뉴스레터

Choi Sang-nam’s Statement, the Son of Choi Pan-ryong

“The plaintiff’s father, Choi Pan-ryong, was born on March 4, 1920; he was forced into the Army in 1941, and died on 22 July 1945 in Myanmar. He was improperly enshrined inside the Tokyo War Shrine in April 1959 without notice to his bereaved family.”

I would like to ask the Japanese government and TWS for serious responsibility that improperly enshrined my father to TWS. And I strongly demand that remove my father's name from TWS as soon as possible. I am Choi Sang-nam, the only son of Choi Pan-ryong who was enshrined in TWS. Japan broke out of the war of aggression and forced my father to Burma. And they let him die there, and they enthrined him on TWS without informing his family. I cannot forgive this.

My father was forced to go to war in 1941. My family was living with my grandfather, grandmother, mother, uncle, two aunts, and my younger brother, who was a newborn. Grandfather was a man who delivered mail, and farmed. My father, the eldest son, was forced to join the army when he heard that his brother had to go if he did not go to the battlefield. At that time, it was impossible to refuse Japanese instructions in Joseon.

I was recorded in the family register in 1940, but I was actually born in 1938. I remember my father sailing on a ship to the battlefield. I saw my father off with my grandmother and mother. The ship was full of people going to the battlefield. My father was 21 years old and my mother was 23 years old. My father left only five years after they were married.

In August 1945, after the war, we waited for my father to return. My grandfather, grandmother, and uncle drove a small boat to Mokpo, 66km from their hometown, and waited for my father. They went to Mokpo to bring their son home as soon as possible. They waited a month and a half for their son, but he did not return. My grandfather, grandmother who would have thought of their son as they looked at the young people who returned home. I do not know how disappointed and sad they were. I am now a grandfather who raises children and grandchildren, and I think I know how much the sadness was.

(......)

The following year, 1946, the government office contacted us. My father died in Burma on July 22, 1945, and a person who came back from the battlefield brought my father's ashes and kept that. My father never came back alive. I am so sad when I think of my father who died while missing his family in Burma, a faraway country. Grandpa and Grandma who confirmed their child who returned as ashes with their eyes. Their shock would have been hard to express in words. How big is my mother's sadness that lost her husband at a young age. My grandmother missed her son, visiting the tomb where his ashes were buried almost every day. My family didn't believe my father was dead. So we lived thinking that he might come back alive. This is why we didn't report his death until 1961. When I was a child, it was a great pain to have no father. If my father was alive, I could have studied, and I thought my mother would not have suffered. But I had to hide that my father had applied to the Japanese army. I had to hide his picture while I missed him, because I thought he had cooperated in the Japanese invasion war.

But my longing for my father has not gone away. So I worked in a group of victims and found a record of my father. In the meantime, I lived with shame and resentment of my father. Because I thought my father had applied to the Japanese army. But I learned about Japanese colonial rule over Joseon, working with other victims, studying history. My father, who was forced to go to war for his brother because of the invasion war caused by Japanese imperialism. I thought so, and the resentment and hatred of him changed into respect. I was ashamed of myself for hiding my father. My father, who joined the Japanese army because of the Japanese invasion war, did not return home. Grandpa, Grandma, Mother and I, who had all sorts of hardships waiting for him. It is so unfair to think about my family's life. I must delete my father's name from TWS. So I can not be ashamed in front of my mother, and I can perform the true meaning of ancestral rites. I think that is duty to my parents.

I am also very concerned that Japan will revise the Peace Constitution and become a country that can go to war again. And I can not forgive that the Japanese government is politically abusing my father who has been enshrined into TWS. The Japanese government and TWS will sincerely apologize to bereaved families and fulfill their responsibilities. I strongly urge the Japanese government to remove my father's name in TWS as soon as possible.