You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 440

“Let’s summarize.”

Choi Jong-hyun got up from his chair and walked to the whiteboard at the front of the conference room.

“First, here’s what we’ve found out.”

Despite his disheveled appearance, with his unkempt hair suggesting he hadn’t had a haircut in a while, he filled the whiteboard with very neat handwriting.

Doctors: Im Hyun-il (also known as Hayashi Kenichi) and many others expected

Donors: Children from Angel’s House, through kidnapping and deceptive job placements before its establishment, etc.

Beneficiaries: Go Sang-jun, Go Yoon-sung, Kim Chan-young, and other high-ranking officials and *chaebols* [large family-owned business conglomerates] from Korea and Japan, etc.

Related Organizations: Angel’s House, L&B, Woo Shin Hospital, Shingaku University Hospital, Okashima Hospital, etc.

Remarks: Considering the development of organ transplantation technology, it is highly likely that it started after the 1990s.

“And, among the list written in the Hall of Fame of Shingaku University Hospital, these three Japanese high-ranking officials are the ones we’ve cross-referenced.”

Choi Jong-hyun took out three photos of middle-aged men from the file he had brought and fixed them side by side on the whiteboard with magnets.

“First, from the left, Nariyama Takahiro. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives.”

“How high-ranking is the Speaker of the House of Representatives?”

Kang Min-jae asked, and Choi Jong-hyun answered.

“Japan has a bicameral parliament, composed of the House of Councillors and the House of Representatives. He was the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”

“Which is more powerful, the House of Councillors or the House of Representatives?”

“In terms of formal hierarchy, the House of Councillors is technically higher, but the House of Representatives holds almost all the real power. You can think of him as being equivalent to the Speaker of the National Assembly in our country.”

“Speaker of the National Assembly? A real big shot. That kind of person has no fear. So openly…….”

“A powerful politician donated a lot of money to a university hospital, so of course, he would want recognition. If it weren’t for the list Lee Ga-yeon gave us, we wouldn’t have suspected this guy had anything to do with Woo Shin. This person donated about 300 million won of our money. He must have received a tax deduction for it, right?”

“What’s next?”

“Next is Nakata Shinichiro. He is the current Minister of Finance and a former member of the House of Representatives. So, in our country, that would be like a Minister of Economy and Finance who also came from the National Assembly. This guy also donated about 300 million won.”

“Minister of Economy and Finance… That’s really amazing.”

“And finally, this guy is quite something. Ishida Yoshitaka. The donation amount is about 500 million won.”

“His last name is Ishida? By any chance, is he related to the Ishida who was Prime Minister?”

“That’s right. He’s the current Prime Minister of Japan’s son. He’s currently a member of the House of Representatives.”

“That’s incredible. If this blows up, it’s going to be huge, right?”

Prime Minister Ishida.

He became a controversial figure in Korea for his outrageous remarks, ‘Can’t we maintain friendly relations despite minor disagreements in the past?’

This inflammatory statement sparked widespread anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea last year.

The remark was interpreted as, ‘We can’t sever diplomatic ties because of what happened during the Japanese colonial period, right? We’re allies anyway,’ which was essentially the message he was conveying.

More bluntly, it meant, ‘You can’t just cut us off because of past events, so be reasonable.’

The Korean people were outraged by this brazen statement that dismissed the atrocities committed during the Japanese colonial period as ‘minor disagreements.’

Furthermore, his official visit to the Yasukuni Shrine [a controversial shrine honoring war dead, including convicted war criminals] on August 15 last year provoked anger from victimized countries, including Korea.

This year, even Japanese ruling and opposition lawmakers refrained from visiting the shrine, and Prime Minister Ishida has also been quiet. It seems he is gauging the situation since the Lee Se-hwa administration took office in Korea. Regardless, he remains a figure that the Korean people find difficult to understand.

If such a person’s son is closely involved with Woo Shin, I’m quite eager to see the repercussions when it’s revealed.

In Korea, in addition to being branded as an inhuman company that violates human rights and engages in human trafficking, it will also be labeled as a traitor.

Moreover, while offering sexual favors might not cause a major uproar in Japan, the involvement of the current Prime Minister’s son and a sitting member of the National Assembly in organ trafficking would be a massive scandal.

If there’s going to be a scandal, it should happen in both countries.

So that foreign media can cover it extensively and bring international disgrace upon Woo Shin.

“Anyway, what’s certain now is that the former Speaker of the National Assembly, the current Minister of Finance, and the current member of the National Assembly and Prime Minister’s son are all on Lee Ga-yeon’s list of sexual favors. Considering they have also donated to Shingaku University Hospital, it strongly suggests they are Woo Shin’s ‘customers.'”

“That’s right. The scale is getting enormous. And the list Lee Ga-yeon gave us isn’t the complete roster of human trash who received sexual favors from Woo Shin. Lee Ga-yeon and her friends only saw a fraction of these people. There must be many more they didn’t see.”

“That’s right. Shouldn’t we investigate all the donors?”

“Ha, but there are too many to do that…….”

“Well, if we exclude things like alumni associations or similar groups…….”

“There are still too many. Even after excluding them, there are about 60 people just listed in the Hall of Fame.”

“Hmm… But, roughly, the money donated by those three alone amounts to nearly 1 billion won, and if we consider the money offered by people we don’t know, it could be several billion won, right? Do Shingaku University Hospital and Okashima Hospital only circulate that money internally?”

