The Burden of the Past: Problems of Historical Perception in Japan-Korea Relations

Abstract

Why have Japan and South Korea been unable to overcome historical disputes on issues such as history textbooks, comfort women, and the Yasukuni Shrine, which hinder furthering bilateral cooperation? Indeed, the renewed bilateral tension triggered in 2019 by South Korean Supreme Court’s decision to order Japanese companies to pay repatriation for war-time forced labor invited Japan’s fierce reaction. Japan raised the 1965 Treaty on the Basic Relations, which officially settled all claims between the two countries ‘completely and finally’, resulting in the further complication of the bilateral relations. This led to Japan’s removal of South Korea from its ‘whitelist’ of preferred trading partners and South Korea’s decision to end the GSOMIA (General Security of Military Information Agreement). While this incident was a recent example, it is quite puzzling why bilateral tensions always linger given the fact that both states share democratic values and strategic interests in Northeast Asia. Kan Kimura’s book, The Burden of the Past, tackles this important question, which has large implications for not only Japan–South Korea bilateral relations, but also the strategic environment for Northeast Asia and beyond. Kimura’s argument is intriguing. Rather than treating the historical perception disputes as a main cause for the bilateral tension, he treats them as the outcomes of changing international and domestic political development. This line of logic is different from the conventional wisdom which identifies two main causes—South Korea’s democratization and Japan’s tilt toward a more conservative ideology. While these factors play an important role in shaping the bilateral relations, according to Kimura, they cannot satisfactorily explain the complete, complicated picture of the Japan–South Korea disputes.