 Meeting held to support former leprosy patients in South Korea and Taiwan Supporters of former South Korean and Taiwanese leprosy patients who are demanding Japanese government compensation held a solidarity meeting in Tokyo on May 23, with more than 200 people participating. In December 2003, residents of Sorokto Hospital in South Korea applied for compensation under the Japanese law to compensate former leprosy patients enacted in 2001, followed by former patients in Taiwan in August 2004. After their applications were turned down by the Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry, the South Korean residents filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government in the Tokyo District Court last August, as did former Taiwanese patients last December. Jang Gi Jin, 85, a South Korean plaintiff who made a statement at court on the same day said, "We must resolve this case as soon as possible because the plaintiffs are old. Please support us." The plaintiffs who were segregated and forced to work under Japanese colonial rule testified in the meeting that if they got sick during working hours, they were beaten, put under restraints, and even sterilized. Kunimoto Mamoru, secretary general of the National council of plaintiffs' group of leprosy patients, said, "Let us confront and expose the government attempt to cover the history of discrimination in its colonies." - Akahata, May 24, 2005 |