Duel with Japan: Korea's inevitable coming of age ritual
A man stages a protest condemning Japan's embargo against Korea in front of a building where the Japanese embassy is located in downtown Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
By Oh Young-jin
Korea cannot take a step back from its duel with Japan because too much is at stake. On the surface it is a matter of trade but, more broadly and importantly, Korea's past, present and future are on the line.
The issue of getting Japanese companies belatedly to pay compensation for Korean forced laborers during World War II ― the starting point of the Korea-Japan standoff ― only scratches the surface of the much bigger issue underneath.
There is Korea's collective sense of resignation to the Toynbian surmise: history repeats itself. Karl Marx in his 1852 essay “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon,” defanged its predictive venom, by stating, “History repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce,” but Toynbee beats Marx as the first inexplicably and ironically takes control of the Korean consciousness and serves to arrest its development.
His shadows are manifest in two ways: Koreans resent Japan and its nationalist leader Shinzo Abe for their refusal to inherit the sins of their ancestors and the obligation to pay for these sins ― but Koreans worry about their wellbeing, fearing that the fate that befell them at the turn of the 20th century will revisit them.
Back then, the big powers scrambled to have Korea as a colonial trophy prize.
In that scramble, imperial Japan cut deals with the U.S., fought off the Qing Dynasty and the Russian Empire, and absorbed Korea, then the Joseon Kingdom, before ruling it as ruthless colonial master for the following 36 years.
The hapless King Gojeong, the last monarch of the ailing Joseon, was reduced to a pawn being pulled by his father and Queen Min or Empress Myeongseong. The trio's respective and conflicting attempts to curry favor with the big powers to save themselves backfired and collapsed.
The ambience created by the mixture of U.S. President Donald Trump, China's president for life Xi Jinping, Japan's Abe, remotely Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and, last but not least, North Korea's young autocrat Kim Jong-un, has for no good reasons spooked present-day Korea in the same manner Joseon must have felt some 100 years ago.
What is puzzling is Koreans' failure to appreciate that their country is incomparably bigger and stronger now. Today's Koreans still compare their “poor” lot as “prawn” caught in mortal battle between whales, but being oblivious to the fact that they are now the world's 11th largest shrimp.
The shrimp of this size could tackle and scare the whales, making them believe that any fight would be mutually damaging.
So Abe's provocation gives Korea an opportunity to free itself from the colonial demon, overcome the tin-drum syndrome and earn the respect it desperately wants and deserves.
The adult Korea should speak and act in accordance with its stature. Not shying away from a fight started by Abe and going toe to toe with Japan would be the first indispensable step.
Of course, the pursuit of a diplomatic solution with Japan should be left open because a negotiated solution is often preferable to a Pyrrhic victory. But this time in an initiation ceremony, Korea has no other choice but to brave a bloody nose or two as a price to pay to get the message across.
And Japan is following the U.S. example. U.S. is using trade to press China into a corner, part of its broad war strategy to keep China at bay. The two are caught in the Thucycidides' trap that sets the declining power against the rising new power.
So it is quite possible that Japan is picking a fight with Korea for the same reason Trump is doing with Xi. After all, Japan has peaked and is regarded as a declining power that may fear being left alone to face China with the U.S. moving into an isolationist cocoon. In contrast, Korea, a middle power, still has a growth card in unification.
The burden of fear may weigh on Japan and Abe in their hope of keeping Korea at bay.
Whichever way the trade war develops ― whether Korea's victory, Japan's victory or a draw ― it appears that another throw of dice has been made to make the realignment of Asian order and by extension the global order unstoppable.
In the mix are an ascendant China, an assertive Korea, a reactive Japan and a Trumpian U.S. During much of the post-World War II order, the U.S. has maintained its supremacy, backed by Japan as its deputy and Korea on their coattails, with China by and large resigned to itself.
Will Korea stay with the U.S. and Japan in defending the old order? Would China take away the hegemony from the U.S.? How scary would China be to its neighbors if it is in control? What say would countries like Korea have in the remaking of order?
In that sense, the trade dispute is not just a standoff between Korea and Japan but an issue that belongs to all in this Asian neighborhood.
Oh Young-jin (
,
) is digital managing editor of The Korea Times.