Posted on 03/23/2005 7:49:07 AM PST by nypokerface
SEOUL (AFP) - President Roh Moo-Hyun has raised the stakes in a heated dispute with Japan, urging South Koreans to prepare for "diplomatic war" with their neighbour.
Anger over Japan's claim to a remote group of islets controlled by South Korea has stoked South Korean enmity against its former colonial power in recent weeks.
Roh added fuel to the flames Wednesday by accusing Tokyo of failing to make amends for historic wrongs against Koreans.
He also attacked Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for his continued visits to a shrine for Japanese war dead despite protests by Seoul and Beijing.
The South Korean leader called on citizens to prepare to sacrifice economic and other exchanges with Japan.
"There could be a hard diplomatic war ... that may reduce exchanges in various sectors and cause economic difficulty," Roh said in a statement posted on the presidential office website.
"But we do not have to worry much about it ... we are determined to take the hardship on our shoulders if we really have to."
The dispute has dealt a potentially fatal blow to official efforts to mark 2005 as a year of Japan-South Korea friendship.
Already protestors have burned Japanese flags and one man torched himself outside the Japanese embassy here. An elderly woman and her middle-aged son amputated their little fingers in another protest.
Three weeks ago, Roh called for an apology and compensation from Japan for its harsh rule of South Korea from 1910-1945.
He said at the time that he did not intend to raise the issue at a diplomatic level because he wanted to avoid damaging ties.
No apology came from Koizumi, who suggested that the South Korean president was under pressure from the local media angry over a claim by Japan's Shimane prefecture to the group of islets, called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japan.
Shimane prefecture declared February 22 "Takeshima Day," to mark the day the small group of volcanic rocks were absorbed into the prefecture in 1905.
Roh accused Japan of "justifying its past invasion" of Korea through the renewed claims to the islets and through its continued publication of textbooks whitewashing its brutal rule of Korea.
"This is an act of justifying its past invasion and denying Korea's independence," Roh said.
Coupled with Koizumi's visits to the shrine, the facts showed that Tokyo was unrepentant, Roh said.
"As an apology requires sincere reflection and corresponding actions, Prime Minister Koizumi's visits to the shrine undermine the sincerity of reflection and apology made by former Japanese leaders," Roh said.
New school textbooks currently under review in Japan gloss over Tokyo's wartime atrocities and invasion of Korea to such an extent that they constitute "an act of justifying its history of aggression," Roh said.
Tokyo has repeatedly expressed regret at Japan's wartime past while urging South Korea, China and other Asian neighbours to focus on "forward-looking" relations instead of history.
After Shimane prefecture adopted its ordinance supporting its claim to Dokdo, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Tokyo understood the anger of South Koreans.
"We need to recognize humbly the historical fact that our country inflicted tremendous damage and sufferings to the peoples of Asia, and have deep understanding and sympathy for the South Korean people's feeling," he said.
However, the apology apparently fell short of Roh's expectations.
"These are acts of nullifying all of the reflection and apology Japan has made so far," Roh said.
Roh suggested that Tokyo would have to resolve past issues with its neighbours before it could adopt a wider world role. South Korea opposes Japan's drive to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
The Koreans are only screwing over themselves; I think Japan should just encourage them. Are there any adults in South Korea?
What is it with Roh. He spends all his time playing kissy kissy with the despots and brilliant economists to the north and slaps the faces of all the free Asians he can possibly reach.
Kids are running wild in S. Korean government. People stuck in 1980's anachronistic leftist ideology. They are setting themselves up for a major political disaster.
Many Japanese under the age of thirty are almost uniformly unaware of what happened during and before WW2. The perception may of them have is that the United States attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an unprovoked act of aggression by a USA that was jealous of Japan's economic and cultural superiority.
"Those who do not know ther history are doomed to repeat it."
And Korea is afraid of being invaded by a Japan that has forgotten its history. I can understand their upset.
Imagine how Israel would feel if Germany excised all mention of their aggression in WW2 and painted Germany as a victim of American and British aggression and never mentioned anything about the Holocaust?
Japan wants to pretend that their history did not take place the way it did mostly because they had their asses handed to them on a plate after it happened.
They lost face and are ashamed of what they did and the fact that they lost the war.
Denial allows them to move on. But it also opens up new avenues for resurgent militarism in the future if Japan forgets her past and decides to view herself as a victim rather than the victimizer.
Japanese far right(underground militarists) sense that their time has finally come. The international situation allow Japan to come back as a major political power. All those whitewashing and excising of militarist past help the reemergence of the far right.
N. Korea and its sympathizers in S. Korea are setting up anti-Japanese fervor at this moment to shore up their political base. Japanese far right is more than happy to allow them to do so. This would be their perfect opportunity to come out. N. Korean nuke and missiles, and S. Korean sympathy to N. Korea as well as suddenly stepped-up anti-Japanese stance would help galvanized Japanese domestic opinion to push far right agenda. S. Korean government has avoided taking anti-Japanese stance for last several years, due to its embarrassing debacle in last round of negotiation on the islets(Dokdo.) However, Japan deliberately fanned flame when her ambassador to S. Korea publicly maintained that they belong to Japan.
I have an impression that S. Korea is being sucked into Japanese trap now. Japan has been claiming the islets as her territories many times before. However, they never said it so explicitly. It seems that they are ready for the fight this time.
Anyway, N. Korean regime would do anything to survive, which resulted in hardening Japanese public opinions. S. Korea added fuel to the fire. Both are instrumental to the rise of Korean nations' nemesis, the Japanese far right. This is a deeply disturbing development.
Japan has been claiming the Kuriles for a long time, too. I doubt they want to mess with Russia.
The USA would not allow two of our allies to come to blows and both of them know it.
For now.
But I like your analysis that North Korea could be instigating this for some sort of advantage.
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