It seems as if historical quarrels had become another quadrennial event between the two Asian neighbors of Korea and Japan.
In the spring of 2001, the Japanese government infuriated Koreans and Chinese by approving a right-wing history textbook that glorified its imperialist past and rationalized colonial rule of Asian neighbors in the early part of the 20th century. When Tokyo re-approved the controversial history book four years later, the percentage of middle schools using it as their texts had shown a 10-fold increase.
Another four years have passed since then, and Japan's Education Ministry has even given the go-ahead to another version of what its neighbors see as an outrageous distortion of historical facts.
No less disappointing than the ``second distortion" itself was that it came at a time when the relationship between Seoul and Tokyo is at one of its highest points under governments of similar ideological inclinations.
In a sense, the second ultra-right textbook is worse than the first one, rationalizing its colonization as aimed at modernizing Korea and pretending Korea had been under Japanese rule since ancient times. These are points that have attracted strong doubts from not just Korean but other foreign historians. In another glaring case of double-dealing, the textbook even dared to omit the comments on ``comfort women" ― wartime sex slaves for Japanese soldiers ― although Tokyo has expressed regrets about the barbaric crime to the international community.
The Korean government rightly conveyed ``strong protest" and called for its ``immediate rectification." But Seoul's response appears to be more words than action, evident by the far lower level of diplomatic channels it made these gestures than before.
Small surprise there: The Lee Myung-bak administration has made it clear since its inception that Seoul would forget the past for now and move toward a future-oriented relationship, which Tokyo welcomed with all its heart. Yet the Japanese government has shown once again it has not abandoned its habit of saying one thing and doing another.
Come to think of it, the Lee administration has somehow invited part of this ― committing the same mistake by rectifying Korea's own modern history in ways to suit Japanese tastes, such as absolving pro-Japanese collaborators and playing down the roles of independence fighters, even forcing some living patriots to turn back government-conferred medals.
Tokyo's latest action should serve as an awakener for President Lee and Korean right-wingers. One such piece of evidence is whether or not Lee would take up this issue in his upcoming meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on the sidelines of the Southeast Asian countries' summit in Bangkok. Unfortunately, the outlook appears not so bright, going by what he has done with respect to Tokyo so far.
Japan has long strived to be a global political leader congruous with its economic might, but failed, mainly because of the international community's impression of the Japanese as a ``people with short, unclear memories." Sadly, Korea seems to be helping this.