뉴스레터

On May 10, 213 Korean and Japanese intellectuals almost simultaneously issued a joint declaration in Seoul and Tokyo, invalidating Japan's annexation of the Korea in 1910.

I rushed to the Seoul Press Center, where the Korean intellectuals were issuing the joint declaration, and was lucky enough to witness firsthand a momentous historic occasion.

As testament to the importance of this historical issue, the pressroom was packed with 30 Korean intellectuals and 30 reporters. On the Korean side of the joint declaration, 109 prominent figures from all political spectrums participated. The participants included famous names such as writer Lee Mun-yeol; poet Goh Eun; and Kang Man-gil, Professor Emeritus of Korea University. Across the Korean strait, 104 intellectuals, including Sakamoto Yoshikazu [坂本義和]; Wada Haruki [和田春樹], Professor Emeritus of Tokyo University; and Nobel Laureate Ōe Kenzaburo [大江健三郞] endorsed the declaration. However, according to Professor Miyajima Hiroshi of Sungkyunkwan University, the Japanese participants do not wield as great an influence compared to their Korean counterparts.

The intellectuals from both countries have engaged in numerous discussions since last December when they initiated preliminary consultations. After five rounds of negotiations, they managed to draft the final declaration. However, a significant level of controversy erupted among the Japanese participants in regards to the content of the joint declaration. As such, a considerable gap exists between the opinions of Japanese and Korean intellectuals in terms of their respective interpretation and assessment.

The declaration states that "as the process of the annexation was unjust and wrongful, the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was also unjust and wrongful." It goes on to say, "The Japanese government interpreted the treaty as that which had been concluded between two parties on equal standing exercising their free will. The treaty, which had gone into effect the moment it was signed, was effectively made null and void with the the establishment of the Republic of Korea in. On this point, the Korean government stipulated that "(the Korean government) interpreted the unjust and wrongful treaty to be invalid to begin with as it was the product of Japan's imperialistic invasion of the past." Such stipulation seems to have conveyed the opinions of the Japanese participants. Unfortunately, the expression 'illegal' was not included but to clearly express the illegality of the 'Annexation Treaty' can be considered an important achievement.

The Korean news outlets reported the joint declaration as front-page news or a main news item. However, the reaction from the Japanese press was cold. Sankei, the famous right-wing press, did not report the declaration, nor did other major dailies, such as the nation's most widely read Yomiuri and Mainichi. Among major news outlets, only Asahi Shimbun reported the declaration, in the 3rd section of the 37th page of its "Society" section in its May 11 issue. Others such as Kyodo News Service Report and Tokyo Newspaper only mentioned it briefly. This shows the differences in perspective between Korea and Japan.

This coming August marks the centennial of Japan's illegal annexation of Korea. Some media outlets have reported that members of the Korean National Assembly and those of the Japanese Diet are pushing ahead with a joint declaration on the invalidity of the annexation of Korea. The optimal outcome would be for both the Japanese and Korean government to actuate a joint declaration. While there is no need for us to be proud of centennial of the annexation, we should use it as an opportunity to look back at the past century and reflect on how to pioneer our future by steering history in the right direction.