Blindsided by Tokyo

Japan hit for watering down past atrocities

Most South Koreans are still wincing following the “diplomatic disaster” in Tokyo two weeks ago. At a summit there, President Yoon Suk Yeol gave up everything in pending bilateral issues and got almost nothing in return.

Japan poured oil on the fire on Tuesday.

In newly approved history textbooks for third to sixth graders, Tokyo watered down its atrocities against Koreans during its 191045 colonization of the Korean Peninsula while intensifying its sovereignty claim over disputed islets between them.

These history books, which followed the Japanese government’s 2021 guidelines, may not be the direct result of the recent summit. Still, the release was doubly disappointing, considering its insensitive timing and diplomatic discourtesy. However, for those who know Japan and its nationalistic leaders, the move was hardly astonishing.

Japan’s diplomacy is typically a “kiss up, kick down” style.

It is weak to the strong and strong to the weak, although it may not be the only one.

After he returned, Yoon made a 23-minute, nationally televised speech at a meeting with his aides. He stressed that someone had to break the impasse in bilateral ties, explaining his unpopular decision was for the nation’s long-term interests in security and economy.

Yet, pragmatism cannot precede pride in diplomacy. No amount of substantive interest can justify damaged national sentiments and ignored appeals of victims.

Even the so-called national interests are controversial at best. Yoon said the U.S.-led trilateral alliance is urgent to deter North Korea’s nuclear threats. However, as the U.S. — and Japan to some extent — sees it, the three-nation bloc is to keep China in check. Unlike Washington and Tokyo, Seoul can’t help but remain ambivalent to Beijing. In the economy, South Korea cannot, and should not, remain subordinated to Japan. Bilateral economic ties are no longer unilateral but reciprocal. No less problematic than the calculation of diplomatic gains and losses is Yoon’s historical philosophy and governance style.

Yoon reportedly supports the 1965 Basic Agreement, which Japan says resolved all claims, including those of individuals, regarding its 35-year occupation of South Korea. So, Yoon agrees with Tokyo, thinking the South Korean Supreme Court’s 2012 decision was wrong. In other words, Yoon is the “criminal of conviction,” as the late ultraright Japanese leader Shinzo Abe described Yoon’s predecessor, Moon Jae-in, albeit in the opposite meaning.

The prosecutor-turned-president also seems to think he knows best in everything, claiming responsibility for everything. Yoon puts former U.S. President Harry S. Truman’s famous “The buck stops here” plate on his desk. Truman wrote “I’m from Missouri” behind it, but Yoon wrote nothing.

Presidents must act responsibly. But the responsibility should stop at domestic affairs at the most. Diplomacy has counterparts, and damage lasts long. That explains why diplomatic decisions should be subject to democratic constraints and based on national consensus. Nothing could be more dangerous than the “lonely decisions of philosopher kings.”

We share many experts’ concerns that the future is more worrying. Now that it has seen through its South Korean counterpart’s weakness, Japan will try to turn its diplomatic wishes into reality one by one. It will call for Seoul to resolve the wartime sex slavery issue, make a sovereignty claim over Dokdo islets as an established fact, and demand to resume the import of fish caught near the Fukushima nuclear plant.

In Washington in May, the South Korean president will face pressure to drop China from its economic partners’ list and toe the line of U.S. industrial policy. Industry experts watch with concern whether Yoon can protect semiconductor and electric vehicle makers from U.S. demands in return for the state visit and a speech before the joint Congress.

Yoon’s U.S. and Japanese counterparts are formidable diplomats. President Joe Biden had long chaired the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was the foreign minister who orchestrated the infamous “comfort women agreement” in 2015.

Much is at stake depending on how Yoon fares in the next two months. South Koreans get anxious whenever their president goes abroad. When will he ease that?