Families want Koreans conscripted by Japanese army removed from Yasukuni Shrine

Families or relatives of Koreans conscripted by the Japanese army during
World War II staged a sit-in on August 11 at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in
protest against the Japanese prime minister's planned visit to the shrine.


Kim Chong Dae, who represents the Society of the Bereaved Families of
Pacific War Victims, said that their loved ones were killed in Japan's war
of aggression and they were doubly killed when they were enshrined in
Yasukuni Shrine and deprived of their spiritual freedom.

Kim also said he wishes to see peaceful relations develop between Japan
and South Korea. He is disturbed by Prime Minister Koizumi's Yasukuni
visit, which appears to him as to be a sign of a rise of a new Japanese
militarism.

A woman in Korean national dress said that she wants to bring her
father's soul back home from Yasukuni Shrine.

The Korean protesters in a meeting with Yasukuni Shrine officials
requested that the names of the Korean war victims be removed from the
shrine. (end)