강제동원 연구의 현재적 의미와 인권·평화적 함의 = The Contemporary Significance of Research on Japanese Forced Mobilization and Its Human Rights and Peace Implications

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study aims to elucidate the necessity and contemporary significance of research on forced mobilization during the Japanese colonial period by comprehensively examining its historiography and documentation, denialism, and implications for human rights and peace. To this end, it reviews fact-finding investigations and documentation activities in both Japan and Korea, and analyzes major patterns of forced mobilization denialism, including arguments of voluntary labor, denial of discrimination, minimization of scale, claims of violations of international law, and political framing. Furthermore, it explores the implications of this research for victims' human rights restoration and the realization of justice, peaceful coexistence and historical reconciliation, peace education, and the East Asian peace order.
The analysis reaffirms that forced mobilization constituted structural violence systematically implemented by Japanese state power and amounts to forced labor and crimes against humanity under international human rights standards. Empirical investigations accumulated by civil society and researchers in both Japan and Korea have played a decisive role in revealing the actual conditions of victimization and forming public memory, providing a foundation for victims to assert their rights in courts and public institutions. Additionally, this study demonstrates that forced mobilization denialism represents historical negationism that distorts accumulated research findings, damages victims' honor, and violates the ethics of memory.
Research on forced mobilization constitutes a form of human rights praxis supporting victims' rights restoration and dignity recovery, as well as a process of realizing justice. Furthermore, it functions as the intellectual and moral foundation for peace education, Korea-Japan reconciliation, and the pursuit of an East Asian peace order. Through this examination, the study confirms that research on forced mobilization represents both an academic and social imperative oriented toward countering denialism and pursuing human rights restoration, the realization of justice, and peaceful coexistence.