Abe urged to repeat Kono

By Alexis Dudden

The word “nadir” has become common to describe official relations between Seoul and Tokyo. Worse, recent polls indicate that Koreans and Japanese are so fed up with one another that distrust and even disgust are at an all-time high.

Many people wonder how to approach Monday’s 50th anniversary of diplomatic and economic ties.

For centuries, Koreans and Japanese have had deep relations through trade, wars and occupation, intellectual, artistic, and religious exchange, and, yes, all sorts of family bloodlines. Racing ahead to the modern past, 50 years ago after a fitful decade of shuttle negotiations to confront the era of Japanese occupation (1905-1945), the United States said: “Enough. Get on with it.”

The timing of the June 22, 1965, formula had much to do with American determination that Japan shoulder development costs in a still impoverished South Korea. Washington could then spend American cash bolstering its then-desired aims in Vietnam and, moreover, it would exclude Pyongyang.

This does not excuse how North Korea governs today, but it reminds us that historically speaking, the 1965 terms were bifurcated from the start, “halving” what took place in Korea under Japanese rule. Also directly related to today’s “nadir,” similar to the American-led 1951 San Francisco Treaty ― which at once legally condemned pre-1945 Japan and dismantled the Japanese empire while simultaneously judged post-1945 Japan vital to international world order ― in 1965, too, the Japanese government would receive a “pass” on confronting specific historical events under its pre-1945 rule.

Fast forward to the present. The Japanese government maintains that 1965 covered all this “history ‘n stuff.” In reality it did nothing of the sort. On top of this, South Korea is a vibrantly different world today, whose citizens now can demand that their officials and courts ― as in Japan and the United States ― answer their concerns.

There is much speculation about potential openings between Seoul and Tokyo. While people involved make choices ― I am not one ― I will remember a moment that demonstrated how, when made well, official decisions about history can move societies forward, if not perfectly.

In 2002, I guest-taught a graduate course at Seoul National University. The students were Korean, Japanese, and Japanese-Korean. Native Japanese speakers predominated, so we chose Japanese as the common language.

This was liberating for us all for different reasons and made three things clear: students from Japan knew a lot about the international history of empire but far less about what happened during the Japanese occupation of Korea; the Korean students knew what the Japanese did to their country but far less about other colonization histories; and, all saw how much the American (me) needed to learn and think about for the present and future.

What does this 2003 moment have to do with June 22, 2015? There was hope.

The 1993 so-called Kono Statement that marked Japan’s first post-1965 public attempt to atone for any of the nation’s specific pre-1945 history in Korea ― the history of the Japanese military’s system of sexual slavery in this case ― made possible much of my students’ and my collective access to material that enabled our far-reaching discussions. The open atmosphere of trust was a given.

The Kono Statement is clear: “We shall face squarely the historical facts… instead of evading them, and take them to heart as lessons of history … forever engraving such issues in our memories through the study and teaching of history.”

The “we” applies to all interested in reconciliation. The present low notwithstanding, hope would return through firm Japanese government commitment to follow the Kono Statement words to the letter. Anything less, collective hope will lose more ground, and we all move backwards.