Historical Reconciliation

                                                                                                    (Korea Times 02.28)

By Yeon Min-soo Now that the election is behind us and a new administration is ready to take office this year, expectations are running high for positive change in Korea-Japan relations.

The past five years have been fraught with friction and crises for the two countries. While the escalating dispute on the Dokdo islets threatened to become a full-blown diplomatic row, incidents like the visit to the Yasukuni shrine by Japan"s former prime ministers and the comfort women issue have further embittered relations between the two countries.

Years of tension over past wrongs have left many Koreans with a sense of profound weariness, and they are eager for the new administration to set about looking for a way out of this chronic strife.

Korea and Japan are two of the oldest nations in the world, having achieved ethnic and national unification millennia ago. Exchanges between these close neighbors have been active and uninterrupted throughout history.

The mutual perception between Korean and Japanese people, underlying the current tension, was, in fact, slowly shaped through this long process of interaction.

Koreans have long held a sense of cultural superiority vis-a-vis the Japanese, and the recent occupation by the latter was an enormous blow to their national pride.

To make matters worse, the irony of history has given us a Japan that succeeded in transforming itself into a modern capitalist nation in large part thanks to its occupation of Korea, and that also drew a sizeable benefit from the Korean War, the greatest tragedy in the latter"s modern history, in terms of its postwar economic reconstruction.

The standard Japanese stance is to explain away its occupation of Korea, saying that it was no different from what other imperialist powers did to the countries that fell under their sway, and shrugging it off as water under the bridge."

This attitude certainly does not help to move toward closing the gap in historical understanding between the two countries.

The recent news from Japan has not been reassuring. The rightwing resurgence in Japan is a worrisome sign that Japanese militarism is alive and well, to the greatest dismay of Korean people.

What a difference from Germany, whose leaders knew how to regain the trust of the world community by honestly facing up to the past! No release in the current historical tension can be hoped for without a change in Japan"s attitude, which is primarily responsible for this bad blood tarnishing the prospects for true peace in East Asia.

President-elect Lee Myung-bak"s stance is clearly that the past should not slow our momentum forward. He said in a statement: ``We should set our sights on the future and let Japan come to terms with all past misdeeds and wrongs done by it,"" which can be understood as urging Japan to refrain from actions that could further inflame Korean sentiment.

Currently, some 4.5 million people travel between the two countries annually, and goods and services traded exceed $80 billion in value, with over 600,000 Koreans living in Japan. The figures say a great deal about how the order of the day is cooperation.

The thing we need to do right now is to rebuild trust between the two governments. The lack of a consensus about history between the political leaderships of the two countries is making their dialogue difficult, and hurting their mutual understanding.

Japan must show the magnanimity and self-restraint befitting a world economic power, and Korea the strength to forgive. A bottom-up approach is also needed to create a common historical awareness in broader segments of the population.

Infrastructure for historical dialogue, such as communications channels between historians, research institutions and civic organizations, must be actively expanded.

It is an exciting time for both Koreans and Japanese, with a new administration at the helm of each country. Hopefully, this is the harbinger of a thaw in Korean-Japanese relations, and possibly even the long-waited historical reconciliation, so crucial for peace in East Asia.

Yeon Min-soo is a researcher at the Northeast Asian History Foundation (www.historyfoundation.or.kr) in Seoul. The foundation is promoting historical accuracy through various activities.