Japan should face history squarely

Japan should face history squarely

Kim Sok Bom, The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo

What a pleasant surprise. Although the announcement of Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang appeared sudden,
it is the fruit of year-long negotiations behind the scenes. The
process itself provides hope, to a certain extent, that the
meeting will go well.

Koizumi's visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(North Korea) is significant not only because it will be the
first one ever by a Japanese prime minister but also because he
will be representing Japan with its prewar and postwar history
heavily weighing on his shoulders when he meets with his North
Korean counterpart. This is something that successive leaders of
Japan, which occupies a corner of East Asia, have never been able
to achieve. That is why Koizumi's name will go down in history as
the man who made it happen and hope the meeting will be a
success.

Koizumi's visit means that Japan is prepared to go back to a
basic principle that it had long neglected.

At an Aug. 30 press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo
Fukuda said: "After more than a half century after the war,
Japan's relations with North Korea still remain abnormal.
Normalization of diplomatic relations is a historic obligation of
the government."

Meeting its "historical obligation" is the basic principle
Japan must go back to. Although there were many factors that
stood in the way of normalizing diplomatic relations with North
Korea in postwar years, it is something that Japan should have
achieved a long time ago. It is an important fundamental
principle that has to do with Japan's settlement of the past and
foreign policy.

This is not only limited to Japan's relations with "the
North." If Japan shows morals and dignity that befit its true
ability and presence, it can win the respect of the people of
East Asia who were victims of Japan's aggression.

The Great Kanto Earthquake that claimed 140,000 lives hit
Sept. 1, 1923. The date also brings to memory Tokyo Governor
Shintaro Ishihara's controversial comment about sangokujin that
he made in April 2000. The term, which literally means "third-
nation people," was used before and during World War II to refer
to the people on the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan, which were
under Japanese colonial rule and is considered derogatory.

At the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake, Korean residents
were blamed for looting and rioting. That was a groundless rumor
started by the Japanese military, which triggered the
slaughtering of ethnic Koreans by Japanese civilians. Although it
was taboo to mention it in prewar days, now it is a well-known
fact that some 6,600 ethnic Koreans mostly in the Tokyo area were
killed at the hands of the military, police and vigilantes.

However, neither the Japanese nor the Tokyo metropolitan
government has ever officially commented on the fact. By no means
is Japan the only country that tends to forget about its past.
But perhaps because it was an aggressor, it appears that Japan's
forgetfulness is particularly serious. I am not saying that the
subject should be on the agenda of the Pyongyang meeting. Japan
must show an attitude to squarely face historical facts.

The problem of suspected "abduction" of Japanese nationals
should also be cleared and settled. But sticking to that problem
alone does not advance the situation. What is needed is a
comprehensive approach. Koizumi's visit is a sign of such stance.

Although there is no direct link between the "abduction" issue
and the massacre of ethnic Koreans at the time of the Great Kanto
Earthquake, one case may lead to another in discussing settlement
of the past. The fact that Japan did nothing to acknowledge that
foreign residents were massacred on Japanese land in the eight
decades since it happened is unforgivable and unbelievable.

Instead of going back to the starting point when Japan's
postwar Constitution was enacted, the Koizumi administration is
steering the nation in the direction of prewar Japan with such
measures as the enactment of emergency legislation, attempts to
regulate the freedom of the press with a personal information
protection bill and visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

Why is Koizumi, who is going against the times, taking a
forward step to visit North Korea? North Korea's situation, which
has come to a deadlock, is showing signs of change. The Koizumi
administration is said to be relying on foreign policy to stay
afloat. That's fine so long as his visit to North Korea helps
break the deadlock. The success of the summit between the two
leaders will provide dynamics to move future North Korean policy
in a positive direction.

I hope North Korea, too, will show a positive attitude.