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“The plaintiff’s father, Lee Nak-ho, was born on August 13, 1914; 

he was forced into the Army on 20 January 1944, and died on 12 April 1945 in Palau. 

He was improperly enshrined inside the Tokyo War Shrine in April 1959 

without notice to his bereaved family.” (2015. 5. 27.)

I am Lee Myung-gu, the plaintiff of this trial. And the son of Lee Nak-ho who improperably enshrined inside the TWS. The Japanese family name created by the name-changing system implemented on Korean people during the colonial period was Matsumoto(松本). As a child I did tenant farming with my grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, uncle, and brother. When harvested in the fall, half was paid to the landlord with a farm rent, and the rest was paid to the staff from ‘Myun’. My father was forced in the winter of 1943(on the lunar calendar). There were many young people in the village besides my father, but I do not know why my father was forced to mobilize. According to my grandmother, Myun's staff tried to force my father to take him several times, and my father ran away from them. But he was forced to go because he could not keep hiding. He didn’t know when the country would be freed from the Japanese colonial rule.

August 15, 1945 is a happy day when the Republic of Korea was liberated from long colonial rule. We had to change our name to Japanese style without wanting to. We were banned from using Korean and had to use Japanese. How happy would everyone be to be freed from so many oppressions? But my family did not feel the joy of liberation. This is because my father, who was forced to go to Japan, did not return. My mother, who was waiting for my father, died on October 3, 1946(on a lunar calendar).

Not long after that, my grandfather and grandmother died because of the illness.

My brother and I became orphans. When my mother died, my age was 9 years old and my brother was 5 years old. I saw my only brother starving and sick, but there was nothing I could do for him. I and my brother had no family to rely on, and I was too young to take good care of my brother, so he eventually died. I am the only one left in the world. When I think of my brother, I still feel broken. I can not forget young brother who cried because he wanted to eat the fruit placed on the ceremonial table for mother. Who knows my heart is in pain from guilt that I was not responsible for my brother? So my family died within four years of my father being forced to work.

- A man who misses his father who was taken away by Japanese imperialism

- At the Joint Memorial ceremony at the National Cemetery for Overseas Koreans (2011. 5. 8)

Your Honor, I will never forgive Japan. My age was eleven when I lost all my family, my grandmother, my grandfather, my mother, my younger brother. I suffered the pain of losing all my family because of Japan, and I was hurt, but I thought I should live. I felt responsible for keeping my family alive. I have never done anything to survive. I left my hometown and came to Seoul and lived in a briquette factory. And if someone gave me a job, I did everything. And I wanted to believe that he would come back alive. So I lived hard without register a death. Then in 1964, I had a son and then I resistered my father's death. I didn't know where he died, so I resistered him as having died at home. The bereaved families, who have been deprived of their families by Japanese imperialism like me, still live in pain.

So far, 70 years after liberation, what is the reason why a Korean who adoped Japanese cames was enshrined in TWS established in Japanese land? Please answer me. It is also unfair to force people to die in other countries. But why did the Japanese government not inform the bereaved family of death and enshrined people at their own discretion?

I would like to ask all Japanese, including your Honor. Koreans were forced to go to the invasion war because the Japanese imperialists annexed Korea and took away Korea's sovereignty. In TWS, many Japanese who slaughtered Koreans who resisted when they invaded Korea are also enshrined. Is that what makes sense? These people are the ones who put Koreans in despair and live in pain. But why classify them and my father as the same class? Why do you say my father is a dead man for Japan, a dead man for the Emperor?

I don't know how long I can live. There is only one thing I want to accomplish while I am alive. I'm taking my father's name out of TWS. I've been performing anastral rites on the day my father was forced to work. And then, from the 1970s, I've been doing Christian memorials instead of an korean traditional rites. However, I feel sorry for my father because I think that my father is a god of Japanese people in TWS. I want to make a comfortable memorial to my father who died by Japanese imperialism.

It's been 70 years since the Republic of Korea was liberated, but my father is in TWS. Japanese government, which mobilized people as battlefields, those who decided to enshrine those who died of the war in the TWS, Japanese prime ministers and government officials who do not reflect on past invasion wars and colonial rule still visit TWS today. Why should my father be visited by these people? This is an act of blasphemy against my family. I want to get my father's name out of the TWS and liberate him. I don't want to think of any more of the grief, pain, or nightmares my family has suffered. I want to get out of this pain. I want you to make the right ruling so that I can get my father's name out of the TWS.