Contemplation on Korean-Japanese Relations after World War II

Event Details

Tae-Jin Kim and Seung-Bae Yeo discuss post World War South Korean-Japanese relations. The former is assistant director of the West European Division and Multilateral Trade Division in the Foreign Ministry in Korea, the latter is the assistant director of the United Nations Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea. Kim first gives an overview of the relations between the two countries, arguing the root of their hostility lies in their colonial history. He explains that the animosity was aggravated by misperceptions during the Korean War. Only in the 1960s were relations normalized by economic and strategic considerations. Kim concludes his lecture by warning that as America?s role in Asia wanes Korea and Japan will be forced to mediate their differences alone. Yeo lectures on the unresolved issues between Korea and Japan. He discusses human rights violations such as the Japanese army?s use of ?comfort women?. Yeo argues that the numerous outstanding Japanese war crimes from the Second World War, remain unresolved in part due to lack of documentation, in part due to American reluctance to prosecute Japanese war criminals after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in part due the relative weakness of the victim states. Despite the 1992 admittance to the use of ?comfort women?, Yeo argues that the issue is still unresolved due to limited governmental investigations. During the questioning session the two discuss certain steps taken by Japanese citizens to address the issue of ?comfort women?, the differences between Germany and Japan?s treatment of war crimes, human rights violations in Cambodia, and Japanese textbooks.