How the money that flowed into Shingaku University Hospital was used is still unknown.

What is certain now is that Shingaku University Hospital and Okashima Hospital are cooperative institutions, and Okashima Hospital is performing illegal organ transplant surgeries using children from Angel’s House.

A detailed investigation into Okashima Hospital has not yet been conducted.

We need to find out how it was established and what the specific relationship is with Shingaku University Hospital. It wouldn’t be surprising if the money donated to Shingaku University Hospital for organ trafficking purposes was circulated within their network.

Didn’t we learn from Im Hyun-il that medical staff affiliated with Shingaku University Hospital are also working at Okashima Hospital?

They also need to be silenced, and some need to give commissions to Woo Shin, so there are plenty of places to spend money.

Several billion won is not even significant to them.

However, we must also consider that Go Sang-jun would not have engaged in unprofitable business, so he would have taken a certain percentage as commission.

Perhaps that money flowed into L&B?

However, since we revealed the existence of L&B on the air right before I was kidnapped, we need to consider the possibility that they changed their bank account.

“Hmm…….”

“Why hasn’t Attorney Cha said anything since earlier?”

“I was thinking about it. How to manage this effectively.”

“As Min-jae said, one way is to dig up all the guys in the Hall of Fame, but it takes too long, so I’m a little worried.”

“That’s right. That method is certain, but we don’t know how long it will take… Above all, it’s not domestic, so there will be obstacles.”

“What’s the other way?”

“Well. First of all, an investigation into Okashima Hospital is needed. Maybe Okashima Hospital is also a hospital run by Woo Shin.”

“That’s right.”

“If Okashima Hospital is really a hospital run by Woo Shin, the investigation will be easier. I’ll check with Chan-young to see if he can look into this.”

“Okay.”

“And our purpose is to initiate a special investigation into Woo Shin, not to overhaul the Japanese political scene. While achieving justice would be a good thing, frankly, I don’t think we need to do that much. And we can’t. There are only a few of us. We need to focus on Woo Shin.”

“That’s right. But Woo Shin is taking Korean kids and selling them to Japan. It seems like they’re deliberately performing surgeries abroad to avoid the Korean investigation network, so isn’t a cooperative investigation from the Japanese side necessary to completely reveal what Woo Shin is doing? We need to look ahead to the special investigation.”

“That’s right.”

“Thinking about how we’ll miss all the evidence because Japan is dragging its feet at that time, it’s a good idea to reveal that influential Japanese politicians are also involved here to enable a joint investigation. It needs to become a hot topic there as well so that they will actively try to investigate. Of course, the Japs will blame Woo Shin, and Woo Shin will blame the Japs, but the fact is that Woo Shin is the seller.”

“That’s right. So… I wanted to say that a full investigation of the Japanese politicians is not necessary at this stage.”

“Anyway, you’re saying don’t waste time digging too deep, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Hmm, then we’ll connect with Chan-young to find out how closely Okashima Hospital is related to Woo Shin….”

“Let’s start with the simple things first. Right now, the only ones who have come into our radar among the targets of Woo Shin’s organ trafficking are those three people, as Choi and Jo said. Let’s gather as much information as we can about those people that we can find on the internet. If their family is sick, or if they are sick, where they are being treated, whether they are better now, that kind of information. We can’t find out any information about the buyers other than those three right now.”

“I’ll do that.”

Office Manager Oh, who had been listening quietly, raised his hand and stepped forward.

“I can do simple tasks like searching the internet.”

“Then we’ll have the Office Manager do the groundwork, and what we can do now is dig up the sellers.”

“Sellers? Are you talking about Angel’s House?”

“Yes. They’re sending children from there. Of course, they’re being cautious because of what we revealed on the air, but the new year is coming soon. I think they’ll slowly resume their activities when 2012 arrives….”

“Of course. That’s why I was going to send So-eun to study abroad, but I didn’t….”

Choi Jong-hyun seemed to be concerned about the child named So-eun he met at Angel’s House.

She was a toddler who hadn’t even started elementary school yet, and she was supposedly going to study abroad in Japan. Now that it has become clear that they are engaged in organ trafficking, the true purpose of So-eun’s study abroad has become chillingly apparent.

It’s understandable to be worried.

“We need to check if there are any children who are continuously being sent to study abroad from Angel’s House. However, I think they will be quietly sending them out without notifying the outside world to save their operation.”

“That’s the problem. There’s a limit to me going there regularly under the guise of volunteer work… Even if I go there every day with the intention of keeping a close eye on things. If you tell me to check only So-eun, I’ll do it somehow, but it’s not just So-eun that I have to protect. I don’t know when and which child will be dragged out.”

Choi Jong-hyun sighed with his arms crossed.

“Above all, after you criticized them so harshly on the air, do you think Angel’s House will even allow you to visit? Before, you were almost turned away, but you managed to get in by donating school supplies and stuff.”

Jo Bong-joon added, and Choi Jong-hyun nodded.

“It’s probably impossible.”

“There’s a way to do that.”

“Huh? There’s a way? A way for Jong-hyun to get in?”

“Even if there’s a way, it’ll be difficult for me to keep track of who’s been taken among those many kids by myself. First of all, it’ll take time just to match the kids’ faces and names and memorize them….”

“There’s also a way to do that.”

Choi Jong-hyun’s eyes began to light up.