Newsletter

The Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF) has reached its tenth anniversary as of the year 2016. To commemorate the occasion, the NAHF newsletter is featuring a series of interviews to review the progress NAHF activities have made over the past decade and to receive candid advice for the foundation to move forward. In this month's issue, Dr. Han Bae-ho, former professor at Korea University who also served as the first president of the Korean Association of Contemporary Japanese Studies and president of the Korean Political Science Association, discusses politics in South Korea and Japan and offers an outlook on the relations between the two countries as well as advice on the direction NAHF should be heading toward in the future.

Han Bae-ho (Former Professor of Political Science, Korea University)

Dr. Han Bae-ho received his doctoral degree in political science from Princeton University in the United States. He taught at Chung-ang University and Korea University. He also served as dean of Korea University's graduate school, first president of the Korean Association of Contemporary Japanese Studies, president of the Korean Political Science Association, chairman of the Ministry of Unification's policy advisory committee, director of the Sejong Institute, and president of the Yuhan Foundation. His major publications include "Theories of Political Science," "Political Theories of Modern Korea," "Theories of Political Change in Korea," and "Globalization and Democracy."

Q. How have you been doing these days? Is there anything you've been following with interest or have been working on recently?

Han Bae-ho Now that I'm eighty-five, I tend to be concerned about staying healthy more than anything else. I've been a Protestant for a long time, so I've been faithfully going to church every week and then occasionally meeting friends from time to time. I try to read and write whenever I can find the time, but when I do, I've been preoccupied with works not in political science, but in ancient philosophy or theology that I either missed out on or used to be fond of. Research in political science is a field that now needs to be headed by a younger generation, and since authoring "Political History of Twentieth Century Korea's Pursuit of Freedom" (2011) and the personal memoir "Political Science Only Survives Under Democracy" I haven't been paying as much attention as I used to in the field. I still do get invited to academic conferences, so I gave an opening address at a conference commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Korea-Japan relations. This year, I've been to a conference hosted by the Korean Association of Contemporary Japanese Studies between August 23-25 and I noticed many good presentations being given.

Q. You still seem quite passionate about political science, enough to publish a book over the age of eighty. What is the research area you studied or book you authored that you've been attached to the most so far throughout your career?

Han Bae-ho I've authored ten or so books and about five of them are on Korean politics. "Political History of Twentieth Century Korea's Pursuit of Freedom" wasn't necessarily about historical research. Its purpose was more about offering an overview of politics in Korea by summarizing the causes and outcomes of major political events in Korean history such as the establishment of the Republic of Korea's government, the Korean War, the April 19 Revolution, and the May 16 Coup. Then there's the memoir published three years ago, which reviews my life, the books I've authored, and what I hoped to communicate through those books. It can be considered as an academic dialogue written by a political scientist who's been both a participant and observer of the political reality in Korea. So, I would say that those two publications are the ones I'm most attached to.

Q. You've served as president for both the Korean Association of Contemporary Japanese Studies and the Korean Political Science Association. Please share the impressions you gained on research in political science from serving in such positions and any advice you'd like to give to younger scholars following your footsteps.

Han Bae-ho I was greatly interested in comparative politics and I particularly wanted to apply theories of comparative politics toward the three countries of Korea, China, and Japan for research. Unfortunately, this was before Korea entered into diplomatic relations with China, so I had no choice but to shift my research attention toward Japan. Then it occurred to me that the unique historical relationship between Korea and Japan warranted a more proper, in-depth understanding of Japan on the part of Koreans, which led to the launch of the Korean Association of Contemporary Japanese Studies in 1978. At first, the association was a small group that ten people helped form at their own expense and got together to present their research outcomes. Then, the number of members increased significantly over the next few years and the association has now turned into a huge academic society nearing its fortieth anniversary. I really feel that it was worth the effort whenever I look back on the considerable amount of progress it's made so far.

In the 1970s and 1980s, most scholars who studied Japan did so after earning their degrees in the United States, and later on, many with degrees from Japan joined the field as well. That is why we now have people with diverse views and opinions studying alongside one another in the same field, which seems rather important to me. The field of political science requires the openness to welcome different perspectives and methodologies. What I would also like to say to those coming into this field of study is to pay attention to the ultimate purpose of carrying out research. That is, I hope they take an interest in practical ways to be able to contribute to the development of the South Korean society as well as the relations between South Korea and Japan.

Q. You've been studying the modernization and politics of Japan for quite some time. What are your thoughts on the current state politics in Japan?

Han Bae-ho I personally think that Japan's political system has evolved after the war ended. Japan has since then been checking itself from growing into a war power and has focused only on developing its economy. Also, it is primarily a parliamentary democracy run by party politics, but also upholds a rare Emperor system, which has kept the Japanese society more or less politically stable under the government of a conservative structure. Then along came the current Abe administration, which has turned Japan's "peace constitution" into an issue. That means Japan is making a move toward reorganizing its self-defense forces into normal armed forces, transforming an economic power like Japan into a country with matching war potential. It would test the proposition that an economic power is able to last without becoming a military power. Because it is difficult to find a case in history where an economic power has not become a military power. Under the current circumstances, Japan's future may seem gravely worrisome to South Korea, but now is actually a time for South Korea to carefully monitor Japan and prepare countermeasures of its own.

Another thing to pay attention to when studying Japan is its political parties. The relations between different factions within the same party, and their relations with the bureaucrats surrounding the prime minister and conglomerates, matters like who holds more power in those relationships, what the source of that power is, how that power is wielded to achieve what purpose... The changes that come out of such relations and processes are what should be carefully reviewed.

