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The Palace of Culture & Science in Warsaw
(the red building at the very right)

What is the most popular item in the public diplomacy of Korea? In the media, the Korean foods going global stand out. In the diplomatic field, however, the unmistakable leader is the New Village Movement. While flying to Warsaw, it struck me that perhaps historical reconciliation was to Poland what the New Village Movement was to Korea. In other words, historical reconciliation is something that the Poles can take pride in and teach other countries about.

Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, who was the national security advisor to the President of the U.S. during the Carter administration, is from Poland. He once wrote a column urging Japan to resolve historical issues, where he said he could understand the position of Korea because he was Polish. On March 11, 2014, the day after my arrival at Warsaw, I visited the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, a symbol of the Holocaust. It had been reportedly destroyed by the Nazis right before their downfall, but its remains alone could tell more than enough about the scale of its original size and brutality. Over a five-year period, 1.3 million people were confined in the camp before they were killed. And 150,000 of them were Polish. There was a bookstore on the premises, and I asked the clerk working there what he thought about Germany. "I hate Germany," he replied with a smile. It was a profound answer.

The tallest building in downtown Warsaw is the Palace of Culture & Science, which I gather must be the city's landmark because I saw magnets in its shape sold in the souvenir shop. There was a monument for the unknown soldier in a park downtown, and a guide standing in front of it was addressing a group of foreign students enthusiastically. Pointing to the palace building visible in the distance, the guide said, "That building should be torn down right now." It is said to be one of the palaces that Stalin built and gave to each of the satellite states as "presents." Instantly, I was reminded of the Capitol building in Seoul which used to house the Japanese Government-General of Korea.

"History Cannot Be Changed, but Historical Memories Can"

The Korea-Poland Historical Reconciliation Seminar was very serious. A majority of the participants were interested in finding out why Japan as the perpetrator wasn't making an apology. But they also stressed that a dichotomy between the perpetrator and the victim should be avoided, and everyone involved should instead strive together for historical reconciliation. A German scholar emphasized the importance of the changing of perception, stressing that while history could not be changed, historical memories could. A former Director of the Poland-Germany Reconciliation Foundation noted that to expect apology from either side, the signal from the receiving side mattered, and suggested that since dialogue between Korea and Japan for reconciliation was not feasible, it should start with a dialogue group of scholars from four countries, including Poland and Germany.

In the morning of the last day of my visit, I had a tour of downtown Warsaw to put my complex thoughts together before heading to the airport. I visited the restored old city, and the Monument to the Polish Resistance during WWII. The monolithic and formal atmosphere of a socialist city was still lingering in Warsaw. I left feeling as though I had missed something. What could it have been? I couldn't shake off that feeling even after I arrived at the Incheon Airport. A few days later, I realized that I had forgotten to visit the monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising where Chancellor Willy Brandt of Germany had knelt down on a rainy day as a gesture of penance. I looked up the Google map to find that the monument was right across the street of the resistance monument we had passed!