韓國發現日本殖民地時代死者名冊簿

Last month the NHK news on-line reported the following:

韓国「日本植民地時代の死者 名簿発見」

11月19日 21時51分

韓国政府は、日本の植民地時代に起きた独立運動や関東大震災の死者、それに日本に徴用された労働者らの名前を記した１９５０年代の名簿が見つかったとして１９日に公開し、韓国で日本の過去の歴史に対する批判がさらに高まるおそれもありそうです。

名簿は、ことし６月、東京の韓国大使館で移転作業中に見つかったもので、いずれも１９５３年ごろ、当時のイ・スンマン（李承晩）大統領の指示で韓国政府が作成したということです。
このうちの１冊には、１９１９年に起きた「３・１独立運動」の死者６３０人、もう１冊には１９２３年の関東大震災の死者２９０人の名前が記されており、個人を特定した名簿の発見は、共に初めてだとしています。
また、残る６５冊には、太平洋戦争中に日本に徴用された労働者、およそ２３万人の名前などが記されています。
元徴用工の名簿は、すでにある別の名簿と重なる部分が多いとみられ、日本企業を相手取って韓国で起こされている裁判への影響は小さいとみられます。
ただ、関東大震災の名簿で、死亡した経緯について「日本の憲兵に銃殺された」と記されたものもあるなど、名簿の公開によって、韓国で日本の過去の歴史に対する批判がさらに高まるおそれもありそうです。

 (試譯文)

 On the 19th (November) the South Korean government opened to the public the name lists created in the 1950s that recorded the people who died during the Independence Movement, the Great Kanto Earthquake, and also names of workers who were forced to go to Japan, all occurred during the colonial days of Japan; for this there was a possibility that it would likely further raising criticism in South Korea over the past history of Japan.

It was said that the name lists were found during the transfer work inside the South Korean embassy in Tokyo in June this year, and the South Korean government created all of them with directions from the then President Lee Sung-man in around 1953.

Among them was a volume that recorded the 630 people died during the "March 1st independence movement" occurred in 1919. One volume had the names of 290 people died in the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, and supposedly that was the first time to discover a roster that an individual was identifiable. Moreover, recorded inside the 65 volumes which remained were the names, etc. of about 230,000 people which were workers forced into Japan during the Pacific War.

It was concluded that the former name list of conscripted laborer might have many parts overlapped with certain other names lists that already existed; and it was also concluded that the effect for these lists to cause trials against Japanese companies in South Korea was small.

However, about the name list on the Great Kanto Earthquake, on the circumstances that they died, there were some being described as "being shot dead by the Japanese military policeman"; by opening the name list to the public, there was a possibility that criticism on Japan’s past history might further increase in South Korea.

The above situation reminds me what E.A. Freeman (1823-93), the English historian had once said: History is past politics, and politics is present history.