Publication of the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators

On 8 November 2009 the Center for Historical Truth and Justice, a private research group, published the three-volume Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators listing 4,389 people after eight years of work.

The dictionary was compiled not by a state body but by the Center for Historical Truth and Justice and its compilation committee. The committee was formed in 2001; when the National Assembly cut the related budget entirely in 2003, a public fundraising drive began in January 2004 and reached its 500-million-won goal in ten days.

A list of those to be included was announced in 2008 for objections and re-examination, and some 350 names were dropped. The dictionary published on 8 November 2009 listed 4,389 people. Its criteria differ from those of the truth commission, whose list of 1,005 appeared the same month, and its scope is wider.

Around publication, descendants of some of those listed sought injunctions to block their inclusion, but the courts rejected them.