Dodgy Calls

It's Not My Fault, They Made Me Do It
Korea used to be a Japanese protectorate. It's not exaactly a pretty part of history, but there you have it. And so some Koreans worked in the Imperial Japanese Army, and lo and behold some of them even got to be B and C class war criminals.

Today, a committee in Korea investigating these cases has decalred that all 83 cases where Koreans fighting for the Imperial Japanese forces who were found to be war criminals should be exonerated for being victims. Indeed, it seems they have all been "cleared of their war crimes". Some of these people might have been working in places like, say, ...Changi. I wonder how the Australian RSL will react to this one.

A South Korean government panel yesterday cleared 83 nationals conscripted by the Japanese military during the World War II of war crimes.
They are part of at least 148 Koreans who were convicted by the allied countries after the war. Most of them were forcefully mobilized and worked as prison guards and in other nonessential jobs. Categorized as B-Class or C-Class war criminals, they were either executed or imprisoned at least five years.

The Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization under the Japanese Imperialism announced yesterday that it recognizes the 83 war criminals as colonial victims. They were selected out of 86 people who had claimed to be victimized by the colonialists.

The commission said it is currently reviewing the other three cases.

It also explained that they had to make an inevitable choice to work in such positions to avoid forced military draft by imperial Japan.

Among 148 Koreans, 23 were executed, and the bereaved families have filed appeals.

The commission has confirmed that the victims were sentenced from one and half years imprisonment to life imprisonment, and most of them had served at least five years in prison.

I'm mightily unimpressed with the logic that somehow if you were a collaborator, you're a victim. I wonder how this logic would fly in say, France or Denmark or Holland. The other thing to note is that if this passes, South Korea is the first country to countenance the 'Nuremburg Defence' of "I was ordered to do it, I had no choice", as being a valid excuse. Now watch the worms crawl out of that can.