The following is the continuation of the previous chapter.
Transfer to a workplace with good treatment
Sakurai
When the government service mediated to the recruitment of the corporate side, it is possible to decide whether go or not go to the corresponding workplace by the free will of the workers.
They had freedom to refuse unless they agreed.
This can be said to be an important point of official mediation.
Nishioka
As you said, there was no enforceability.
Indeed, about 520,000 people were mobilized by official mediation, but of which 40% of them escaped from the workplace where they were mobilized and moved to another workplace that is better treated differently than the mobilization plan.
If saying in the word in those days, it became 'free worker'.
Although there are some theories which make an example of the bad of treatment as an example of the escape
Also, many of the workers who finished contracts for two years also did not return home and refused to re-contract at the mobilized workplace, likewise became ‘free workers’.
The theory which uses doing escape's increasing as an example of poor treatment is in the part but those who escaped should have returned to Korea.
However, they went to another work place with good treatment without returning.
Sakurai
In some cases, it was said that there were many cases of escape immediately after arriving in Japan.
Nishioka
Utilizing official mediation as a means of traveling, watching for an unguarded moment when they arrive mainland Japan, even a survey results that 60% of people thought to escape remains. ('Peninsula man labor in coal mines' Institute of Labor Sciences, 1943).
Or there were cases where we moved to another workplace with the help of a broker who had contacted in advance.
There was no penalty even if escaping.
Sakurai
It a trial that appealed the actual work was NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION, plaintiffs said, 'Most wages were forcibly saved and could not receive. They wanted to escape but it was not possible to have done guard severely. 'They were hit by redcap without a reason.', they insist and so on.
Requisition worker who did drinking bout every evening
Nishioka
Because it is a civil trial, plaintiffs' affiliation is approved for the part of defendant not to fight in court.
Because this is a serious situation, Japanese companies need to collect past records and testimonies of senior employees as soon as possible.
Even if you lose the deposit passbook of compulsory savings, there are cases where it is left as a record on the company side.
In the past, there were cases where a savings record of 25,000 yen which the former comfort women saved in two and a half years was found.
Sakurai
At that time, it was an era when building a house with 5,000 yen, so 25,000 yen is a huge amount of money.
Here is a book.
The title is 'Record of Korean people requisition worker' (Kawai Publishing). It is a memoir written by Mr. Chung Chun-hai who was recruited in Seoul at the end of November 1944.
Mr. Chung's view of Japan is very severe, saying that ‘the grudge against Japan over 4 generations of parents and children has not been completely resolved after 40 years of war’.
Still, Mr. Chung recalls that Japan's response to the Koreans was polite at that time.
On departure of Mr. Chung who is ‘forcibly mobilized’, ‘Plaza is full of people departing, people who watch for’ ‘A farewell party was held with people mobilized from various places’.
It is common sense to think that if it is really ‘forced mobilization’ it cannot be done like a farewell party.
A note of the Korean people requisition worker
Nishioka
The treatment of requisition worker was never bad.
In ‘A note of the Korean people requisition worker’, a monthly salary of 140 yen was paid at the factory in Hiroshima, the new dormitory has a soft, comfortable bed, drinking bout can be done every night while eating abalone, persimmon and oranges It is written that.
Mr. Chung Chun-hai wrote the note, it is before the beginning of trial like today.
Although he was a married man, he was loved by the Japanese war widow, fell in love, went to her house in the middle of the night, had meal, and had prepared for a bath.
He wrote memories of the youth, saying that she was crying when he said that he would return to Korea.
Another person ran away from the factory in Osaka and when going to the bunkhouse of the Korean boss in Tokyo, despite 1945 at the end of the war there was white rice, beef, home-brewed sake, daily wages 15 yen There is a record that he was hired immediately at the moment.
From the Japanese side, there was a thought that it would be better for treatment as Koreans come to Japan for war.
Sakurai
Mr. Chung Chun - hai 's note is valuable material to know what type of living the workers who came from the Korean Peninsula of those days were living.
Nishioka
The wartime mobilization plan to efficiently transport Korea's labor force to the industries necessary for warfare failed for many Korean workers who wanted to work in the workplaces they wanted regardless of the plan.
This is the real situation.
The image of 'the compulsion taking' to have very hard worked the young man to dislike from the peaceful farm village like a slave by force taking him is a complete figment.
This draft continues.