‘Balanced’ Overview of Japan-Korea Ties
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
At a time when Korean Internet users immediately launch a ruthless attack upon finding any Web site that carries the name ``Sea of Japan'' instead of ``East Sea,'' it is a bold decision for a writer to opt for using both in his book published here, albeit written in English.
``I alternately used the two names of the sea in my book,'' Koh Byung-chul, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois, Chicago, said on his book ``Between Discord and Cooperation: Japan and the Two Koreas'' (Koh Byung-chul; Yonsei University Press: 551 pp., 25,000 won), out this week.
The former director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Kyungnam University, says that even Japanese readers won't feel his book is unbalanced. In an interview with The Korea Times at the East Asia Foundation in Seoul, the U.S.-based scholar stressed that an objective attitude is the key for a constructive future relationship in dyadic cases _ Japan-South Korea and Japan-North Korea relations.
``For its part, the South Korean side has made many mistakes (in its relations with Japan),'' he said, citing an example in President Roh Moo-hyun's capricious take on the neighboring country.
Although Roh said at the July 2004 post-summit joint press conference with then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that the ``ROK government would not raise the issue of past history as either an official agenda item or a contentious issue,'' this he later broke several times with severely-worded statements when nationalist sentiment was stirred in Seoul by Japan's renewed claim on Dokdo and moves to whitewash its past atrocities in school textbooks. Roh seems to have switched position as a means to recover his own plunging popularity, Koh said.
South Korea's emotional manner of countering Japan's claim on the Dokdo islets has been none the more skillful. ``Japan wants to take the issue to an international court, as it has diligently accumulated materials to back up their claim on the islets. South Korea merely looks the other way, remaining idle on preparing counterproofs. It's natural for Japan to every now and then raise the issue again, because without an occasional protest from Tokyo, Korea's de-facto `peaceful, continuous display of authority' on Dokdo exercised during the last 50 years would cement its right to the islets under international law.''
Koh has sharp words for Japan as well. ``Why can't Japan openly come clean about its past and make compensation on a government level like Germany did, instead of resorting to some dubious non-official funds? I guess the Japanese are too narrow-minded for that. I thought a generation change in leadership would bring about positive prospects, but judging from how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe behaves these days, it's still a far-fetched outlook.''
It is also nonsense that Japanese prime ministers continue to visit the Yaskuni Shrine, where World War II war criminals are enshrined. ``What kind of `personal matter' can it be when a nation's prime minister pays a visit there?''
To improve bilateral relations, it can only be hoped that growing personal and cultural exchanges between South Korea and Japan will intensify and bring a generational change in leadership on both sides, Koh said.
Koh, who has spent more than half his life in the United States after studying public administration and international law at Cornell University, believes that Washington hopes its two staunch allies will get along well, while maintaining a neutral position on past issues. But Koh predicted that a U.S. House resolution calling for Japan's official apology for the World War II enslavement of women from other Asia-Pacific nations, including Korea will pass soon, despite governmental-level protests from Tokyo these days.
``The resolution is non-bonding but very symbolic,'' he said. ``It is especially laudable that Rep. Mike Honda, who is of Japanese descent, has led the resolution into a vote.''
As for North Korea and Japan, the road to normalization of bilateral relations has an even bumpier road ahead, with the main bone of contention being the North's abduction of Japanese citizens. For this, a clever, mutually face-saving way should be found out, Koh thinks. While the scheme will have to be designed by future leaders of the two Koreas and Japan together, those who want an objective glimpse into the past history leading up to today's minimal cooperation and maximal discords could turn to Koh's book, which offers well-researched chronologies and highlights of critical moments in their relations.