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On October 26 and 27, the Northeast Asian History Foundation hosted an international academic conference at its grand conference hall under the theme "Issues in Historical Research on Korea-Japan Relations and Their Future Direction." The conference was held to review major issues that arose over time in researching the history of Korea-Japan relations since Korea's liberation and to consider research directions the Foundation may pursue in the future.

Change of Issues in the Historical Research of Korea-Japan Relations

Through the first presentation on the Imna Nihonfu hypothesis described in current Japanese junior high school social studies (history) textbooks, Professor Kim Ki-seop of Kongju National University pointed out that for providing theoretical grounds for Japan’s colonial rule of Korea, the Imna Nihonfu hypothesis was introduced in textbooks at the time and continues to remain in them to this day. The term Imna Nihonfu can no longer be found in current Japanese junior high school social studies textbooks, but the textbooks still contain a distorted description about Japanese forces that conquered and ruled the southern part of the Korean peninsula between the fourth and sixth century. Comparing current textbooks with those published immediately after Korea’s liberation shows that there is little difference between them in terms of content and supplementary information (footnotes and figures), except for the newly added descriptions about iron goods and keyhole-shaped burial mounds in current textbooks.

Through his presentation on re-examining issues in the historical research of Korea-Japan relations during the North-South States Period, NAHF Research Fellow Lim Sang-sun criticized Japanese historians and history textbooks for arguing that Japan had considered the ancient Korean kingdoms Silla and Balhae as vassal or tributary states. The Japanese claim that Balhae had hoped to receive military aid from Japan when it sought to establish diplomatic relations with Japan in 727 and that Japan had considered Balhae as a vassal or tributary state like Koguryo at the time. However, according to records, the reason Balhae sent an envoy to Japan was no more than to inform that it was a kingdom newly founded upon the territory of Koguryo and that it wished to initiate friendly relations with Japan. Lim further pointed out that there is no source directly supporting the claim that Japan had planned to conquer Silla in the mid eighth century when Silla resisted being treated as a vassal state by Japan.

The presentation given by Professor Puk Wing Kin (卜永堅) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong was about how much the Ming Dynasty spent on Japan’s invasion of Joseon, known as the Imjin War of 1592-1598. Based on his review of historical sources, Puk estimated that it must have cost the Ming dynasty approximately 5 to 7 million taels to participate in the Imjin War that occurred from Japanese invasions of Joseon. The presentation’s focus on the financial burden each country sustained from participating in the war attracted considerable interest and demonstrated the need for scholars from Korea, China, and Japan to jointly research the topic in the future.

NAHF Research Fellow Seo Hyun-ju’s presentation focused on why and how textbooks should cover the Japanese military comfort women issue, suggesting a more suitable way to describe the issue despite circumstantial differences that exist between Korean and Japanese history textbooks. Japan needs to change its textbook screening criteria, while Korea needs to host broader discussions between textbook authors, historians, and experts in history education when it comes to reinforcing textbook descriptions about Japanese military comfort women. Seo further pointed out the need for Korean and Japanese textbook authors to jointly review textbooks and come up with a common set of recommendations on how textbooks should describe the Japanese military comfort women issue.

This was followed by a presentation Professor Seki Syuuichi (関周一) of the University of Miyazaki gave on issues and material in studying medieval Korea-Japan relations. Since Korea’s liberation, historical research on medieval Japan’s relations with the Goryeo dynasty and the early Joseon dynasty experienced change in the 1980s when discussions dealt with Japan’s view of Joseon, exchanges between Korea and individual Japanese regions, and Japanese pirates. Since the 1990s, Japanese studies have been conducted on Japanese pirates and marginalized peoples, Japan's diplomacy and views on foreign relations, and imposter envoys from Japan (僞使). Seki informed that Japanese academia is now going beyond studying history through documents and records and is currently conducting joint studies in archaeology, art history, and Buddhist history based on excavated goods.

The presentation by Professor Zhang Hua (張華) of Minzu University of China covered Chinese studies on Japanese history in retrospect and prospect, offering an outline of the major tasks for Chinese research into Japan's ancient to contemporary history. Major research topics from ancient and medieval Japan have involved the ancient country Yamatai-koku and the Taika Reforms, while the Meiji Restoration, modern wars of aggression, Japanese fascism, and post-war issues have preoccupied Chinese studies on modern to contemporary Japan. Zhang later proposed the need to establish in China theories, a framework for macroscopic interpretations, and the study of Japanese historical sources in addition to the need to conduct studies on Japanese history from an East Asian perspective.

Future Research Directions and Tasks

Professor Komiya Hidetaka (小宮秀陸) of Dokkyo University offered a historical review of Japanese research on ideas about ancient East Asia by tracing how Japanese scholars historically interpreted the East Asia that Japan, Korea, and China have been part of. The argument Nishijima Sadao (西嶋定生) made about the existence of an investiture-tributary system, which continues to greatly influence today's research into Korean, Japanese, and Oriental history, was part of the process of establishing Japan's position in the 1960s and 1970s. Komiya claimed that the need to formulate a new world history after the end of the Cold War likewise materialized into active discussions about defining East Asia as a region since the 1990s.

Through his presentation on Japan's postwar settlement and perception of history, NAHF Research Fellow Nam Sang-gu stressed that issues involving reparations for harms suffered from colonial rule as well as conflicts over differing perceptions of history are matters of the present, not the past. Nam suggested that new threads of discussion should be formed by approaching matters from the perspective of world history rather than as matters unique to Korea and Japan in order to examine how Korea and Japan dealt with colonial rule and the harms it incurred and how the international society dealt with harms incurred by colonial rule.

Professor Shin Ju-baek of Yonsei University offered the final presentation on the current status and direction of Korea-China-Japan joint historical research and textbook development. Shin pointed out that dialogues between Korea, China, and Japan on history and history textbooks have been affected by changes in the international order so that intergovernmental discussions have come to a standstill and civilian efforts have also experienced a considerable loss of motivation. Shin added that referring to the West German foreign policy Ostpolitik may be helpful in formulating present and future national strategies on issues that involve history, national division, and regional order.

This academic conference confirmed that Imna Nihonfu, Japanese recognition of Balhae and Silla as vassal or tributary states, Japanese pirates, the Imjin War, the Ganghwa Treaty of 1876, Japan's forced annexation and mobilization, Dokdo, and the Japanese military comfort women are still controversial topics in historical research on Korea-Japan relations and Japanese history textbooks. The conference also served as an occasion to form a consensus on the need for more organized, long-term studies, the establishment of new, internationally-recognized theories, and further dialogue between Korea, China, and Japan. The Northeast Asian History Foundation plans to summarize what has been presented and discussed through the conference and publish it as a monograph in 2018.