By Kim Cheong-won
Staff Reporter


A civic group Monday released a list of 3,090 Japanese collaborators during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule of Korea, including former President Park Chung-hee.

The list also includes Korea University founder Kim Song-su, Kim Hwal-ran (Helen Kim), first Korean president of Ewha Woman’s University and former owner of the Chosun Ilbo newspaper Bang Ung-mo.

The Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities released the list of 3,090 notable pro-Japanese collaborators, marking the day Japan annexed Korea in 1910.

The list is divided into 13 sections including 521 police officers, 1,166 high-ranking government officials, 166 religious leaders and 467 high-profile figures at pro-Japanese institutions.

``We have selected the list based on our criteria that they were involved in pro-Japanese activities,’’ Yoon Kyoung-ro, who led the project, told reporters during a press conference at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, downtown Seoul.

``Many of those on the list have already shown regret for their deeds. We will also state that point clearly on the list,’’ he added.

Park Soo-hyun, another official at the institution, who works on the project, said that blaming certain persons is not the object of the project.

``The publication project is not motivated by a desire to punish or take revenge on any special individual, but seeks to compile a correct historical record for future generations,’’ he said.

According to the institution, more than 100 experts have been working on the project and it aims to publish an encyclopedia on Japanese collaboration by 2007.

When asked why ex-president Park Chung-hee, father of main opposition Grand National Party leader Park Geun-hye, was included in the list, Yoon said that there is a criteria that high-ranking military officers in the Japanese military shall be included on the list.

Park had served voluntarily as a soldier for the de-facto Japanese Imperial Army in Manchuria in the 1940s.

Kim Hawl-ran and Kim Song-su have also been criticized for their apparent pro-Japanese remarks and passivity in resisting colonial rulers.

The institution said that it is also preparing for possible legal claims from the offspring of the listed figures.

``We plan to release the second list of collaborators sometime next year, too,’’ Yoon said.

However, he added that the lists are not the final ones that will be published in the dictionary.

``Until 2007, more lists will be added and some names might be excluded from the list if there is evidence which proves they are not pro-Japanese collaborators,’’ he said.

The institution said that the project started in 1999 when over 10,000 professors from 116 universities and colleges across the country signed up for publication of a ``who’s who of Japanese collaborators.’’

The list is the longest disclosing Japanese collaborators since the nation’s liberation.

Since former President Syngman Rhee in 1949 forcefully disbanded a special committee for investigating pro-Japanese collaborators, which was aimed at punishing them, the issue has long been a taboo subject for public discussion.

Last year, the National Assembly released a list of 708 Koreans who conducted pro-Japanese activities during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

kcw@koreatimes.co.kr