Anti-Japanese rallies held in Seoul

Amid mounting criticism over Japan`s alleged distortion of school history textbooks to hide their war-time atrocities, thousands of Koreans held anti-Japanese rallies in downtown Seoul, Wednesday, a day ahead of the March 1 anniversary of the Independence Movement.

A civic group known as the Council for Compensation of Pacific-War Victims held a news conference at a restaurant in Seoul and announced that it had filed a suit for compensation with the State Court of California on behalf of Koreans forcibly enlisted in the Japanese military during World War II. The group`s members held a protest rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Chongno, central Seoul, along with elderly women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers.

The group said Japan`s apology for the war was nothing more than diplomatic rhetoric and explained that four Koreans and eight Korean-Americans had filed the suit against two large Japanese corporations, Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. California has a law on forcible military induction.

About 800 members from 19 civic groups, including the Korea Liberation Association, also gathered at Tapkol Park in downtown Seoul to denounce the Japanese government for its alleged distortion of history in school textbooks. In a show of protest, they burned the Japanese flag and effigies of rightist politicians and delivered a protest letter to the Japanese Embassy.

Some 70 members of the Korean Council for Comfort Women also held a rally in front of the Japanese Embassy, holding placards demanding punishment of those who produced the textbooks.

Meanwhile, the Korea Smokers Association held a morning campaign to clean up Tapkol Park, a symbol of the movement for independence from Japanese colonial rule. Thirty-three members of the group cleaned the statue of Sohn Byong-Hee, an independence fighter who is shown wearing the traditional Korean male topcoat called `turumagi,` in a symbolic move designed to remember the Declaration of Independence that was read by 33 national leaders on March 1, 1919.

Choi Ho-Won bestiger@donga.com