Actor Lee Young-ae donates 100 million won to support victims of Japanese forced mobilization

Social Affairs

Actor Lee Young-ae donates 100 million won to support victims of Japanese forced mobilization

Published: 14 Aug. 2024, 16:27 Updated: 14 Aug. 2024, 18:26

LIM JEONG-WON
lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr

Actor Lee Young-ae [YONHAP]

Actor Lee Young-ae donated 100 million won ($73,500) to the Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization by Imperial Japan (FOMO), the foundation announced Tuesday. Lee made the donation in commemoration of Liberation Day on Aug. 15, which marks Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.

“I believe it is our duty to care for those who were victims of forced mobilization during the Japanese colonial period while they are still alive,” said Lee in a statement accompanying her donation.

The foundation said that Lee’s donation was made with the intention of “reflecting on the day we regained our country and using this sum to support those who were victims of forced mobilization during the Japanese colonial period.”

The foundation also said that the actor expressed hope that more people would take an interest in the suffering of forced mobilization victims and offer their support.

Lee, whose father was a Korean War (1950-53) veteran, has regularly donated to families of veterans, descendants of Korean War veterans and soldiers injured in provocations with North Korea. In March last year, she donated 100 million won to support Ukrainian children affected by the war there.

The actor said that in the process of donating to independence activists, she learned of the sacrifices made by victims of forced mobilization during the Japanese colonial period.

The sacrifices Lee referred to include the human rights violations that occurred when Japan mobilized thousands of Koreans to support the Pacific War. Japan enacted the National Mobilization Act in 1938 and used it as a pretext for forced conscription.

Korean government statistics estimate that about 7.8 million Koreans were forcibly mobilized during this time, with over 1.04 million taken overseas to places like Russia, China and the South Pacific Islands, where they endured severe hardships.

Many never returned to their homeland. Young Koreans who were taken away, leaving behind their families, suffered from forced labor in harsh environments with inadequate food and rest, and many died or were killed by the retreating Japanese army.

Even those who survived the forced labor often suffered from physical and mental illnesses, making it difficult for them and their families to lead normal lives.

There are many vivid testimonies of these experiences. "I was taken against my will and worked without being treated like a human being," Shin Young-hyun, a victim of forced labor, told the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, in 2022.

Shin was forced to work in coal mines and on airfield construction sites in Japan from 1943 for about three years. He sued the war criminal corporation for damages and eventually won, but the Japanese company refused to honor the judgment.

"I want the issue to be resolved while we are alive,” said Shin.

Lee's commitment to helping forced labor victims is also driven by the fact that their wounds remain unhealed, nearly 80 years after liberation. Japan continues to assert that its colonial rule was legal and that all claims of forced labor were settled in the 1965 Korea-Japan agreement. In the meantime, most of the elderly victims of forced mobilization have passed away.

In this context, FOMO, to which Lee donated 100 million won, has paid delayed interest to forced labor victims who won Supreme Court cases against Japanese companies.

Lee told the foundation that she would continue to help victims of forced labor in the future. Her 100 million won is the first donation the foundation has received this year.

BY PARK HYUN-JOO,LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]