|
A presidential committee examining the history of collaboration with the Japanese occupation forces on Friday named 120 people who will come under renewed scrutiny for their role during the colonial era. They include officials with the pro-Japanese organization Iljinhoe, religious leaders and journalists. The committee will conduct investigations of three periods -- 1904-1919, 1919-1937 and 1937-1945. Friday¡¯s list covers the years from the Eulsa Treaty that cost Korea its independence until 1919.
The committee disclosed the names of 81 who seem to be without direct descendants. Among them are the novelist Yi In-jik, the author of ¡°Hyeol-eui-nu (Tears of Blood)¡± and Kim Hyung-ok, who established the Japanese Orient Colonization Company with the purpose of plundering Chosun Dynasty land and resources. As for the other 39, the committee gave notice to surviving descendants.
¡°The 81 whose names were listed in the gazette are those whose descendants were not found despite efforts to search family registers and the electronic administrative database,¡± an official with the committee said. ¡°We disclosed their names to enable appeals against our selection.¡± The subjects include 27 who won decorations from Japan, 27 Iljinhoe members and others who took the lead in suppressing independence fighters or who actively supported and promoted the Japanese annexation of Korea.
To appeal against the selection, interested parties should apply with documents within 60 days after descendants were given notice or 74 after the disclosure in the official gazette. The committee will conduct a second examination based on those documents and finalize the list around November this year. The names for investigation for the second and third periods will be made public in June 2007 and June 2008, with the final report due in 2009.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
