hankyoreh

president of Association for the Pacific War Victims

In response to Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto’s apology for colonial rule on Tuesday, President Lee Myung-bak said, “What matters is how Japan transforms this into action in the future.”

According to Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) spokeswoman Kim Hee-jung, President Lee said this during a telephone conversation with Kan on Tuesday while appraising the authenticity of the statement‘s contents.

President Lee also reportedly said, “I hope that we work together sincerely and wisely in the future on pending issues or plans for cooperation between our countries.”

The call, which lasted for twenty minutes, came after Kan’s release of the statement Tuesday morning.

Kan gave a detailed explanation of the statement to President Lee, and said, “I called because I wanted to speak to you personally to explain in detail the content of the statement, which carries the perspective of the Japanese Cabinet, and to express my own thoughts as well.”

Kim said Kan stressed that the content reflected the wishes of all of Japan, coming after much discussion with the Cabinet, and quoted him as saying with regard to plans for specific implementation, “I will look to the future while reflecting over what must be reflected over.”

The Cheong Wa Dae took a favorable view of the statement, calling it “a step forward from the past.”

In a briefing Tuesday, Kim said, “We think it is a good start that, in contrast with previous statements, it singles out Korea and acknowledges the forcible nature of the annexation, and that there has been concrete action such as the return of cultural properties.”

It was reported that President Lee intends to express a future-oriented message in response to Kan’s statement during his celebratory address for the August 15 Independence Day holiday.

Also favorable was the official government response that came through a statement in the name of Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun.

“We accept the will of Prime Minister Kan and the Japanese government to overcome what has been an unfortunate history between Korea and Japan and to continue developing brighter Korea-Japan relations in the future,” Kim wrote. “The government notes Prime Minister Kan’s statement that Japanese colonial rule took place against the will of Koreans, and hopes that all the people of Japan share this understanding.”

The reaction among politicians was that some parts of the statement represented a step forward, but that it was lacking in concrete measures.

Grand National Party (GNP) spokesman Ahn Hyung-hwan also issued a statement, and said, “We laud the effort in making a step forward from the past, but it is inadequate in not including specific references to issues such as the illegal nature of the annexation treaty, ’comfort women‘ for the Japanese military, and forced labor mobilization.”

Meanwhile, Democratic Party spokeswoman Jeon Hyun-hee said, “It lacked a declaration of the complete invalidity of the Japanese annexation of Korea, and it was utterly lacking in anything about the countless instances of victimization that took place during Japanese colonial rule, including forcible conscription, atomic bomb casualties, and the comfort women issue.”

South Korean history groups have called the statement “disappointing.”

Park Han-yong, co-chairman of the Korean Executive Committee for Joint Action on the 100th Anniversary of Annexation, said, “It is such a highly disappointing statement that one feels taken in by the Democratic Party of Japan administration, which has pledged to value Korea-Japan relations.”

　Park pointed out that the statement was lacking in key items demanded by Korean and Japanese intellectuals and civic organization leaders, including an acknowledge of the illegality of the annexation treaty, and that it made no reference at all to major historical issues such as comfort women, Class B and C war crimes, and detainees in Siberia.

　Many critics said the only thing the statement did was to reiterate projects that are already under way, namely support for the Sakhalin Koreans and the repatriation of the remains of Korean-born individuals from Japan.

　The “Sakhalin Koreans” issue refers to an incident in which, following Liberation in August 1945, the Japanese government brought home Japanese citizens from South Sakhalin Island, which had formerly been Japanese territory, but left some 43,000 Koreans there. The Japanese government acknowledged historical responsibility for this issue and brought 3,875 people home to Korea over a two-decade period from 1990 to March of this year.

　“Originally, the Japanese government was scheduled to have the repatriation issue settled by March of this year, but after people pointed out the need to resolve the issue of some 1,200 surviving first-generation individuals remaining there, it decided to repatriate another 123, including 87 first-generation individuals, by March of next year,” said Kang Seong-moon, head of the welfare project division at the Republic of Korea Red Cross, who is in charge of administrative work on the repatriation of Sakhalin Koreans.

　The Japanese governmental support provided to these individuals has consisted of airfare, amounting to around 2 million Won ($1,696) per person, and about 1.5 million Won to buy essential furnishings. The South Korean government is responsible for all of their living and residential expenses.

　A similar case is seen with the repatriation of the remains of Korean-born individuals in Japan. As of May, all remains of Korean soldiers and civilian military employees that had been stored in Tokyo’s Yutenji Temple had been repatriated. All that remains are the remains of around 2,600 civilians for whom investigations have been carried out according to a December 2004 agreement between former President Roh Moo-hyun and then Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro.

　However, because the figure was arrived at through questionnaires submitted to different temples rather than by a direct investigation, analysts believe the actual number of remains could be larger.

　　Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]