Newsletter

NAHF's Northeast Asian History Net(http://contents.nahf.or.kr) has been developing the database for 10 years this year. It is not easy to visit NAHF's data room due to the Covid-19 that started last year. NAHF complements and expands the contents of the Northeast Asian History Net, making it convenient for the general public as well as the researchers to use the website.

In particular, this year, we plan to release additional materials related to the Korea-Japan talks, which can be regarded as the cause of the conflict between Korea and Japan. These data are about the official documents of Korea and Japan, and the war criminals among the data related to the sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army. I hope that the books, documents, relics, research data, laws, and old maps provided by NAHF through the Northeast Asian History Net will help you understand history and establish a right history.

<13 years and 8 months of Korea-Japan talks, sharp conflict between the two countries>

The data on the Korea-Japan talks published in the Northeast Asian History Net are official documents from Korea, Japan and the United States. Diplomatic documents are important data showing the relations between countries and the external perception of the time, but it has not been easy to access in the meantime. From 1945 to 1953, there was a special situation in the Republic of Korea: liberation, the founding of the country, and the Korean War. Therefore, it is difficult to read because the preservation status of the data is not good.

The Northeast Asian History Net provides authors, dates, types of documents, brief descriptions and original texts of diplomatic documents on the Korea-Japan talks. Already, NAHF has converted about 70% of the 35,000 diplomatic documents in Korea into texts. This is for the convenience of users. Among the new documents is 『A document that claims Japan's compensate』, which the Korean government claims to Japan in 1949 before the San Francisco Treaty was signed. On March 15, 1949, 『A document that claims Japan's compensate Part 1: Claim on the Return of In-kind』 was published. On September 1, 『A document that claims Japan's compensate(sequel)" was published, which contains Part 2, 3, and 4』. This is the most systematized data written to summarize the historical issues between Korea and Japan as the concept of 'compensation'. Although the nature of the Korea-Japan talks has changed from 'compensation' to 'claim right', this data is the starting point of negotiations on the right to claim and the highest level of data with a decisive meaning in considering the past history of Korea-Japan. After the third round of talks broke down in 1953, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs compiled the two volumes into one volume, supplementing its strategy on the right to claim for Japan. The 1954 and 1949 editions differ in page and notation, but there is no difference in content.

Through the US documents, we can also look at the relations between Korea, the United States and Japan at the time. The Korea-Japan agreement comes to the surface whenever issues about victims of forced mobilization and the sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army arise. It can compare how the $ 300 million in free aid and $ 200 million in paid aid appeared in the Korea-Japan Agreement, what discussions were held between the two countries on individual claims, and how the records of Korea and Japan on the agreement process differ. The Northeast Asian History Net publishes US documents related to the Korea-Japan talks collected by The National Institute of Korean History. Through this, we can look at the US perception of Korea-Japan relations in detail.

The issue of the sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army is still important in the 21st century. The victims are demanding apology and reflection on Japan. NAHF has compiled and added documents on war crimes to its data list related to the sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army. This historical data was provided by Women's Active Museum on war and peace(https://wam-peace.org) which is the leader in identifying the truth about the forced mobilization of sexual slavery.

And NAHF added the indictments and sentencing texts of war crimes trials in the Netherlands, China and Guam. This data shows the damage caused by the sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army in the Dutch East Indie in many ways. According to the Dutch Batavia(Jakarta: The name the Netherlands called when it colonized Indonesia) trial documents, Japanese soldiers and officials who forcibly kidnapped women and kept them at ‘the comfort station’ were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison or death. In the Chinese and Guam trials, a war criminal who threatened and arrested women and forced them to become sexual slavery was sentenced to death. At the time, the level of consciousness related to human rights was not as high as today. However, it is clear in the ruling that it is an act that violates human rights and is a war crime that forced women to become sexual slavery. However, the data related to the war crimes trial is about the victims of the Netherlands and China. There are many Korean victims, but there is no data. Many of the victims left without leaving their names. We will continue to work on clarifying the actual situation of the sexual slavery victims for the Japanese imperial army issue and organizing the records.

Gunkanjima, well known through broadcasting programs and movies, is an island near Nagasaki, where forced mobilization took place on a large scale in the 1940s. In July 2015, Japan listed it as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name of ‘modern industrial facilities’. The Japanese government promised to list Gunkanjima as a UNESCO World Heritage. “We will take measures to understand that Koreans and other people in other countries have been mobilized against their will and have been forced to work under harsh conditions.” But they are not fulfilling that promise properly. For example, the Japanese government opened the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo in March 2020 as one of the follow-up measures. However, the center did not have the fact that Koreans were forced to work, and exhibited testimony that there was no racial discrimination at the time. The Asahi Shimbun of Japan also published an editorial saying, "It is hard to say that the Japanese government has fulfilled its promise." NAHF criticized the problems of Japanese modern industrial heritage on the website of Korean and English version, "Japan's industrial heritage, the field of distortion and the concealed truth".

History cannot be judged from the present perspective. It is important to understand the situation of the times and find 'positive' and 'negative' in the issue of Korea-Japan relations. Criticism is necessary, but the proof must always be clear. I expect you will find the truth of the time in the document provided by the Northeast Asian History Net.