[Column] The ball is in Japan’s court

What Koreans want from Japan is a sincere apology for its illegitimate colonial rule, including its ruthless campaign to assimilate the Korean people.

Park Hong-kyu

The author is a professor at the department of political science and international relations at Korea University. President Yoon Suk Yeol declared the normalization of Korea’s relations with Japan in a visit to Tokyo on March 16. The trip came just 10 days after his announcement of a third-party solution to the thorny wartime forced labor issue. The summit with the Japanese prime minister, the first of its kind in 12 years, prompted a heated debate among political circles, academia and civic groups in Korea over the results of the meeting. What is the real meaning of his summit with Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida in Tokyo?

In a press conference with Japanese media outlets ahead of the summit, Yoon said that his government reached the third-party solution — compensation for the wartime forced labor through an independent fund — to satisfy both the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Korea and Japan and the 2018 Supreme Court ruling in favor of compensation for the forced labor victims. His remarks hold the key to understanding the essence of the issue.

First of all, Yoon accepted Japan’s position on the forced labor issue by deciding to resolve it through Korea’s own funding, as suggested in the war claims settlement in 1965. At the same time, he made clear the illegitimacy of Japan’s colonial rule by respecting the top court’s ruling in 2018.

The two positions constitute the core of Korea’s national identity, as the country made the decision on its own instead of deal-making with Japan. In the interview with the Japanese press, Yoon made that point clear by stressing that his government made the decision “for the sake of national interest and the people in a broad perspective.” The president said the solution was a political action by a head of state to take the lead in observing international laws and norms.

The third-party solution has paved the way to address the legal disputes from the Supreme Court’s ruling, resolve pending economic and security issues between the two countries, and achieve tripartite cooperation among Korea, the U.S. and Japan. There is no reason to be stingy in appreciating Yoon’s preemptive decision reflecting various aspects of the past issue.

Yoon’s embracive decision helped open the door to another historical reconciliation between the two countries. If the first reconciliation was made by the 1965 Basic Treaty and the second one by the 1998 partnership declaration between former President Kim Dae-jung and then-Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, the third one was made by Yoon.

Kishida will visit Seoul after the Group of 7 summit in Hiroshima in May. If he makes a sincere apology corresponding to Korea’s proposal, it will accelerate the third reconciliation.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hold a joint press conference in the prime minister’s office in Tokyo after their summit on March 16, 2023. [YONHAP]

Otherwise, Yoon’s decision will not shine. I expect Kishida will stop short of expressing sincere regret over the past in his upcoming visit to Seoul. The following are my recommendations for him and the Japanese.

Japan must respond to Yoon’s proposal for historical reconciliation. To do that, it must know what Koreans really want from Tokyo. Most Koreans do not demand Japan take responsibility for the half-baked war claims settlement and make financial compensation for the forced labor.

What Koreans want from Japan is a sincere apology for its illegitimate colonial rule, including its ruthless campaign to assimilate the Korean people. All the sins the country committed to deny Korea’s identity cannot be erased by any treaties, accords, apologies and remuneration. That is a permanent burden Japan must bear as long as the two countries exist.

Japan could avoid its responsibility under the cover of international laws, but no one else would share the burden. Time will not solve the grudge, given the deep-rooted sense of injustice among Koreans toward Japan’s merciless 35-year rule.

Koreans ask if Japan can really empathize with their feeling. They believe that an expression of sincere sympathy and understanding of their pain by Kishida will not only represent humanness as a person but also signify a mature statehood.

The Japanese prime minister can learn from former German Chancellor Angela Merkel before his upcoming visit to Seoul. In 2008, Merkel addressed the Knesset in Jerusalem for the first time as a German leader. During her speech, six members of the Israeli parliament stormed out of the chamber. But Merkel continued her speech sincerely and modestly. “The break with civilization that was the Shoah has no parallel. It left wounds that have not healed to this day … It took more than 40 years before Germany as a whole acknowledged and embraced both its historical responsibility and the State of Israel … Here of all places, I want to explicitly stress that every German Government and every German Chancellor before me has shouldered Germany’s special historical responsibility for Israel’s security. This historical responsibility is part of my country’s raison d’être,” Merkel said on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. After her speech was over, Israeli lawmakers and Holocaust survivors in the chamber rose to their feet in a standing ovation.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.