News
Japan’s Crime of Plundering Marine Resources in Korea
Jun
During their military occupation of Korea for four decades (1905-1945), the Japanese imperialists cooked up a number of evil laws to plunder its natural resources.
They made public a “law on fishing” in June 1911 in a bid to secure concessions on the rich marine resources of Korea and assure plundering of them by law.
According to the “law”, they organized various kinds of “fishing unions” aimed at plundering marine resources from Korea without any restrictions and bringing big profits to the Japanese.
Under the signboard of “chartered fishing” and “permitted fishing”, they deprived the Koreans of fishing grounds and bestowed fishing rights on the Japanese fishermen and fishing monopolies on a priority basis.
According to data, the Japanese acquired over 2 600 rights to chartered fishing for a decade alone from 1911 to 1920.
Consequently, the Japanese imperialists monopolized all the marine resources of Korea and the fishing rights.
A large number of Japanese fishermen resident in Korea made their vessels motorized and their fishing nets large-size. They also mobilized refrigerator ships and other transport vessels to carry aquatic products to their country.
The number of Japanese vessels engaged in fishing in the territorial waters of Korea increased from 5 600 to 10 620 between 1912 and 1916.
Around 1910, the amount of fish catch by a Japanese fisherman in the Korean waters was 7 to 9 times bigger than that in the Japanese waters. When a transport ship returned to Korea with other seven vessels, which were purchased with net profits gained through only one round of delivery. This testifies to their indiscriminate plundering of marine resources in Korea.
The crimes the Japanese imperialists committed against the Korean nation can never be erased and overlooked.
Japan must make a sincere apology and reparation for its past wrongdoings to the Korean people as soon as possible.
