This article introduces a Sankei Shimbun book review published on May 16, 2020, of Crying Out the Truth in the Heart of Seoul. It discusses Korean economist Lee Woo-yeon, co-author of Anti-Japan Tribalism, his research based on payment ledgers showing no wage or treatment gap between Korean and Japanese workers and no forced mobilization, and his resolve as a scholar who acts.

2020-05-18
Based on this conviction, by going back to and carefully examining the payment ledgers of the time, he discovered the fact that there was no difference in wages or treatment between Korean and Japanese workers, and that no forced mobilization had taken place.
The following is from an article published in the book review section of the Sankei Shimbun on May 16 under the title “Crying Out the Truth in the Heart of Seoul.”
The Resolve of a “Scholar Who Acts”
Written by Lee Woo-yeon, translated by Kaneko Emi
Fusosha, 1,800 yen plus tax
The author, Mr. Lee Woo-yeon, is a rising Korean economist who is also a co-author of the great bestseller Anti-Japan Tribalism, published by Bungeishunju.
He is also a “scholar who acts,” who, beside the anti-Japanese rallies held every Wednesday in Seoul, has continued to call for the removal of the comfort woman statue and the suspension of the rallies, even while repeatedly suffering violence.
In his research on Korean laborers, the so-called “wartime laborers,” which is his specialty, the author has overturned, one after another and from the roots, the conventional theories that had long been advocated in South Korea.
“As an economist, I intend to speak with numbers.”
Based on this conviction, by going back to and carefully examining the payment ledgers of the time, he discovered the fact that there was no difference in wages or treatment between Korean and Japanese workers, and that no forced mobilization had taken place.
In this book, in addition to the newly written first part, the second part includes three of the author’s representative economic papers.
Last summer, the day after we contacted him with a writing request through the translator, Ms. Kaneko Emi, the publication negotiations for this book began with a fateful encounter in which the author and the translator happened to sit next to each other at a drinking party.
When I met the professor in Seoul, his first words were, “Were you not afraid to come to South Korea?”
It was exactly the time when a storm of anti-Japanese demonstrations was raging in the city.
I was deeply moved by the fact that this gentle and sincere person was continuing to fight even while being exposed to intense violence.
“Even if we are beaten, even if we are called ‘traitors,’ our struggle will not end until the day we are freed from the yoke of anti-Japan tribalism.”
These are the author’s words of resolve.
Atsushi Yoshida, Books and Mooks Second Editorial Department, Fusosha Publishing Bureau.