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Concerning a report by the September edition of the monthly current events magazine Shindonga claiming Uri Party chairman Shin Ki-nam¡¯s father, Shin Sang-mook (1916-1984), served as a Japanese military policeman, Shin acknowledged Monday that his father did in fact join the Japanese military after serving as a teacher. The Shindonga reported that the elder Shin became a teacher at Cheongpung Elementary School in Hwasun, South Jeolla Province after graduating from Daegu Teachers School in March 1938, but volunteered for the Japanese military in 1940 and enrolled at the colonial government¡¯s military volunteer training center.
Shin initially denied allegations that his father served in the Japanese military when they were raised on the Internet and reported by some media, claiming that while his father did hold positions with the colonial regime, media were competing in misreporting without conducting basic fact checking as to whether his father was ¡°pro-Japanese.¡± He called the reports ¡°false¡± and ¡°defamation.¡±
Shin has been at the forefront of plans being pushed by President Roh Moo-hyun to investigate the colonial past, calling them a ¡°historic imperative¡± and saying Monday that one could not simply push historical issues further down the road.
Revealing his father¡¯s record of serving with the Japanese military police, Shin apologized to the families of independence fighters.
Meanwhile, some Uri Party lawmakers have called on Shin to take responsibility and resign, but Shin himself said that now is not the time to express a course of action, making clear that he had no intention to immediately resign. On an MBC radio program Tuesday, Shin said that as a party chairman, he couldn¡¯t take his course of action lightly, and would seek the counsel of others.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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