Newsletter

On the surface, Korea and Japan seem to be in a very good relationship in the spring of 2012. The Korean waves of K-POP and drama are still strong, and the Japanese media express gratitude to the generous support extended by the Korean people since the 3/11 Great Earthquake last year. And Japan recently opened a trekking path near Fukuoka, similar to the Olle Path in Jeju Island of Korea, in an effort to restore the dramatically reduced number of Korean tourists visiting the country. In international politics, both countries are also building a consensus that they will jointly cope with any potential threat posed by the Kim Jung-eun administration of North Korea.

Below the surface, however, is a different picture; not unlike the frantic paddling of a duck that looks serene on the surface, there is constant tension between Korea and Japan over the issues of the 'comfort women' of the Japanese military, atomic bomb victims, the naming of East Sea, Dokdo, the Japanese textbooks, etc. As for the 'comfort women' issue, ROK President Lee Myung-bak, in the ROK-Japan summit and then in his March 1st Movement commemorative speech, strongly urged the Japanese government to present reasonable solution. In a broader context, the issues that remain unresolved between Korea and Japan go back to the past. A majority of the Korean people think that Japan's wrongdoing in the past is the biggest obstacle to the progress of the bilateral relations. They feel that the Japanese government is not genuinely repentant of their atrocities committed during the invasion of the Korean peninsula from the early 20th century and of a number of resulting problems, unlike the German government that always admits responsibility and apologizes for causing the Holocaust and Word War II.

Full-Range Response Needed to Bring Justice to War Crimes and Protect International Human Rights

What is, if any, the total solution to the various issues mentioned above? Actually, there is none, because each of the issues is unique and requires a separate solution tailored to its nature. First of all, the issues of the Japanese military's 'comfort women' and of atomic bomb victims were first raised in the early 90s and highlighted again on August 30 last year with the decision of the Constitutional Court of Korea that ruled the ROK government's inaction to resolve a certain dispute between Korea and Japan unconstitutional. Specifically, the 'comfort women' who had been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during WWII and the victims of the atomic bombs dropped onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki filed a claim petition with the Constitutional Court of Korea, and it was found unconstitutional that the ROK government was not resolving the interpretational dispute between Korea and Japan regarding whether or not the petitioners' claims against Japan had been nullified pursuant to the 1965 Claims Agreement in accordance with the procedures in Article 3 (Dispute Resolution) of the same Agreement. Accordingly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Korea has tried to persuade its Japanese counterpart to start renegotiating the issues, but with little success even after the ROK president made a strong statement. The Japanese government is maintaining their position that all the issues raised have been completely resolved by law. After all, the Japanese government is well aware that if they accepted negotiation with its ROK counterpart, they would also have to deal with the 'comfort women' of the Japanese military from other countries in Southeast Asia and Europe. Leading the Japanese government to change their position and policy is never an easy task, of course. However, I believe that it would be necessary to appeal to international public opinion, instead of relying on the bilateral relations, by persuading the neighboring countries and the western countries, including the U.S., that are keen to bring justice to war crimes and protect international human rights, to exert pressure on Japan from all directions.

The Simultaneous Use of the Names East Sea/Sea of Japan as a Possible Solution

The issue of how the name of the East Sea region should be written in English may appear related to the issue of sovereignty over Dokdo, but they are completely separate matters. In other words, while it is not possible for Dokdo and Takeshima to coexist simultaneously, it is possible to use the names East Sea/Sea of Japan simultaneously as a compromising solution to the dispute. It is the recommendation by the international community that if the nations concerned failed to reach agreement on the name of a certain sea, the different names should be both used. And it should be also stressed that Korea was prevented from voicing its opinion while it was illegally occupied by Japan. As the efforts exerted on many levels by the academic and diplomatic circles of Korea are producing tangible results, I expect to see positive changes in the future.

As the final note, let me briefly mention the issue of sovereignty over Dokdo. A majority of the Korean people think that the distorted description of Dokdo in the Japanese middle school textbooks is the most serious of Japan's unreasonable territorial claims over Dokdo, along with the inappropriate remark on Dokdo by a high-ranking official of the Japanese government and the designation of so-called 'Takeshima Day' and the annual event by the local government of Japan. The distorted description of Dokdo included in the Japanese textbooks is the current and potential trigger for a volatile relationship between Korea and Japan. The wrong education method of Japan is breeding a young generation that is more likely to include conservative nationalists with distorted historical views. This is what concerns Korea among other countries around Japan. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan argues that their education method is a domestic matter that should not be intervened by other countries. But fabricating the obvious historical facts to their taste is an attempt as futile as trying to cover the sky with their hand, and it is particularly detrimental to good neighborly relations in the Northeast Asian region.

It may be an impossible dream to see the resolution of all the pending issues between Korea and Japan within 2012 with the sudden change of the Japanese government's position and policy, especially because there is currently no political leadership in Japan and the domestic public opinion has been making a prominently rightward shift since the Tohoku Great Earthquake on March 11 last year. However, we should keep our dream alive. Let's make efforts on many levels to grow our dream and make it come true.