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South Korean President-elect Says He Will Not Seek Historical Apologies From Japan

Update: This was a load of BS. President Lee changed his mind shortly after taking office.

South Korea could drop its policy of demanding repeated historical apologies from Japan:

President-elect Lee Myung-bak on Thursday said there will be no more demands for apologies from Japan during his presidency. “For a new, mature Seoul-Tokyo relationship, I don’t want to ask them to apologize for, or examine themselves” over colonial rule of Korea, Lee told foreign reporters at an event organized by the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club at the Korea Press Center in Seoul.

Asked if he would continue the tradition of demanding apologies from Tokyo established by his predecessors, Lee said, “It’s true that Japan has so far only made perfunctory apologies or self-examinations in the past, and such apologies failed to move the Korean people to a large extent. But I’m sure that Japan will conduct a mature diplomacy regardless.”

[via Marmot's Hole]

36 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - January 18, 2008 at 4:01 pm

Categories: Politics Tags: apologies, history, japan, Korea, news, Politics

kenji

finally there seems to be an end to all this madness. at last there is a SK president who wants to look toward the future and work together instead of dwelling on the past.

http://Nathan Nathan

Really Kenji!
How dare the Japanese Prime Minister recently claim that Korean comfort women volunteered into prostitution during the second world war.
Japanese people like you claim to want peace in a modern world, however you continue to lie about the past! When you finally admit your history ( that’s if the Japanese government even taught you true history ) and then you apologise, then the world can move on in harmony.
Germany has apologised again and again, aswell as offering compensation to it’s victims during the second world war. However Japan brings shame on herself by denying her past. Even the United Nations recently ruled that Japan should compensate Korean comfort women, yet Japan arrogantly ignores the resposibility.
The trouble is with your country Kenji is exactly the attitude of people like you.
Korea has been divided since 1953, relatives separated and lives torn apart due to Japanese imperialism of the early 20th century, Yes your war is over, however Korea still suffers the consequences of the destruction of her government by Japanese hands in 1910!

ponta

Let’s face it.
People know that Japan apologized again and again to Korea. .
As for the “sex slave”, there were rapes by soldiers and there were deceiving by agents just as in Korean War, Vietnam War and Iraqi invasion.
What the former prime minister denied was there was a systemetic “hunting of the women into prositutes” by soliders.
Japan apologized to the former comfort women
(Could you show me how German apologized to their sex slave?)
If you want to know how Koreans agents deceived Korean women into prositutes during and after the colonial period , I’ll show you.
Korean division had little to do with Japanese imperialism.
Anyway people would be amazed to see how Korean nationalism still run deep in Korea by looking at your comments.

Kim

First of all, I’m so relieved that japanese know about what your ancestors did.
yeah, your grandparents were the meanest and the most crucial people during the War.(but not you anymore, no offense)

but you’ve never apologized truly.
whenever you apologize, you always added “that’s normal in every war”.

It’s like saying that “I’m so sorry I hit you..but nowadays punching people is a trend.

Do you think it’s an apology?

Instead, say “that’s my father’s fault. I’m not the one who did it”
ponta

Neither my grandparents nor my parents went to the war.
During the war, my grandfather was too old to be a soldier and my father was too young to be recruited.
And they have never visited Korea.

And let me remind you of the fact that during the war Japanese and Koreans fought together against Allies.

In 1943, 303,394 Korean men volunteered for the Japanese army, and in some cases Japanese soldiers fought under Korean lieutenant generals and major generals.

Now the Japanese colonization was wrong as any western colonizations of Asian and African countries were wrong.
Colonized nations were oppressed.

Japan apologized and paid reparations; few European nations did.
Japan offered apology and reparation to the former comfort women and many accepted them.

Korea emulated Japanese comfort women system after the colonization and exploited the Korean women. As far as I know , Korean government has never faced the fact sincerely nor did it offer apologies.

To note the fact that many countries wrongly colonized the other nations does not make a specific colonizer right nor does it make the apology it made insincere and untruthful.

But when one nation demands endless apologies while abstaining from issuing apology to the people it victimized in the similar way, it makes the nation look insincere and untruthful,

The Overthinker

Which apologies by the Germans are you referring to? The ones towards its former African colonies? Don’t hear much about those – it’s all about the Holocaust. Which was totally different to Japanese colonization of Korea. And the reason Korea is divided is due to the communists, to the USSR funding Kim Il Sung, etc. Korea under Japan was entire.

ponta

Googling 韓国大統領盧武鉉　就任当時　日本, it seems Roh used to talk about future-oriented and cooperative relation with Japan when he became president.

