By Bernard Rowan
I'm worried by the current, growing division between Japan and Korea. I don't think it furthers the South Korean national interest. It reduces regional peace, commerce and security. I'm a foreigner and American ― and a friend of Korea. The following are sincere concerns.
Japan and South Korea have much to preserve and extend in their two-way, regional and international relations. Each country's economy depends on unfettered trade and exchange. Over the last decades, despite nationalist outbursts, pathways of common interest have developed and carried much growth and peace.
What Koreans don't like to sublimate is national pride. The evil of what happened to wartime sex slaves stokes with each daily protest. The refusal to admit the actions of Korea's Supreme Court by Japanese firms rankles. The endless offenses of Japanese ultranationalists, including Abe, insult.
But Japan isn't a petulant youth in need of discipline. It's a sovereign nation, just like South Korea. Nations don't behave like people. Don't think Japan will accept "punishments" either.
When will Korea decide that it's time for rapprochement with Japan? I fear Moon has ceded back decades of trust-building with abrogating the Park accord. Several scholars consider the current Korean Supreme Court ruling to ignore various aging but valid agreements. World War II is over. Memory of war and colonization is not a foreign policy.
Koreans extend national outrage or a smoldering sense of past injustice as a uniform good. This blindness will occasion cause regret on both sides of the East Sea. Where's a survivor of wartime sex slavery who says the past is enough already?
Moon wants a gain from all his risks for Korean peace and unification. It likely helps him, just as other leaders, to play up the issues of sex slavery, Dokdo and the like. But making Japan a scapegoat won't fix the economy. It's not making Japan any more receptive. It's not getting the comfort women compensation. And in the long run, Moon's power and popularity will decrease. The tit-for-tat trade actions look uncomfortably familiar to other disputes that aren't fixing anything.
It's unlikely Abe under any circumstances would negotiate to accept reparations or the demands from the Korean side. It's unlikely the new emperor will overrule the government. It's unlikely Moon will yield or mount a peace offensive with Japan. It's a pity.
The United States fought a bloody revolution to win freedom and the democratic promise from England. As historians have written, this included despicable atrocities, including the rape of American women. Now though, and for some time, the United Kingdom is perhaps America's greatest ally. Are Americans forgetful postcolonial lackeys?
South Koreans should counter China's growing power. This involves good relations with Japan. South Koreans should preserve vigilant defense in the face of North Korea's threatening posture. Despite Moon and Trump's overtures, it's the same ― or worse. The North has extracted concessions and emits Kim-first, North-first and Juche delusions unremittingly. China watches with quiet pleasure.
South Koreans should see their progress as entwined with neoliberal global society. Peace and advancement want a growing, interconnected diversity of peoples. The positive value of Korean-Japanese relations is inestimably great in this future.
Many scholars consider part of the Japanese ethnic ancestry to be Korean, from the Baekje people. Are Koreans not the first people? Time heals, if wise understanding of the forebears applies and productive behavior extends.
The future of Northeast Asia rests more with South Korea and Japan and their bilateral and regional relations than the current misfortune's tragicomedy. Japan should consider many changes to her culture and posture. But Japan's constipation is its internal politics.
When will the peoples and leaders of both countries join arms to guide the Asian Century as a world phenomenon of peace, prosperity and comity? Not today, and I'm sorry to say, not for decades now if ever. Please stop. Teach the world an old lesson. My enemy of yesterday can no longer be my enemy if she is to be my friend in the future. Otherwise, my dear friends, I fear the Asian Century will form in ways South Koreans ultimately will come to rue and regret.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
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Japan and South Korea have much to preserve and extend in their two-way, regional and international relations. Each country's economy depends on unfettered trade and exchange. Over the last decades, despite nationalist outbursts, pathways of common interest have developed and carried much growth and peace.
What Koreans don't like to sublimate is national pride. The evil of what happened to wartime sex slaves stokes with each daily protest. The refusal to admit the actions of Korea's Supreme Court by Japanese firms rankles. The endless offenses of Japanese ultranationalists, including Abe, insult.
But Japan isn't a petulant youth in need of discipline. It's a sovereign nation, just like South Korea. Nations don't behave like people. Don't think Japan will accept "punishments" either.
When will Korea decide that it's time for rapprochement with Japan? I fear Moon has ceded back decades of trust-building with abrogating the Park accord. Several scholars consider the current Korean Supreme Court ruling to ignore various aging but valid agreements. World War II is over. Memory of war and colonization is not a foreign policy.
Koreans extend national outrage or a smoldering sense of past injustice as a uniform good. This blindness will occasion cause regret on both sides of the East Sea. Where's a survivor of wartime sex slavery who says the past is enough already?
Moon wants a gain from all his risks for Korean peace and unification. It likely helps him, just as other leaders, to play up the issues of sex slavery, Dokdo and the like. But making Japan a scapegoat won't fix the economy. It's not making Japan any more receptive. It's not getting the comfort women compensation. And in the long run, Moon's power and popularity will decrease. The tit-for-tat trade actions look uncomfortably familiar to other disputes that aren't fixing anything.
It's unlikely Abe under any circumstances would negotiate to accept reparations or the demands from the Korean side. It's unlikely the new emperor will overrule the government. It's unlikely Moon will yield or mount a peace offensive with Japan. It's a pity.
The United States fought a bloody revolution to win freedom and the democratic promise from England. As historians have written, this included despicable atrocities, including the rape of American women. Now though, and for some time, the United Kingdom is perhaps America's greatest ally. Are Americans forgetful postcolonial lackeys?
South Koreans should counter China's growing power. This involves good relations with Japan. South Koreans should preserve vigilant defense in the face of North Korea's threatening posture. Despite Moon and Trump's overtures, it's the same ― or worse. The North has extracted concessions and emits Kim-first, North-first and Juche delusions unremittingly. China watches with quiet pleasure.
South Koreans should see their progress as entwined with neoliberal global society. Peace and advancement want a growing, interconnected diversity of peoples. The positive value of Korean-Japanese relations is inestimably great in this future.
Many scholars consider part of the Japanese ethnic ancestry to be Korean, from the Baekje people. Are Koreans not the first people? Time heals, if wise understanding of the forebears applies and productive behavior extends.
The future of Northeast Asia rests more with South Korea and Japan and their bilateral and regional relations than the current misfortune's tragicomedy. Japan should consider many changes to her culture and posture. But Japan's constipation is its internal politics.
When will the peoples and leaders of both countries join arms to guide the Asian Century as a world phenomenon of peace, prosperity and comity? Not today, and I'm sorry to say, not for decades now if ever. Please stop. Teach the world an old lesson. My enemy of yesterday can no longer be my enemy if she is to be my friend in the future. Otherwise, my dear friends, I fear the Asian Century will form in ways South Koreans ultimately will come to rue and regret.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
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