By Lee Min-hyung
The Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF) plans to hold an international conference Friday to discuss global trends and the challenges of encouraging nations to take responsibility for past colonial actions.
Twenty-two panelists from four countries will join the conference to reexamine the colonial era in Northeast Asian countries.
“The Northeast Asian History Foundation has continued to host international conferences in order to identify the substance of colonial responsibility as a source of disagreement over historical events involving Korea and Japan,” NAHF President Kim Hak-joon said in an invitation to the conference.
The two countries have remained poles apart when it comes to issues related to Japan’s forced annexation and colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945.
The NAHF has been holding the annual conference since 2011. This year, experts from Korea, Japan, Australia and South Africa will gather at the headquarters of the foundation in central Seoul.
Kim will deliver an opening address, followed by a welcoming speech by Choi Seung-hwan, a law professor at Kyunghee University. Choi is also serving as president of the Korean Branch of the International Law Association. The conference is co-hosted by the association.
The one-day conference includes four sessions. Before lunch, scholars from Korea and Japan will discuss international law and colonial responsibility.
Global trends on the matter will be dealt with during the next session where scholars are to take a look at the colonial history of other countries, including South Africa and Indonesia.
The third session will feature the Japanese government’s task to cope with its colonial responsibility. Japanese Professor Nagahara Yoko will give a speech on how to overcome nationalism to that end.
Sung Jae-ho, a law professor at Sungkyunkwan University, will lead the final discussion of the conference, which will last about 40 minutes, with all panelists joining the discussion.