Aki

Yeah, I remember that. I hope he woud not backstab again.

http://Nathan Nathan

Hey Aki,
For God’s sake learn your history properly. If you were German you would be branded as a Nazi sympathiser!

http://aki-akiaki.blogspot.com Aki

OK. I won’t believe in what Korean presidents say, to avoid being branded as a Nazi sympathiser.

Mt.

Let’s move on!

http://Nathan Nathan

Say that to a Korean nation which remains divided due to the murder of Queen Min at the `end of Choson Korea.
When people like you finally stand up , admit your past and then apologise, the world can move on!
You represent an obstacle to peace.

http://shao.pengguo.com Peng

[sarcastic] Because he was born in Japan? [/sarcastic]
nino

it’s about time they learn to grow up.

http://Nathan Nathan

Typical, one insult towards the Korean people after another.
It is Japan who needs to grow up, we are no longer living in the savage and un-civilised days of Hideyoshi, so how can you expect the modern world to accept Japan’s reluctance to face her past? Even the Nazi’s of Germany had the balls to admit their past.
Sadly for Japanese people they will be too late in asking for forgiveness. Yes, you can hide behind America now, but as China grows in stature you will soon be finished.
By the way, Japan needs to grow up – isn’t she supposed to be a modern civilised democratic country?
yet why are Chinese and Korean aswell as other historical accounts banned in Japan? Why do you lie to your youth in school text books.

The Overthinker

This is interesting – we’re blaming Hideyoshi’s two invasions of Korea now. Despite the fact that they happened over four centuries ago.

Do please demonstrate how Korean and Chinese historical accounts are “banned” in Japan. And what school textbook lies do you refer to?

This constant equating of Koreans under Japan to Jews under the Nazis is pathetic. Yes, the Koreans were second-class citizens under Japanese rule (but they were citizens), but no, they were not systematically herded into concentration camps and gassed in an attempt to wipe out the race.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Being Jewish myself, I appreciate you pointing this out.

Also, I’d like to point out that I do not in anyway hold modern Germany accountable for attrocities committed in the past.

…

He won’t ask because there’s a word called “forgiveness”, right? If Korea asks a FORMAL apology then it’s fair Korea making a FORMAL forgiveness which won’t solve anything. BTW, I’m Korean and president Noh Moo Hyun is an idiot.
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

He’s a business man, and he should understand the importance of business relationships, especially with Japan, Korea’s most wealthy next-door neighbor.
…

Yes, most chinese support Korean anti-Japanese sentiment for their own national interest of expansionism. If you ask, Korea has a big role of peace keeping in the region. Without Korea’s anti-Japanese sentiment, china will be a nobody reject.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Except China ranks Korea as its most disliked Asian neighbor, according to a survey conducted late last year. I think we’re going to see less bickering over historical confrontations, and more heat over the race to become Asia’s number one economical power.

http://Nathan Nathan

Alex,
Listen to yourself!
This is not an issue of future super powers, it is a matter of a war-torn, suffering raped and pillaged present day Korean peninsula. All of which came about since the brutal destruction of the Korean government by Japan in the early 20th century.
This has to do with the Japanese PRIME MINISTER recently publicly claiming that Korean comfort women ( approx 300,000 of them , average age of 15yrs old )volunteered as sex slaves between 1932-1945.
Alex, Japan cannot face her past since she knows that it could never be accepted- she would lose too much face. Do you know anything about Asian culture? Face is everything! and Japan continue to dis-respect aswell as ridicule her neighbours by failing to admit her own past.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

I know that my wife and daughter are Korean and choose to live with me in Japan, where we look to the future instead of dwelling on the past.

And, if push comes to shove, Koreans account for the largest percentage of underaged prostitution in Thailand. This is a modern issue, meaning a problem today. Is this less important that a war that ended over half a century ago? Why is this issue in the news less than anything that has to do with Japan getting Korean blood boiling?

Korea needs to get its priorities straight, and “not seeking historical apologies from Japan” is a good start.
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

“Koreans account for the largest percentage of underaged prostitution in Thailand.”

What I meant was, “Koreans account for the largest percentage of underaged prostitution CUSTOMERS in Thailand.”
The Overthinker

The PM said that there was no government-controlled system of sex slavery, which does not mean he said they were all happy volunteers.

