Presidential Commission on Pro-Japanese Collaborators

Launched in May 2005, a presidential commission spent four and a half years investigating anti-national acts under Japanese rule and in November 2009 published a report naming 1,005 people as pro-Japanese collaborators.

After the special committee was dissolved, there was no state investigation for more than half a century. In March 2004 a special act on uncovering the truth about anti-national acts under Japanese rule was promulgated, and on 31 May 2005 a presidential commission was launched.

Using the acts defined in the law — arresting or persecuting independence activists, accepting Japanese titles or serving on bodies such as the Central Council, leading the mobilisation of people and goods for wars of aggression and so on — the commission investigated three periods (1904–1919, 1919–1937 and 1937–1945), took objections from each person concerned and then made its decisions. Its 25-volume report of 27 November 2009 listed 1,005 people.

In 2010 and 2011 the Constitutional Court ruled that provisions of the act were constitutional, and some decisions were contested in court in administrative suits brought by descendants. The commission ended its work on 30 November 2009.