Ridiculous

Probably if my site had any readers, I'd be inundated with angry emails from Koreans because of what I am about to say, but since there aren't any, I shall ask this simple question: what would Korea do without Japan? Seriously. Granted that Korea suffered horribly under the Japanese occupation, but to make this an issue? Come on. Why have a summit in Japan then? Or rather, why have a summit at all? Since, not only just Kagoshima, a small prefecture within Japan, but the whole country has links to Japan's imperial past, the Korean government should consider the whole country inappropriate to hold any bilateral meetings. I would even venture to advise the Korean government to kick the Japanese ambassador out of his residence in Seoul, and recall its own ambassador from Tokyo, and, I don't know, cut diplomatic ties altogether.

I understand the history. I even understand that many of the Japanese militarist leaders who advocated an invasion of the Korean Peninsula were born in Kagoshima. Yet I can’t help but think that the Korean government, by making Kagoshima an issue, is being ridiculous, childish even. This is almost as idiotic as some people I know suggesting that Korea should be spelled with a “C,” because as you know, “K” for Korea comes after “J” for Japan, and were we to spell Korea with a C, then Corea will come before Japan. Seriously. What would Corea do without Japan? How will Coreans ever derive their own national identity without Japan?

During one of my many road-trips through Japan, I visited a museum built on a site in Kagoshima where the Kamikaze suicide pilots once trained. The museum did not glorify these bombers nor did it condone Japan’s militarist past. It rather memorialized and grieved the losses of many young men, most who were brainwashed to die for a false god-emperor and his cronies. Around the walls of every exhibit hung rows of picture frames, each holding a portrait of a young man. Underneath the photo, a small black plaque held the man’s name, the place of his birth, and two sets of numbers: one for his birth and another for his death. Subtracting in my head, I found many of them to have been younger than me when they died. But the biggest shock was that not all the names were Japanese; there were Korean names also. It shouldn’t have been that surprising since I knew already that many young Korean women were forced into state-operated prostitution, so it’s only logical that young Korean men were drafted against their will to fight and die for their oppressors. But to bear witness to the fact that Koreans were Kamikaze pilots… My already heavy heart sank deeper. If seeing the pictures weren’t enough for me to mourn the loss of youthful potentials, reading the Korean names drove into me a sense of realization that, had I been born during then, my picture could have been hung on that Museum’s wall for later generations to view and ponder the futility of war.

I think Roh Moo-hyun should go to Kagoshima for the summit and even visit that museum. After the museum trip, he should, while drinking a nice cup of green tea, tell Koizumi to visit sites more like the museum rather than Yasukuni Shrine; tell the Prime Minister to honor the true war-dead who suffered a pointless death and not the warmongers who brought only strife to their own people. Kagoshima should not be an issue. The issue should be reconciliation based on truth and mutual understanding. Japanese people need to accept that, though they may have been victims of the militarist regime, they victimized their neighboring countries as well. Perhaps not directly. But by their inactions to question and challenge the imperialist government, they share the blame for allowing the atrocities of war to happen. Koreans should not expect the Japanese to fully embrace their past sins when Koreans themselves try to hide their own. Both countries can no longer play the victim card.

Make peace, talk about issues that really matter, look to the future and go forward… Please.