Japan Press Weekly

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2023 April 5 - 11 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Bereaved families of Korean Class-B, C war criminals call for compensation from Japanese gov't

Bereaved families of former Korean Class-B and Class-C war criminals and some citizens held a rally in the House of Representatives members' office building on April 5, calling on the Japanese government to compensate family members of former foreign Class-B, C war criminals.

Japanese Communist Party member of the Lower House Kasai Akira, along with several other opposition party lawmakers, took part in the rally.

Former Class-B and Class-C war criminals of foreign nationals were mobilized by the Imperial Japanese Army for Japan's war of aggression. After the end of the war, they were brought to court and imprisoned as "Japanese" soldiers. However, after their release, they were treated as "foreigners" and therefore could not receive government assistance which Japanese ex-war criminals received. Since 1955, former Korean Class-B, C war criminals have been seeking state compensation and restoration of their honor.

In 2016, a cross-party Dietmembers' league drafted a bill to pay special benefits to foreign Class-B and Class-C war criminals or to their bereaved families. The rally participants demanded that the Japanese government and the Diet legalize the drafted bill for an early settlement of the issue.

Utsumi Aiko, professor emeritus at Keisen Jogakuen College, at the rally pointed out that they had been abandoned by the Japanese government by obscuring the wartime responsibility of the Empire of Japan.