The Finance Ministry in 1962 considered allowing South Korean individuals to seek damages for World War II-linked suffering during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, according to diplomatic records disclosed recently, a civic group said Monday.
The records were among classified documents on negotiations conducted between 1951 and 1965 on the normalization of Japan-South Korea ties. In October, the Tokyo District Court ordered full or partial disclosure of some of the documents to South Koreans seeking damages and a group of historians, the group said.
According to the records, the Finance Ministry in 1962 prepared to earmark around ¥2.2 billion to be paid as cash stipends, instead of compensation, to South Korean citizens who served with the Japanese forces or were forced to provide labor for Japanese companies during the Pacific War.