Leaders in Tokyo should listen to voices of conscience
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his government reluctant to admit their country's wartime misdeeds are becoming the targets of bitter counsel and candid advice, both from at home and abroad.
"After the war, it was eventually concluded that no one was wrong," Haruki Murakami, who has long been tipped as a winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, was quoted as saying by the Japan Times. "Fundamentally, Japanese people tend not to have an idea that they were also assailants and the tendency is getting clearer."
This is a conscientious ― and courageous ― self-reflection by a world-renowned novelist, words that Koreans and other Asians would like to hear more frequently, especially from Japan's political leaders. As the international community is well aware, however, the opposite is true.
A case in point is the ongoing move among Japan's nationalist politicians to adopt a parliamentary resolution that denies the coerciveness in herding hundreds of thousands of Korean and other foreign women into military brothels during World War II. Leading this outrageous drive is Shintaro Ishihara, an ultra-right novelist-turned-politician, indicating not all literary persons are same, just as not all Japanese people are same.
It was Abe's Cabinet that provided the cause for this glaring campaign, by virtually neutralizing the Kono Statement, which officially acknowledged the Japanese military's role in recruiting "comfort women" and operating "comfort stations," and apologized for the atrocious abuses of women's rights for the first time. The Japanese government vowed to respect the apology on the surface, but actually gutted the 1993 statement by making it appear to be a diplomatic compromise with Korea.
The Japanese leader then proposed to leave the matter to historians. Then came its most biting refutation by none other than Japan's largest and most influential group of historians. ''The Japanese army's deep involvement in forcibly mobilizing sex slaves and establishing military brothels in the Pacific region is an unshakable fact," said the Japan History Study Society, which has 2,400 members, recently. ''Regardless of the authenticity of (Seiji) Yoshida's testimony (on detailed military involvement), the existence of forced sexual slavery is undeniable."
Koreans can help but wonder what Tokyo's response will be to this brave acknowledgement of the truth by the prestigious group of scholars.
We also remember that in 2011, a teachers' union in Tokyo refused to follow their government's guidelines to teach that Dokdo (Takeshima in Japanese) is Japan's territory, noting that is contrary to historical facts. In addition, about 1,000 Japanese citizens held a rally last week, urging the Japanese nationalists to stop anti-Korean demonstrations.
All this shows how Korea should build solidarity with these conscientious intellectuals and ordinary citizens in Japan as well as with the international community in fighting against regressive conservatives and nationalists in the neighboring country, while not antagonizing the silent ― and uninterested ― majority.
The government's recent decision to not build additional facilities on Dokdo was a prudent move in this regard by avoiding reigniting the anti-Korean sentiments among ordinary Japanese people.
If Japanese leaders are to interpret this as Seoul's backing off in the face of Tokyo's hard-line policy, they ought to recall stinging advice from Dutch King Villem-Alexander last week, who said, "The scars of war are still casting shadows on many people's lives, and victims' sufferings and sorrow still continue."
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his government reluctant to admit their country's wartime misdeeds are becoming the targets of bitter counsel and candid advice, both from at home and abroad.
"After the war, it was eventually concluded that no one was wrong," Haruki Murakami, who has long been tipped as a winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, was quoted as saying by the Japan Times. "Fundamentally, Japanese people tend not to have an idea that they were also assailants and the tendency is getting clearer."
This is a conscientious ― and courageous ― self-reflection by a world-renowned novelist, words that Koreans and other Asians would like to hear more frequently, especially from Japan's political leaders. As the international community is well aware, however, the opposite is true.
A case in point is the ongoing move among Japan's nationalist politicians to adopt a parliamentary resolution that denies the coerciveness in herding hundreds of thousands of Korean and other foreign women into military brothels during World War II. Leading this outrageous drive is Shintaro Ishihara, an ultra-right novelist-turned-politician, indicating not all literary persons are same, just as not all Japanese people are same.
It was Abe's Cabinet that provided the cause for this glaring campaign, by virtually neutralizing the Kono Statement, which officially acknowledged the Japanese military's role in recruiting "comfort women" and operating "comfort stations," and apologized for the atrocious abuses of women's rights for the first time. The Japanese government vowed to respect the apology on the surface, but actually gutted the 1993 statement by making it appear to be a diplomatic compromise with Korea.
The Japanese leader then proposed to leave the matter to historians. Then came its most biting refutation by none other than Japan's largest and most influential group of historians. ''The Japanese army's deep involvement in forcibly mobilizing sex slaves and establishing military brothels in the Pacific region is an unshakable fact," said the Japan History Study Society, which has 2,400 members, recently. ''Regardless of the authenticity of (Seiji) Yoshida's testimony (on detailed military involvement), the existence of forced sexual slavery is undeniable."
Koreans can help but wonder what Tokyo's response will be to this brave acknowledgement of the truth by the prestigious group of scholars.
We also remember that in 2011, a teachers' union in Tokyo refused to follow their government's guidelines to teach that Dokdo (Takeshima in Japanese) is Japan's territory, noting that is contrary to historical facts. In addition, about 1,000 Japanese citizens held a rally last week, urging the Japanese nationalists to stop anti-Korean demonstrations.
All this shows how Korea should build solidarity with these conscientious intellectuals and ordinary citizens in Japan as well as with the international community in fighting against regressive conservatives and nationalists in the neighboring country, while not antagonizing the silent ― and uninterested ― majority.
The government's recent decision to not build additional facilities on Dokdo was a prudent move in this regard by avoiding reigniting the anti-Korean sentiments among ordinary Japanese people.
If Japanese leaders are to interpret this as Seoul's backing off in the face of Tokyo's hard-line policy, they ought to recall stinging advice from Dutch King Villem-Alexander last week, who said, "The scars of war are still casting shadows on many people's lives, and victims' sufferings and sorrow still continue."
![[ANALYSIS] China's ban on Micron tests Washington-Seoul alliance](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/1785a57b07ae45a7b7db49fdf4acd720.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Long-awaited extension of Korean Pavilion at Venice Biennale to be pushed forward](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/d8d5090875824ce08a90bb2c5a8f8c05.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
