Japanese Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso (C, in White) visits
the War Cemetery in Yangon, Myanmar, Jan. 4, 2013. Japanese Deputy Prime Minister
and Finance Minister Taro Aso's visit to the War Cemetery in Yangon's suburban area
Friday has raised protests by some war veterans who experienced the Japanese
aggressive war in Myanmar. (Xinhua/U Aung)
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***S Korea says Japan must heal wounds of wartime excesses
SEOUL —
South Korea’s president-elect said on Friday that Japan needed to
come to terms with its colonial history as tension between two Asian
allies of the United States simmered over Japan’s rule of Korea and an
island dispute.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a Dec 31 interview he
wanted to issue a statement that would supersede a landmark 1995 apology
for Japan’s military aggression, a move bound to raise hackles in South
Korea, ruled by Japan from 1910-1945, and in China, where bitter
wartime memories run deep.
Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, confirmed on Friday
that Abe wanted to issue his own “forward-looking” statement but also
told reporters the 1995 statement by then-premier Tomiichi Murayama
would stand.
“The two sides must have a correct view of history and pursue a
future of reconciliation and cooperation,” South Korean President-elect
Park Geun-hye told Abe’s aide, Fukushiro Nukaga, in Seoul, according to
her spokeswoman, Cho Yoon-sun.
A “correct view of history” is shorthand for South Korea’s desire for
Japan to acknowledge its wartime and colonial excesses, something Tokyo
says it has already done.
“The older generation must make the commitment to try to heal the
wound, and must not become an obstacle to opening the way for the future
generation.”
China’s Foreign Ministry said the Murayama statement was a “solemn
declaration of attitudes and promises” made to countries in Asia
victimized by Japanese invasion and colonisation.
“We hope Japan can adopt a spirit of reflecting on history and facing
the future, and properly handle relevant issues,” ministry spokeswoman
Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing.
A handful of protesters assembled at Gimpo Airport outside Seoul
ahead of Nukaga’s arrival and one stabbed himself in the stomach with a
small knife and was taken to hospital.
Tensions over territorial claims and reparations and an apology for
Korean sex slaves, known as comfort women, who were forced to work at
Japanese military brothels, have spilled into the diplomatic arena as
well as economics.
South Korea cancelled plans for an intelligence deal last year while a
$57 billion currency swap to shore up Asia’s second- and fourth-largest
economies was allowed to lapse after South Korea’s current president
visited the disputed island.
On Thursday, a Seoul court ruled that a Chinese citizen who carried
out an arson attack on the Yasukuni Shrine for war dead in Tokyo could
not be extradited to Japan as he had committed a “political crime” and
might not get a fair trial.
Abe told reporters in western Japan that the ruling was “extremely
regrettable”. Nukaga echoed that stance but said he had conveyed a
message from Abe seeking to improve ties and invited Park to visit Japan
soon, Kyodo news agency reported.
Park is the daughter of military strongman Park Chung-hee who
established diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1965 after more
than a decade of tortured talks brokered by Washington, winning aid
that helped his industrial drive that propelled South Korea from poverty
to rich nation status.
Japan says it has settled all its obligations and has apologised for
its colonial rule, although Abe’s government has raised doubts about
whether it stands by a 1993 statement on comfort women as well as the
1995 apology by Murayama.
Seoul says there has not been sufficient apology for the hundreds of
thousands of South Koreans used as sexual slaves by the Japanese army
and that reparations are not complete.
Abe hails from a wealthy political family that includes a
grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who was a wartime cabinet minister who was
imprisoned but never tried as a war criminal after the war. He went on
to become prime minister from 1957 to 1960.
Abe has promised not to yield in a territorial row with China over
tiny islands in the East China Sea - known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China - and boost defence spending to counter China’s
growing influence.
Both Park and Abe are keen to bolster ties with the United States, a
bulwark against China and the key military backer of the South against
North Korea.
North Korea raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range
rocket in December that it said was aimed at putting a scientific
satellite in orbit, drawing international condemnation. It is banned
from testing missile or nuclear technology under U.N. sanctions imposed
after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests.
.japantoday.com
5/1/13 | |
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