Korean’s Last Wish: Japan Civil Rights

The testament of the first Japanese lawyer of Korean descent, Kim Gyeong-deuk, who devoted himself to improving the legal rights of ethnic Korean residents in Japan, was read to the public at a memorial service in Tokyo on February 25.

“Ethnic Korean residents in Japan are charged with mission to safeguarding the pacifistic Constitution of Japan,” the testament said.

The eight-page will was written down by a law firm employee based on Kim’s remarks from his sickbed last October, when he was suffering from stomach cancer.

According to his will, Kim emphasized that “ethnic Korean residents in Japan are the embodiment of the pacifistic Constitution, since they come from the colonial occupation. The pacifism of Japan’s Constitution was born from repentance for Japan’s past colonial occupation.”

In addition, he said, “Japan’s government should provide foreigners with the right to participate in local government as soon as possible,” saying that “Korean residents in Japan play a pivotal role as a bridge in soothing national conflicts between Japan, South Korea, and North Korea, and in deepening understandings between one another.”

A Japanese Citizen, But Still a Foreigner-

Kim criticized the Japanese government by reflecting on his own experiences, including the discrimination the Japanese government extended to him, a naturalized Japanese citizen, when he passed Japan’s bar examination in 1976, declaring, “Foreigners may not enter Japan’s Judicial Research and Trade Institute.”

Asahi Shimbun editor-in-chief Wakamiya Yosibumi, who attended the Yonsei University Language Institute to study Korean with the late Kim in the early 1980’s, publicized an episode in his tribute speech that Kim wanted to become a reporter, but at that time the Asahi Shimbun did not employ him because he was Korean.

Wakamiya said, “If Kim had become a reporter, he could have become a great reporter with critical mind. But it is good for him not to become a reporter because he achieved greatness as a lawyer. Thanks to him, the Japanese media now offers job opportunities to all nationalities.”

Won-Jae Park parkwj@donga.com