Helena Meyer-Knapp

In Japan and in the US, there are now monuments honoring the very people who were considered pariahs during World War II.

In both Okinawa and Hiroshima monuments and plaques now recognize the deaths of the many thousands of Koreans who were forcibly living as laborers in Japan.

The statements and memorials in Hiroshima are reminiscent of those in Okinawa.

Full memorial recognition of the Korean experience was delayed until 1999.

Likewise in the US. The memorial in Washington DC  both expresses remorse for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and honors their subsequent US military service.

Full memorial recognition of the Japanese American experience was delayed until 2000.

South Korea considers itself a victim more than a perpetrator so there are, as yet, no national memorials to South Korean Communists who died in the Korean war, or to others who died at the hands of Koreans in Vietnam or in China in the period 1937-45.