Wartime Laws for Aggression and Plunder

The Japanese imperialists, who occupied Korea by force of arms in the early 20th century, concocted many evil laws in order to mobilize the human and material resources badly needed for their war of aggression. Among them was the “Law on National Mobilization” promulgated on April 1, 1938.

It was an evil law which was aimed at putting all economic activities on a war footing, thereby solving the shortages of manpower and materials by force of law.

The law stipulated that the Japanese government shall mobilize all the human and material resources including weapons, warships, means of transport, materials and equipment for its long-term war of aggression. It invested the Japanese government with the right to control the monetary and financial system so as to divert money and public finances into expansion of munitions industry. It also specified that the Japanese government shall promulgate any law without the approval of the Diet and exercise its right to interfere with overall economic affairs.

The enactment of this draconian law marked an important occasion for completing the fascist system in Japan and a factor of promoting the development of the national monopoly capitalism. The Japanese imperialists enforced the law from May 1938 in Korea on a preparatory basis. And from 1940 they rapidly expanded the scope of its application and put it into full effect so as to cope with the military situation when the Sino-Japanese war was protracted and the Second World War broke out and to step up the preparations for the forthcoming Pacific War.

Based on this law, they cooked up such evil laws as the “ordinance on public labour drafting” (1939), “law on national service cooperation” (1941), “business reorganization law” (1942) and “law on special aid to the navy” (1941).

According to the laws and ordinances, they forcibly drafted more than 8.4 million Koreans to coal and other mines and construction sites of military establishments, stripped the Korean peasants of their products permeated with their sweat and blood and took away natural resources from Korea. Worse still, they never hesitated to take over 200 000 Korean women as sex slaves for their troops and conscripted many young and middle-aged Koreans as cannon fodders for their war of aggression.

Absolutely intolerable are the crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists who made up various fascist draconian laws, both murderous and predatory, and inflicted indescribable human and material calamities on the Korean people.

The Korean people are all afire with a determination to take revenge upon the Japanese imperialists a thousandfold.

Japan must have a clear understanding of its past criminal acts against the Korean people and make sincere apology and due reparation to them.

2021-04-01