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Haruki Wada

“Japan’s foreign policy may not be modeled on its age of militarism, but it’s definitely anachronistic,” said Haruki Wada, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, referring to the retaliatory economic measures, including tougher regulations on the exports of raw materials, that Japan has imposed on South Korea.

Wada was speaking at a press conference on Hangilsa’s publication of a Korean translation of his book “The Russo-Japanese War: Origins and Outbreak.” The press conference was held on Sept. 24 at Sunhwa Dongcheon, a cultural space in Seoul’s Jung District that’s operated by the publisher.

Regarded as one of Japan’s leading “intellectuals of conscience,” Wada has been collecting signatures for a petition called “Is South Korea the enemy?” since this past June with the goal of reversing the export controls imposed by the Japanese government.

Wada said the reason that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has taken such radical measures against South Korea is because “he doesn’t want to work with South Korea.” He added that Abe had rejected the Kono statement when he was elected prime minister for the second time in December 2012 because he thinks that South Korea is dredging up the past and hurting Japan’s reputation when it makes an issue of the comfort women.

“Abe didn’t want to make the comfort women agreement with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in 2015, either, but he was pressured to do so by US President Barack Obama. When the next South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, eventually broke the agreement, Abe was left thinking that something is wrong with South Korea,” Wada said.

Abe’s attitudes have also been greatly affected by the Moon administration’s policy of reconciliation with North Korea, Wada believes. “South Korea, the US, and Japan were putting pressure on North Korea amid concerns that the North Korean nuclear issue could lead to war. But then Moon entered negotiations while saying that war must not occur and arranged the North Korea-US summit. Abe was astonished that Trump could have agreed to the summit without consulting him. This made Abe even more hostile toward Moon, whom he suspects of being a North Korean sympathizer. If there’s a possibility of ending the war between North Korea and the US, Abe ought to be supporting that cause and helping the Moon administration, but instead he’s moving in the opposite direction.”

Wada sees this as Japan reacting to what it feels is a “desperate situation.” “If South Korea, North Korea, China, and Russia all grow closer together, that leaves the US as the only country that Japan can rely on in Northeast Asia. But there’s no telling how much longer even the US will support Japan. Japan’s diplomatic isolation is causing it to feel alienation and desperation, without any apparent prospects or exit strategy, and that’s being expressed in its foreign policy.”

Another factor identified by Wada is Japan’s anxiety over South Korea’s economic encroachment. “South Korea has achieved a democratic revolution and economic development, and China is also developing economically. Japan has no choice but to be nervous about South Korea and China. But this isn’t a situation in which Japan can think of taking over South Korea or pushing into China [as during the Russo-Japanese War].”

Wada also offered his thoughts on the ongoing debate about Japan’s Rising Sun Flag. “The Rising Sun Flag ought to have been eliminated after the war given its traditional use by militarists, but that didn’t happen. The even bigger problem is the continuing use of the Japanese national flag, which dates back to the militaristic wars. That issue ought to have been raised by the Japanese people, and it’s a bitter shame that they failed to do so.”

Noting that Abe still enjoys the support of a majority of Japanese, Wada called on the South Korean government to play a proactive role. “The Japanese people don’t have a clear understanding of Moon’s position on the comfort women and forced labor issues. The South Korean government needs to think about how to win over the Japanese people. If Abe is brought down [by the opposition of the Japanese people], Japan’s current policy toward South and North Korea will change as well.”

“The Russo-Japanese War: Origins and Outbreak,” which is now available in Korean, was published in two volumes in Japan in 2009-2010, the fruit of Wada’s painstaking research. “Joseon [that is, modern-day Korea] is completely disregarded in Japanese memory of the Russo-Japanese War. I wrote this book as a critique of the national memory, and to argue that this was fundamentally the ‘Joseon War,’ fought over control of Joseon.”

By Kim Ji-hoon, staff reporter

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