Summit Meeting: Let's Aim To Resolve History-Related Problems

Starting on March 24, a Nuclear Security Summit will be held in the Netherlands. At this summit, the leaders of Japan, South Korea and the U.S. also plan to hold separate meetings. I would like to welcome this as a first step toward restoring the extremely deteriorated Japan-South Korea relationship.

It is a little bizarre, however, that the leaders of Japan and Korea, two countries that share democratic values, can’t seem to meet without mediation from a third party. I want them to take this opportunity to aim for a desperately needed resolution. If we look at the sequence of events that led to the present situation, it’s obvious that they won’t be able to accomplish this without a shared understanding of history. Japan also needs to sincerely attempt to resolve its issues regarding historical perception.

The underlying reason for these planned talks at the summit is that the U.S. wants to set the table for improving relations prior to President Obama’s visits to both Japan and Korea in April. In accordance with that goal, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated before the National Diet that he is “not thinking about revising” the mention of comfort women in the 1993 Kono Statement. [South] Korean President Park Geun-hye responded in turn, calling [the Prime Minister’s decision] “fortunate.” These actions set the stage very well for the upcoming meetings.

Still, optimism at this point would be a little premature, as Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has expressed that the Japanese government’s plan to “verify” the creation process of the Kono statement will continue as planned.

Suga’s statement is equivalent to saying that we can’t trust the testimonies of former comfort women from the Korean Peninsula. When you combine this with the U.S. position to “not review the Kono statement,” it is doubtful that he truly regrets a past that produced comfort women. It’s a matter of course that the Korean side would see this going on [Suga’s insinuations could be interpreted as an accurate reflection of Japan’s stance on the issue].

The impetus for Japan and South Korea’s deteriorating relations took place in August 2011 following a decision from South Korea’s constitutional court. The court examined the issue of claim rights for former comfort women and judged Japan’s failure to take action on the matter as unconstitutional. In accordance with this decision, South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak expressed a desire to discuss the matter with Japan in December of that year.

In a terse response, Japan’s Prime Minister at the time Yoshihiko Noda stated that, “The [comfort women] issue has been settled.” The following year, President Lee landed on Takeshima, and relations then became deadlocked.

Japan made light of Lee’s request, suggesting that “[t]he president was only compelled to bring the matter up due to domestic pressure.” However, since South Koreans have been victims of colonial rule, it is inexcusable for us, as the wrong-doers, to make light of history. It is completely natural on South Korea’s part to ask that we sincerely address this historical issue.

Japan tends to only question whether the military and officials situated in the Korean Peninsula at that time were directly involved, and whether or not it is true that women were actually forced [to become “comfort women”] against their will. However, the question is whether those women had the freedom to run away from the brothels, which were “under the direct management and for the exclusive use of the military.”

Were they free to refuse the men or to close the brothels? Additionally, many of the women were still minors. Under no circumstances is this justifiable. The institution of using comfort women goes entirely against our very humanity, and it’s about time we owned up to it.