Q. Issues caused by differing perceptions of history and by the Japanese military "comfort women" still exist between South Korea and Japan. How do think those issues will affect the relations between the two countries in the future?

Han Bae-ho The current administration of both South Korea and Japan have put the Japanese military comfort women issue down as an agenda in their relations. And an agreement was announced at the end of last year in the presence of both countries' minister of foreign affairs. Japan has since been claiming that the issue has been resolved through that agreement, whereas Korea considers the agreement part of an incomplete resolution still in need of a straightforward apology to the victims from the Japanese prime minister. I don't believe this issue can be resolved within a short period of time and I suspect that even Japan doesn't expect to either.

However, I think it will be necessary for Japan at the very least to show a truly sincere attitude with regard to the Japanese military comfort women issue. Rather than seeking to gain something from apologizing, I hope Japan can bring forth a genuine heartfelt sense of compassion to feel remorse for their past and take an interest in comfort women victims from a human rights point of view.

At the same time, I believe the two countries shouldn't been emotionally preoccupied with the comfort women issue. The issue should be dealt with separately so that it does not turn into a barrier in other realms where the two countries' mutual interests are at stake.

Q. What kind of policies or efforts do you see as necessary for South Korea and Japan to achieve peaceful co-existence or historical reconciliation?

Han Bae-ho South Korea-Japan relations is currently in an extremely difficult spot. I consider the two countries' relations as unique and challenging like a tangled bundle of yarn full of knots. Nevertheless, Japan is in a complementary relationship with South Korea in terms of politics, diplomacy, and security, so it is inevitable for the two countries to maintain friendly relations. That is why I stressed the importance of strengthening non-governmental exchange between the two countries through the keynote lecture I gave last year for the academic conference celebrating the past five decades of Korea-Japan relations. Relations between the two countries currently tend to be commercial and if that can step up to the next level where the two countries' people come to share a deep friendship, the future of South Korea-Japan relations will turn out to be fairly bright. Scholars should be able to offer support in their own way to help people forgive what needs to be forgiven without having to erase the pain, trials, and sorrow from the past.

I think studies on Japan in Korea still lack depth and that many Korean scholars retain a superficial understanding of Japan. For instance, if someone intends to study the Japanese economy, they need to be more knowledgeable about it than Japanese economists and perform research in-depth enough to be able to exchange their views with scholars in Japan. Of course, more and more Korean scholars with that level of capability have come along over the years, but a lot more effort needs to be made by the next generation of scholars, hopefully with sufficient support from the South Korean government as well as the Northeast Asian History Foundation.

Q. We know that you've been studying domestic politics for almost as long as you've studied Japanese politics. What are your thoughts on politics in Korea at the moment and what challenges do you see lying ahead?

Han Bae-ho If we were to say there are two types of politics, a politics of ideas and a politics of values, South Korea would fall under the latter type. A politics of conservative and progressive ideas can be witnessed in the United Kingdom or in Scandinavian countries, whereas a politics of values greatly depend on the values held by politicians. In South Korea, there is a ruling party and an opposition party and their values are ultimately determined by regionalism and generational conflicts. What's different in South Korea's case is that the ruling party fights for the creation of greater wealth and the opposition party fights for balance in degrees of welfare.

It is true that politics in South Korea has been freed from the military and development-driven dictatorship of the past and become democratized, but it has yet to reach the stage where a system of democracy has become stabilized into a political order. Above all else, there are serious zero-sum conflicts between different values and I believe learning how to resolve such conflicts will be a major challenge. The political arena needs to get into the habit of resolving conflict to set an example for the general public, but no such signs have materialized so far. So, the greatest challenge lying ahead would be changing the very nature of South Korea's political system.

Q. As a political scientist, what do you regard as the greatest change that took place in South Korean politics and the greatest turning point in South Korea's political development?

Han Bae-ho I would have to go with democratization. Authoritarian governments want to rule instead of engaging in politics, so it is impossible for politics to function properly under such a system. "Democratization" is to break away from a ruling party's total domination coupled by a practically non-existent opposition party and to start allowing the introduction of various democratic systems and actions such as elections, activities by different political parties, and the freedom of speech. In other words, it's a change of rules into open competition in a game called politics, which amounts to political development.

The meaning of political development is discussed in several different ways, but in a general sense, it can be considered as a shift from an authoritarian to a democratic system in which people participate in politics, express their demands, and get such demands reflected in policy changes. In that respect, there is still a lot more room for development here in South Korea. In the most ideal democratic system, the demands of the public are communicated to their government through proper means at the appropriate time and become reflected in government policies. If such an ideal system is given a score of 100, I would give Korea's democratic system a score of about 40.

Q. Since the Northeast Asian History Foundation has reached its tenth anniversary, could you please give a few words of advice for its future?

Han Bae-ho Well, I've attended several seminars hosted by the Foundation and I'm acquainted with a few of its research fellows who are involved in Japanese studies, but that hardly puts me in any position to give detailed advice to the Foundation. I don't want to keep bringing up the old days, but while I was a professor at Korea University, I served as the director of Japanese studies at the university's Asiatic Research Institute for nearly thirteen years. During that time, I struggled to procure many books from Japan and to initiate academic exchange with Japanese scholars in order to promote Japanese studies in Korea. Back then, we didn't have any foundations capable of lending support to research efforts. So, I remember running into many physical as well as financial setbacks at the time. Now that there are institutions like the Northeast Asian History Foundation that specialize in historical research, I hope there will be much more support to come from such institutions to researchers studying South Korea-Japan relations and South Korea-China relations. I will pray that the Foundation achieves greater prosperity in the years to come.