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| List of Japanese Collaborators Released |
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Members of the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities announce a list of 4,776 people who they claim collaborated with Japanese colonial rule, in a media briefing in central Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap |
Composer of National Anthem, Modern Dance Pioneer Included Among Pro-Japanese Figures
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Ahn Eak-tai, composer of Korea's national anthem, and Choi Seung-hee, the pioneer of Korea's modern dance, were reported to have been involved in pro-Japanese activities during the colonial period, according to a civic group.
The Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities Tuesday released a list of 4,776 people who it concluded collaborated with the Japanese authority or performed cultural activities glorifying the colonization during Japan's colonial rule of Korean Peninsula in 1910-1945.
The listed figures range from politicians, police officers, judges and soldiers to religious leaders, artists, scholars and journalists. Some 900 people who supported Japan outside the peninsula were also included.
``We recognize Japanese collaborators as those who actively cooperated with Japan's annexation of Korea and thus caused physical and mental damages to Koreans or other nationals,'' Yim Hun-young, head of the institute said in a press briefing in Seoul.
The list-making was the first of its kind since the nation gained independence from Japan. The initial report was released in 2005, with a list of some 3,000 people including former President Park Chung-hee who served voluntarily as a soldier for the de-facto Japanese Imperial Army in Manchuria in the 1940s.
The updated list includes Maestro Ahn, who is said to have composed music commemorating a puppet regime Japan established in northern China, and dancer Choi who contributed a lot of money to the Japanese military and performed for Japanese soldiers overseas.
Among other listed artists are: children's story writer Lee Won-su who is famous for a children's song ``Spring of Hometown,'' composer of the song Hong Nan-pa, lyricist Yun Hae-young, and lyricist and singer Ban Ya-wol.
Former Chosun Ilbo President Bang Eung-mo, former Korea University President Hyun Sang-yoon, six-term lawmaker Suh Bum-suk, and former Prime Minister Shin Hyun-hwak were also included.
``We made the list not to retaliate for the past wrongdoing but to pursue a society without oppression and discrimination and to advance into a democratic society. We'll be able to ask Japan to apologize for its wartime atrocities, only after we reflect on our own wrongdoings,'' Yim said.
The institute will collect objections against the listing of those figures for the next 60 days, as well as collect opinions from academia. Afterward, it will publish the list in August, and an encyclopedia on Japanese collaboration by 2015.
rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr |
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싸이, 서울시청 무료공연 '유튜브로 생중계'
