Last week, on August 15th, Korea celebrated it's 71st year of independence from Imperial Japan. After thirty-five years under inhumane Japanese colonial rule, Korea was able to become an independent nation in 1945. However, the Korean Independence Day is not only a reminder of the autonomy Korea gained, but also a painful memory of the barbaric deaths of innocent civilians. The latter is also the cause of an unstable political relationship between Korea and Japan today, as the Japanese government has not given a proper apology for its past wrongdoings.
Despite numerous efforts to stitch up the torn relationship between the two nations, they have not been able to reach a mutual understanding, even to this day. The lack of understanding results from overlooking various problems that need immediate actions to be solved. I personally believe that the possible solutions can be found by closely inspecting the Holocaust and Germany's response to Hitler's bloody genocide.
1. The Forgotten Holocaust
The Holocaust took away the lives of more than 11 million people, 6 million of whom were Jews. Adolf Hitler's brutal killing had one purpose-- to wipe out those who were not Arians, even if it meant annihilating a certain culture, a certain group of people who believed in a certain religion. And he did. However, Germany, as a nation, has made numerous efforts to apologize for the crime Hitler once committed. Since 1996, Germany made January 27th an International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the Prime Minister of Germany has visited the Auschwitz concentration camp ever since, to give an annual apology speech. Compared to Germany, the Japanese government has not given a proper apology to Korean citizens, let alone a day to remember the unjustified deaths. Although Nazi Germany's acts of aggressionis by far greater in numbers compared to that of Imperial Japan, Japan's attempt to wipe out one's culture and to torture people by raping, forcing labor and conducting biological experiments cannot be ignored or be forgiven without a clear apology.
2. Educating the future generation leads to a better generation.
A few days ago, I came across an article on BBC that details a Japanese writer's experience of his past history lessons in Japan. It was shocking to find out that only nineteen out of three hundred and fifty-seven pages of the textbook dealt with the years between 1931 and 1945, and only a sentence was written to describe the thirty-seven years of Japanese colonial rule. Even to this day, most Japanese students are not receiving the education they desperately need because the Japanese government is too busy hiding the past from their citizens. Therefore, students are unaware of Japan's brutal history. They are taught that Japan tried to "protect" Korea instead of "invade." They are also taught that comfort women were paid prostitutes not forced sex slaves. The different understanding of modern history has led to a never-ending hostility between the two neighboring nations.
In contrast to Japan, however, Germany puts great emphasis on educating young students about the Holocaust by text ,as well as by various field trips to concentration camps, so that the students can emotionally understand the harsh genocide. Furthermore, Germany's effort to prevent under-education of it's history during World War II led Germany and Poland to make a collaborative effort to publish a textbook so that history can be taught to students from different perspectives, with accuracy.
A proper education is crucial in Japan for the generation that did not experience the Japanese colonial era, in order for both nations to reach a mutual understanding of each other. As a famous poet and novelist once said, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Ignorance is far worse than war crimes and that is why a proper education of modern history is needed in Japan.
3. Don't hate the people. The people are innocent.
Whenever I come across a Korean blog post about the Japanese colonial rule or an article about comfort women, I always encounter crude comments disguised as patriotic statements, targeted towards Japanese people. However, it is very very important to keep in mind that the Japanese people themselves do not deserve the unjustified hate from the general Korean public. It was not them who encouraged Japan to commit such terrible acts-- It was the Japanese government. Also, it was not them who chose to be ignorant, it was the government that blinded them with false knowledge. So it should not be the Japanese people who apologize or who need to apologize, it is the Japanese government that is responsible for clearing up the mess. No matter how painful the history is, civilians are always innocent wherever you go, and they should never be held responsible for their nation's political wrongdoings.
Although it may be challenging to disentangle the twisted relationship between Korea and Japan immediately, I really do hope that both nations work towards correcting the past and educating the future generation about the truth. Hopefully, I hope in the near future that Korea and Japan will publish a textbook together, so history can be taught without batches of omission or absolute bias.