July 8, 2008

Tributes flow for pastor who championed Japan's Korean minority

The Rev. Lee In Ha, a Korean pastor and church leader in Japan is being remembered for his role in promoting the rights of the country's Korean minority and for his justice and peace work in North East Asia.

"With his death, the churches in Japan have lost a great leader," the Rev. Kenichi Otsu, the acting general secretary of the National Christian Council in Japan, told Ecumenical News International, following the death of Mr Lee on June 30 at the age of 83. "He was a bridge between the churches in Japan and the churches in Korea."

Mr Lee was born in Korea in 1925, when it was under Japanese colonial rule. In 1941, he moved to Japan, and was baptised a Christian two years later. In his 2006 biography, Living the Chasm of the Histories, Mr Lee wrote that the course of his life was determined one year before his baptism, after reading the words of Jesus about the "poor in spirit" receiving blessings (Matthew 5:3).

After his baptism, Mr Lee married a Japanese woman, studied theology in Tokyo and Toronto, and served the Korean Christian Church in Japan as its general secretary for 13 years from 1960, before leading it as its chairperson.

His funeral was held at his local church in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, on July 3. A memorial service is planned at the denomination's Tokyo church on July 12.

"It is with great sadness that I share the news of Rev. Lee In Ha's death," said the Rev. Park Soo-Kil, general secretary of the denomination. "It is God's promise that he will have an honorary place among the saints for the KCCJ's 100th anniversary celebration on October 13."

Mr Lee is remembered for his 1974 role in a successful four-year lawsuit against the Japanese electronic giant Hitachi Ltd. for employment discrimination against a Korean resident. Lee co-led the Korean's supporters' group. He then went on to organise and lead for 18 years the first nationwide movement against discrimination of Korean minority residents.

He was internationally known as a member and the vice-chairperson of the World Council of Churches' commission on the Programme to Combat Racism, which he joined in 1970.

In the early 1970s, Mr Lee was active in generating support for Kim Dae-Jung, a Korean democracy supporter and opponent of the then South Korean military dictatorship, who later became the country's president.

Mr Lee also served as the acting general secretary of the National Christian Council in Japan from 1968 to 1969, the first from his denomination, and was the council's moderator for four years from 1982. He worked with churches in Korea for reconciliation between North and South Korea.

Hisashi Yukimoto, ENI