What Korea should do about Japan

By Jin Pyuo Lee

Today marks the 70th anniversary of Liberation Day — also known as “Gwangbokjeol” in Korean. As implied in Korean, it was the day that the Korean people restored the light, lost in the 20th century during the brutal colonial era that lasted 36 years.

Seventy years have passed by since that glorious day. However, building a successful Korea-Japan bilateral relationship still remains a most difficult agenda for both nations.

Today is a good day to review Korea’s role in improving the strained relationship with Japan, our so close yet so far neighbor.

First, Korea should engage more with the international community, Japan and its leadership to ensure Japan upholds freedom, democracy, peace and stability in Asia.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has consistently tested the tolerance level of the international community, and many of his actions have not matched his claims.

Abe has taken various steps to distance himself from Japan’s dubious past in favor of revisionism. For example, Abe and his Cabinet have attempted to cast doubt on the 1993 Kono Statement and 1996 United Nations’ reports, arguing there was no documented evidence of coercion in acquiring sex slaves for the Japanese military, and suggesting the statement was not binding government policy.

As a previous Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone wrote in the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan will be unable to gain the trust of its neighboring countries if it fails to face the negative views of its history. Japan must realize that it will not reconcile with the international community if Japan continues to test the waters and glorify its imperialistic past.

Therefore, Korea must build the capacity and capability to shape history by challenging and addressing questions relating to Japan if they cordially promote peaceful development in the region. In the near term, Korea must ensure that Japan apologizes and acknowledges its atrocities and never uses military force unilaterally against another nation.

For the general public of Korea, the people should ask themselves how much they are aware of the history leading to the liberation, how much they care about the victims and patriots during the colonial era and how much they are willing to have an open mind regarding Japan if it starts to change.

So far, the results are quite disappointing. According to a survey conducted by Gallup Korea in February, only 58 percent of people knew the year of liberation. Moreover, only 17 percent of the people answered that they had a favorable view of Japan.

Koreans in the 21st century enjoy a much better and affluent life than those here 70 years ago. But apparently they don’t know just who sacrificed to build the foundation for the nation. This is depressing. Koreans need to ask themselves what they can do to give back to those who gave everything to achieve the liberation of the nation.

An awareness of history and care to the victims and patriots would be a starting point to shift Korea to a “forgive, but never forget” approach toward Japan, instead of being continuously embedded in a deep emotional uneasiness.

Sincere reconciliation should be achieved in a mutual manner, and there are definitely many areas that Korea, both the government and its people, is able to play a key role.

The author graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2014, with the majors in finance and environmental studies. He is also an ICAS (Institute for Corean-American Studies) research assistant in the United States.