Koreans celebrated the 94th anniversary of a national uprising against their Japanese colonizers Friday, in the most indignant atmosphere in years.
They had no other choice: a day before, Japan’s vice foreign minister reaffirmed Tokyo’s plan to "doggedly” stick to its sovereignty of Dokdo. A few days earlier, the Japanese government sent a vice ministerial official to a prefectural event marking "Takeshima Day.” Soon, Japan’s education ministry will announce its approval of egregiously distorted history textbooks for secondary schools.
President Park Geun-hye was right therefore to urge Japan to "squarely face history and take a responsible stance for it” if Tokyo wants to open a new era for Northeast Asia in the 21st century, as Korea’s partner.
The problem is, although all of Park’s predecessors have said so, Japan has moved further away from Korea’s request. Japan, led by conservative leaders who seem to think its biggest, if not its only mistake in World War II was losing, has kept justifying and whitewashing its military past and moved rightward, especially when the island country falls into economic slumps and political crises.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who denies even the existence of sex slaves, is trying to include Korea in its allies to be affected by its collective self-defense rights. That means if North Korea attacks the South, Japanese planes will bomb Pyongyang. The 20th century has not ended in this part of the world.
All this shows why 6 million self-employed people here are staging a boycott of Japanese products, which, regardless of its effectiveness, reflects ordinary Koreans’ anger and frustration with their unrepentant neighbor.
Yet not a few Koreans may have to thank Abe and his coterie for reminding them of the painful past that should never be repeated. Had it not been for Tokyo’s provocations, many Koreans would spend the day as just another holiday. A survey of 4,000 students by a teachers’ association found 40 percent of students didn’t know what to celebrate on the March 1 Independence Movement Day. The English version of the "Declaration of Independence” in a Seoul park remains unreadable because of poor translation and misspellings.
Unconscious historical amnesia is worse than a conscious one.