Samurais of Japan launched an invasion of Korea with huge troops on Apr. 13, 1592, and massacred and kidnapped Koreans and looted cultural treasures wherever they went.

Speakers at the symposium cited data to lay bare the invaders' brutal atrocities.

According to them, the invaders cut ears and noses of many Koreans and carried them to Japan under orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the top authority at that time.

They did not hesitate to cut ears and noses of not only dead persons but also working farmers, old people, women and babies. So ear and nose tombs appeared in Kyoto of Japan.

The aggressors killed hundreds of thousands of people, enslaved more than 100 000 and destroyed and plundered many cultural assets. Aritayaki, Hakiyaki and Aganoyaki pottery, known as Japan's famous ceramics, are a product of the hard toil by Korean potters who were taken away to Japan in that period.

The Korean people fought against the samurais in the do-or-die spirit, and the war ended in a bitter defeat of Japan in November 1598.

But, many scholars, technicians and ordinary people of Korea were taken away to Japan during the war and, consequently, the lack of talents and manpower seriously affected the nation's development in various sectors, including science and technology.

Such hideous crimes committed against the Korean nation by the Japanese aggressors in this war can never be pardoned.