CBT reporters met Takashi Uemura, who used to work for the Asahi Newspaper Institute before. He was the first person who reported on Japanese military sexual slavery. Furthermore, because of the report, he has been suffering from disgrace as a fake reporter. Presently, he is working as a visiting professor at the Catholic University of Korea. We met him and heard about his story.

What made you report on the Japanese military sexual slavery issue?

  I was a local news reporter in the summer of 1992. On June 6th, the Japanese government announced “A private enterprise brought women to the military for prostitution, so it wasn’t related to our government.” It gave rise to protests in Korea. After this event happened, I went to Korea for 2 weeks to investigate the Japanese military sexual slavery issue, and now it has become one of the biggest political issues between Korea and Japan.

What happened after you reported on the article?

  When I went to Korea, there was an organization called ‘Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.’ I met Yun Jong-uk there and started to research things related to the issue with help from him. At that time, I met Kim Hak-sun, who has passed away since then. Even though I tried to interview her, she just refused. Unwillingly, I reported on the Japanese military sexual slavery with the little information I had. At that time, nobody cared about my article in Japan or even in Korea. After 3 days, she held an impromptu press interview and revealed everything about the issue. It became the first testimony in 46 years since Korea’s independence. I thought her testimony was the most important thing because, after the press interview, not only did people start to pay attention to the issue, but also other women’s testimonies began to arise. The women and their families could have gotten in trouble by giving those testimonies, but Kim Hak-sun made them brave enough to raise their voices.

When you decided to report on the problems, you were rebuked by the public, weren’t you?

  I didn’t even think about that. I was just doing my duty because it was my job. Now, somebody might think that I was very brave. However, considering that my job was just reporting the facts, I had no reason to be afraid of that.

Have you ever regretted what you did?

  No, I haven’t. The fact that my daughter got damaged by it broke my heart. My wife is Korean and I’m Japanese, so my daughter received blame because of that. I deserve to be blamed by the public because I wrote the article, but my daughter did nothing. It was such a difficult and hard time for me and my daughter when she got blamed.

How do you feel about the Korean and Japanese negotiations in October?

  Japan just made a settlement without hearing the old women’s opinions. Even though they apologized, it was not real but just an announcement through the media, so I think it lacked sincerity. I think the Kono statement in 1993 was more important. It said that people have to realize the historical problems and prevent them from happening again, so I think the Japanese government should keep that in mind.





Why did you go to the Catholic University of Korea as a visiting professor?

  After I quit working for the Asahi Newspaper Institute, I started to work as a part-time instructor at Buksung Academy in Japan. At that time, in Buksung Academy, I was teaching many exchange students from the Catholic University of Korea. Then, the president of the Catholic University of Korea asked me to teach students at his school, so I accepted it. Being a professor was better than a part-time instructor, and I also had high interests in Korea, so that was a good suggestion.

What do you do at the Catholic University of Korea?

  I teach ‘East Asian Peace and Literature’ for 3 hours every Tuesday. It’s usually about peace and human rights. I assign newspaper scripts to students and grade them based on those instead of exams. I think having an interest in our society is the most important thing, and reading a newspaper is one way that makes people have an interest in our society, and finally that will make a good democracy. Nowadays, the young people have few cares about our society, so I just want to make them have the good habit of reading articles. Other than the newspaper stuff, I teach students about the poet Yun Dong-ju in the last class. I like the line ‘Live with no shame’ from the poem Seo-si. I think what he meant by ‘no shame’ was having a peaceful mind. I encourage students to know what he really meant. Next week, we will go to the Kim Dae-jung Presidential Library. He is one person I respect, and I actually met him and took a picture with him before. As such, I teach students with various themes and topics.

What is your future plan or objective?

  As a professor, I want to teach students about journalism. It is difficult to become a professor in Japan now. However, someday I want to cultivate journalists of the future. I want to contribute to the reconciliation and cooperation between Korea and Japan as a journalist. If I could, on behalf of Koreans, I want to speak out about what the best way of connecting the two countries could be.

By Oh Byung-hyun
 bh37@cbnu.ac.kr
By Kim Soo-min
sm36@cbnu.ac.kr