Japanese sincerity and Korean forgiveness: beyond apology, compensation

By Sandip Kumar Mishra

It happened after a long time. The top leaders of South Korea and Japan visited each other's capital cities in quick succession. First, the South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited Japan on March 16-17 and then the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited South Korea on May 7-8. The visits brought optimism for an improvement in their economic, cultural, educational and people-to-people exchanges.

With regional security imperatives pushing both countries to forge trustworthy and close relations, it is a welcome step that the two leaders finally decided to reconnect the interests of their two countries. However, the problem is that in the process that they have been trying to hurriedly resolve: the emotive issues of sex slaves and forced labor, are layered and complicated.

On the forced labor issue a fund has already been established by the Yoon Suk Yeol government before his visit to Japan and for compensating the sex slaves, an $8 million fund was announced in 2015, through a final and irreversible agreement between the two countries. During his visit to Seoul, Kishida also said that his "heart ached deeply for the pain and sadness that so many people suffered under the harsh circumstances of those days" and many observers argue that the demand for apology and compensation on these emotive issues has been addressed.

Actually, the South Korean President himself has said that Japan does not need to apologize for something which "happened hundred years ago" or his statement that Japan does not need to apologize to South Korea anymore since they had already done it "several dozen times."

Nonetheless, critics say that the statement of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida was neither an apology on behalf of Japan nor an admission about who perpetrated the pain. His statement did not mention any specific acts of atrocities. The demands for apology and compensation must be understood in more comprehensive and nuanced terms. Korean people feel a sense of humiliation due to colonial Japan forcing girls and laborers in Korea into inhuman exploitation. In general, they want four things from the current Japanese state and Japanese people.

One, South Koreans want Japan to accept the role of the Japanese state in such atrocities. Two, Japan must also accept that such acts were illegal and immoral. Three, Japan must give a sincere apology. Here the apology must be by the Japanese state not by any particular leader. Here sincerity means that the Japanese state must conduct itself in a manner that aligns with the formal apology. Four, Japan must compensate the victims of these atrocities.

Actually, lots of observers feel that already Japan has compensated South Korea through the 1965 normalization agreement, through a fund for comfort women and now another fund by South Korea for forced laborers. They also feel that Japanese leaders have tendered their apologies multiple times and thus South Korea's demands for an apology are not appropriate. However, these observers do not realize that the compensation and apology come third and fourth in the priority order. A real beginning would be to accept the role of the Japanese colonial state in specific atrocities and their illegalities. Otherwise, the apologies and compensation would appear as if Japanese leaders were saying that though we did not have any formal role in these atrocities, since Korea suffered, we are apologizing and ready to compensate.

In the light of above understanding, a comprehensive and final solution to these issues is neither easy nor imminent. Now, the South Korean state and society have to reflect that if the Japanese state and its society are not ready to have a comprehensive reassessment of their grievances, is it possible for South Korea to force them to do so? Actually, all such attempts by South Korea so far have been futile and it will remain so in the near future.

Therefore, would it not be better, if South Korea articulates a framework for forgiveness in which it does not ask any such thing from Japan? It does not mean that they have to forget these atrocities, but healing may happen if a strong South Korean society, state and victims decide to forgive the perpetrator. It would be a morally high position and it may give an important message to the Japanese people. Moreover, it would also be pragmatic to do so as both countries could reap immense benefits from their bilateral cooperation in various domains.

For a better future concerning South Korea-Japan relations, Japan needs to comprehensively address the issue. South Korea need not keep repeating its demand for an apology and compensation and rather, try to bring forgiveness to its approach. It is both a moral and pragmatic strategy on the part of South Korea. The top leaders of both countries should not try to superficially address these emotive issues and should try to create a sensitive framework for them.

The author is associate professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and could be reached at sandipmishra10@gmail.com