If Japan hadn’t taken Korea, Russia probably would have. Then the entire country would be communist as of 1917, not just half. Russia, in the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, was making serious inroads into empire-building in the Far East: the Russo-Japanese War was fought over who would control Korea, and Russia also had serious designs on Manchuria. While Japan’s imperialist advances into NE Asia were hardly altruistic, it wasn’t a case of “Japan vs Freedom” but a case of “Japan vs Russia or anyone else”.

Kevin

This isn’t true at all. China has accumulated a tremendous amount of economical clout because the country houses a ton of international factories – you can’t even look at a product without seeing a Made in China label. This production value combined with the largest population in the world is what makes China so powerful. Saying that if Korea didn’t exist that China would disappear is like saying that if whales disappeared the ocean wouldn’t exist.

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ponta

http://japanese.yonhapnews.co.kr/Politics2/2008/01/18/0900000000AJP20080118002600882.HTML

Yonhap news 2008/1/08
The parties has criticized Lee’s statement.

“It is far from our nationals’ sentiment.”(国民感情とかけ離れたもの)
“His pragmatism which looks down on our our racial pride crossed the line.”
(民族自尊心という重要な価値をけなすような実用はボーダーラインを超えている」)
“He may be sending the wrong signal to Japan.
(日本に誤ったシグナルを送る可能性)

tomato

what’s your point? whatever policy is introduced, isn’t there always some bickering?

ponta

The point is easy to see. There is a good possibility that Lee will fall prey to an Korean ultra-nationalism just as Roh did.
Coupled with your hate speech about Japanese Americans at “Relocation Camp Photos Among 30,000 Pics Released to Public” and and “tomato” is an handle a Japanese used to use at Occidentalism and some Koreans use Japanese handle to disguise, I guess, you are a Korean person, aren’t you?
As someone said, “it’s about time they learn to grow up.”

tomato

no not easy to see, unless you subscribe to flawed logic. mr. roh seems to have been against the japanese since day one.

child, i said no “hate speech” in that thread, and it’s hilarious that it’d be ur first reaction considering the far worse things that have been implied by other posters here before (in fact, as far as my posts go, that’s the worst i’ve ever said). can’t believe that comment hit so close to home for u, talk about a weak ego…i think maybe you might be the korean one here haha

also, this was my original handle at gaijin smash (well, before it was even called that and was on some crummy dns), cept with zeroes, so i have no idea where ur getting this occidental junk from.

btw, about the handle, it’s a pretty stupid notion (seems like a pattern) considering that if you try to sign onto any forum, tomato is usually taken, and for your information, the word tomato did not originate in japan…must be like one of those things where kids also think baseball and curry was invented in japan till they grow up. i have seen a tomojiro around here, but no tomato, so i thought it was fine…if there is one, i’ll change my handle without any fuss; word press doesn’t seem to work with this proxy i’m using.

but yeah, despite ur armchair detective reasoning that makes as little sense as a fecal monkey fight, if crude posts and crappy political enlightenment makes me korean, feel free to label me as such if that’s what gives yer thrills. mabe ur just trying to insult me, and i’ve misunderstood, but even so, it’s not like i’m insecure ’bout it .

as another someone said, “it’s time to practice what yah preach”
tomato

oh, just to add…i did post here with another name that sounds similar, and i have posted in similar discussions with u in it (don’t recall u giving me a hissy fit back then)…not a lot though, i usually only post in political/business threads. if this handle belonged to someone who seems to have given ya a sore sphincter, i don’t mind changing, u can even suggest one…not looking for a fight or anything (tho i do realize i can sound rude, which i sincerely apologize for! i have tourette’s! or so is my excuse)

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Korean

Hey guys,!Even if The president of Korean said like that, we will naver forgive it.
Nerver cheat for history and sorrows of ancestors.
Have you studied Korean history once??
If you studied, you would never say like that.
Without apologies, what we get along with Japan is not possible
And It won’t never happen again.
toro

Surely hope lessons can be learned from the past, we must assure this.
Also hope South Korea and Japan will have a bright future
Hopefully there are people who want to change for the better and who
care.
Please understand there are very good people out there both from Japan and Korea.
And its actions that speak louder than words, an apology is just a start.
toro

Also:
The future is up to us please don’t throw it away. Education, serious willpower, communication are also key

South Korean President-elect Says He Will Not Seek Historical Apologies From Japan

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