Japanese historian calls for Seoul, Tokyo to cooperate on cultural property dispute
Shinichi Arai, professor emeritus at Ibaraki University in Japan, speaks during a lecture on “Returning Cultural Assets, Overcoming Colonialism” at the National Palace Museum of Korea in central Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage FederationBy Baek Byung-yeul “Japan’s academic progress in liberal arts such as archaeology and history couldn’t be possible without colonizing Korea. Nevertheless, many Japanese now don’t retain this fact in memory.”The seemingly provocative comment was not made by Korean historians or politicians. It came from Shinichi Arai, 88, a Japanese historian who studies Japan’s war crime issues from World War II.On his recent visit to Korea, the professor emeritus at Japan’s Ibaraki University stressed that “in a peaceful, cooperative way, thinking of coexistence of two countries, Korea and Japan should solve their long-standing historical issues, which is about returning Korea’s cultural assets plundered by the Japanese during Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945
Dec 19, 2014
