that such remarks violate the rule of monument construction that ‘the memorial should not be used for a political purpose’. The Gunma authority had demanded the civic group to remove it.
The civic group have fought for about eight years in the lawcourts against the prefectural authority, but the judicial decision was made to support the local government. The Gunma Prefectural Government, representing the execution, has dismantled the monument and requested the civic group to pay the cost amounting 30 million yen. Governor Yamamoto Ichita told that ‘the monument has become an object that does not serve to the public interests’, saying, though, he does not deny the objective why the memorial had been constructed.
Commitment by Lawmaker Sugita Mio
The Gunma Prefectural office appeals that the memorial itself is controversial and that it has caused protests, and, consequently, that the monument is not an appropriate facility to be present in the park. The position is the same as that of lawmaker Sugita Mio, who is from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and claims that ‘a deceitful monument is unnecessary in Japan’. The recent act of the Gunma prefectural office follows in fact her absurd remarks.
The monument elimination by the Gunma local government actually controlls legitimate activities of speech and writing on the ground of fearing confusion incited by adversaries of such activities. That represents renunciation of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution. Social moves which retrogress history and democracy cannot be tolerated.
「追悼の碑」は撤去されても、加害の歴史はなかったことにできない。「記憶 反省 友好」の文字が刻まれた朝鮮人労働者を弔う碑が、「公益性を損なう」と撤去されたことは大きな禍根を残す。
追悼の碑は２００４年、群馬県高崎市の県民の森に戦時中の朝鮮人の労務動員について、「今、聞かなければ永久に分らなくなる」と史実の掘り起しを進めてきた市民団体によって建てられた。
戦争遂行のため日本が朝鮮半島から労務動員した数は、旧厚生省の調査で66万７６８４人。群馬県では少なくとも18カ所、約４６００人が強制的に動員されたとされる。過酷な労働で多くの人が亡くなり、戦後は朝鮮人だからと、補償からも外された。
県議会は全会一致
市民団体は追悼の碑の建立をめざし、動員が国策であった以上、碑は公有地に建てることが肝要と、群馬県に場所の提供を求めた。
戦後50年の「村山談話」によって、加害の歴史に向き合う機運が生まれていたこともあり、01 年群馬県議会は全会一致で公園への建立を認めた。
ところが、県は14年、「追悼の碑自体が論争の対象となり、憩いの場である公園にふさわしくなくなった」と設置許可を更新しなかった。12年頃からネット上で設置を許可した県などへの抗議が電話やメールで寄せられていたという。
県は、碑の前での集会で碑文ではあえて使わなかった「強制連行」といった趣旨の参加者の発言は、「政治上の目的には利用しない」とする碑の設置条件に違反すると問題視しての撤去要請だった。
市民団体は、受け入れられないとして裁判で８年余り闘ったが、県の判断を「適法」とする判決が確定。県は代執行で撤去し費用３０００万円を市民団体に請求している。山本一太知事は、碑が作られた目的は否定しないとしながら、「今や公益に反する存在となった」と述べた。
「日本にいらない」
追悼の碑自体が論争の対象、抗議の原因になったことは公園にあるべき施設としてふさわしくないから撤去するという県の主張は、「嘘のモニュメントは日本にいらない」と発信している自民党の杉田水脈衆院議員の暴論を結果的に容認するものだ。
群馬県による碑の撤去は、正当な言論活動に敵対する勢力があるので混乱するからと正当な言論活動を規制するもので、憲法が保障する表現の自由の否定そのものだ。歴史と民主主義に逆行する動きは許されない。
英訳版↓
No. 1346 Removal of Monument of Mourning
The Monument of Mourning was removed. But the history of Japan’s perpetration cannot be annulled. The epitaph says ‘Memory, Remorse and Friendship’, which laments Korean laborers taken to Japan with force for cruel labor during the colonial period. The local authority, saying the monument as being ‘detrimental to the public interests’, has dismantled it. The incident will bring criminal consequences.
RETROGRESSION TO HISTORY AND DEMOCRACY
The monument was constructed in 2004 by the citizens’ group in the Forest Park for Residents in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture. The organization had investigated on the history of mobilization of Korean workers before and during the wartime, having an anxiety in mind that if we did not hear of the voices at this moment, the historic fact might vanish in the people’s memory.
According to the survey by the former Ministry of Health and Welfare, the total number of laborers taken from the Korean Peninsula in order to continue the war counts 667,684. In the Gunma Prefecture there existed at least 18 locations where approximately 4,600 Korean workers were forced to work harshly. Many of them died due to hard labor, and, after the WWII, they were left out from the compensation scheme on account that they are Koreans.
The prefectural assembly had agreed on construction unanimously, but…
In 2001 the local assembly unanimously approved the decision to build a memorial in the forest park: the civic group had appealed that the mobilization of laborers in the wartime was made as the state’s policy and, therefore, that the monument should primarily be built up in a public space, requesting the local authorities to provide a site. At that time thanks to the Murayama’s Statement, which commemorated the 50 years after the end of WWII, the society as a whole had an initiative to face sincerely the history of assault by Japan on Korea under the colonial reign.
In 2014, however, the prefectural authority did not accept the application to keep the memorial longer; it said that ‘the monument itself provokes controversies and thus it should not stay in the park where people enjoy and relax’. Reportedly, protest messages had been sent on social media to the local government which had permitted the establishment of the monument and phone calls had been made parallelly since around the year 2012.
The local government explained that participants in the memorial rallies in front of the monument had uttered openly to the effect of ‘forced labor’, the term which had not been described in the inscription, and that such remarks violate the rule of monument construction that ‘the memorial should not be used for a political purpose’. The Gunma authority had demanded the civic group to remove it.
The civic group have fought for about eight years in the lawcourts against the prefectural authority, but the judicial decision was made to support the local government. The Gunma Prefectural Government, representing the execution, has dismantled the monument and requested the civic group to pay the cost amounting 30 million yen. Governor Yamamoto Ichita told that ‘the monument has become an object that does not serve to the public interests’, saying, though, he does not deny the objective why the memorial had been constructed.
Commitment by Lawmaker Sugita Mio
The Gunma Prefectural office appeals that the memorial itself is controversial and that it has caused protests, and, consequently, that the monument is not an appropriate facility to be present in the park. The position is the same as that of lawmaker Sugita Mio, who is from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and claims that ‘a deceitful monument is unnecessary in Japan’. The recent act of the Gunma prefectural office follows in fact her absurd remarks.
The monument elimination by the Gunma local government actually controlls legitimate activities of speech and writing on the ground of fearing confusion incited by adversaries of such activities. That represents renunciation of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution. Social moves which retrogress history and democracy cannot be tolerated.
March 13, 2024