Discrimination in Education

At Heart of Problem Is Tokyo's Unchanging Duplicity

It's a relief to see in the news that the Japanese government has decided to include Korean high schools among the beneficiaries of its ``free-education" policy. We hope these reports will prove true and final, but it's still necessary to trace the controversy from its start and see what's gone wrong.

The trouble erupted when Japan's ministry for public security and kidnapped citizens opposed the education ministry's decision to treat Korean schools like Japanese and other foreign schools in giving an annual grant of 120,000 yen per student, saying North Korea's abduction of some Japanese citizens has yet to be solved completely.

It was disappointing for a Japanese cabinet official to confuse political issues with educational ones. Even more dismaying was the response of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who agreed with his public security minister, saying, ``I don't know what these Korean schools are teaching."

By doing so, the Japanese leaders have exposed their lack of awareness of education as a universal right, not to speak of their discriminatory consciousness against Korean residents in Japan. Premier Hatoyama will likely become the first Japanese leader to visit Korean schools to confirm their curricula himself, a move good for political posturing but not so good for indiscriminate leadership.

These officials also cite the lack of a formal relationship with North Korea, but discrimination in education for diplomatic reasons is in violation of a U.N. convention that bans it.

Behind all this is the ignorance ― somewhat intentional ― about the origin and nature of Korean schools. Above all, they have never been ― and still are not ― schools exclusively for North Korean descendants. Upon Korea's liberation from the Japanese colonial rule, these schools started as ``Joseon" ― named after Korea's last kingdom ― schools open for both South and North Koreans. When these nationalist schools ran into financial difficulties under oppression by the postwar Japanese government, Pyongyang came to their rescue, while Seoul looked away.

To sum up, these Joseon schools are sad remnants of colonization set up and attended by ethnic Koreans who cannot go back to their homelands for one reason or another. And this explains why Tokyo should not discriminate against them but help them as emblems of a renewed bilateral relationship by healing historical wounds.

The North's kidnapping of Japanese nationals is of course a matter that requires a swift solution. Japanese leaders, however, should stop and think how much it is different from the acts of Imperialist Japan, which coaxed and coerced hundreds of thousands of Koreans into forced labor before and during World War II, and have yet to make proper compensation for them, as illustrated by Tokyo's recent payment of 99 yen ($0.9) to each of the Korean claimants.

Tokyo must show more sincerity in abolishing discrimination against Koreans, including the grant of voting rights, or most Koreans are likely to suspect Prime Minister Hatoyama's signature phrases of ``fraternity" and ``East Asian community" as being little more than economic slogans for the domestic audience.

As to the plights facing Korean schools in Japan, there is also room for the Korean government to reflect on, as Seoul is not allowing children of illegal aliens to attend schools ― free or not.