hankyoreh

the 60th anniversary of the Bandung Conference

In a speech on Apr. 22 marking the 60th anniversary of the Bandung Conference, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ultimately did not express “deep remorse” or express a “heartfelt apology” for Japan’s “colonial rule and aggression.”

There is a high possibility that Abe’s attitude toward history will also be expressed in his address to a joint session of the US Congress on Apr. 29 and in the statement he will release this August.

In the speech on Wednesday, Abe only mentioned “deep remorse for World War II” without apologizing for the country’s colonial rule. South Korean diplomats are now faced with the question of how to interpret this language.

“By only expressing remorse for World War II without saying anything about endorsing the attitudes on historical issues of past Japanese administrations, Abe demonstrates a regression in his historical attitude,” said Haruki Wada, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo in a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh on Wednesday.

“Seventy years ago, Japan was defeated in the war with the US and became a peaceful country. The Japanese of the time felt remorse for the war and for their militarism, but not for their colonial administration. The first government statement that expressed heartfelt remorse for colonial rule and aggression was the Murayama Statement in 1995,” Wada said. For Wada, Abe’s speech was insufficient.

In the half century that has passed since South Korea and Japan normalized diplomatic relations, both countries have made a significant effort to achieve a shared understanding of history. While the apology in the Murayama Statement was broadly made to “Asian countries,” in its announcement of a partnership with South Korea in Oct. 1998, Japan directed its apology at South Korea in particular.

In a statement made on 2010, the 100th anniversary of Japan’s annexation of Korea, then Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that Koreans’ “ethnic pride was deeply scarred by the colonial rule which was imposed against their will.”

Taking these points into consideration, Abe’s speech on Wednesday can be understood as seriously damaging the historical perspective that South Korea and Japan have worked to establish as well as everything that joint perspective has achieved.

Even Tomiichi Murayama, the former prime minister of Japan who issued the Murayama Statement, had a comment to make. “Prime Minister Abe is trying to avoid talking about colonial rule and aggression because he doesn’t want to admit that they happened,” Murayama said.

“The reason that Japan’s colonial regime was omitted from the speech was that the Japanese government is adhering to its position of taking China seriously and viewing South Korea as less important,” said Kan Kimura, professor at Kobe University. “This makes it more likely that Abe will not express remorse for Japan’s colonial rule in his statement later this year.”

“By failing to mention its colonial rule as South Korea wanted, Japan has made clear its intention to treat South Korea and China separately and to isolate South Korea,” Kimura said.

Indeed, a Wednesday editorial in the Yomiuri Shimbun, a conservative Japanese newspaper, said, “It cannot be denied that at least the actions of the Japanese army after its invasion of Manchuria in 1931 were aggression. If Prime Minister Abe had failed to use this term, it could have created the false impression that he was trying to erase this fact.” While the editorial calls for consideration of China, it makes not a single mention of South Korea.

This speech hints at the outline of the statement that Abe will issue this coming August to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, further complicating South Korea‘s diplomatic calculations.

Even if Abe only expresses remorse for World War II in his address to a joint session of the US Congress on Apr. 29, the US could regard this as satisfactory and not take issue with the fact that Japan did not specifically apologize for its colonial rule or for the comfort women. As a result, the divide between South Korea and the US over Abe’s attitude toward history is expected to widen.

“If Prime Minister Abe expresses his remorse for the war and mentions something like the bombing of Pearl Harbor in his address to the joint session of US Congress, members of Congress are likely to applaud him,” said a South Korean government official. “In that kind of atmosphere, Americans might find it strange that South Korea is taking issue with Japan not apologizing for the past.”

Since taking office, President Park Geun-hye has maintained a hard line on this issue. If Abe continues to express “remorse without an apology” on the international stage as he did in his speech on Wednesday, the Park administration’s diplomatic approach to Japan is in danger of running into some fundamental limitations. While the South Korean government has claimed the moral high ground over Japan, at least in terms of history, Abe’s speech could increase the impression that Japan has in fact already apologized.

By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

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