Japan collaboration issue divides South
Korea By Seo Hyun-jin
SEOUL -
The chairman of South Korea's governing Uri Party, Shin
Ki-nam, stepped down on Thursday, taking responsibility
for the recent expanding controversy about Koreans'
collaboration with Japanese occupiers, his own father's
role in the Japanese military, and his personal efforts
to cover it up. It is part of a larger move to identify
those who allegedly collaborated with the Japanese from
1910-45, and it is expected to have major ramifications
for Korean society if influential people are named, as
well as serious implications for Seoul's ties with
Tokyo.
A wide probe is expected to be launched
by the South Korean National Assembly in the next couple
of months, but its nature and scope have not been
decided. Critics say it will divide Korean society,
could lead to purges and witch-hunts and could seriously
harm relations with Japan. Other say it is necessary to
examine the past objectively, tell the truth and let the
healing begin.
Shin's resignation provided new
impetus to recent contentious moves in South Korea to
investigate its history and ties with Japan, since it
put pressure on the opposition leader Park Geun-hye to
agree to the probe, though she earlier rejected it
because her own father has been accused of collaborating
with Japanese colonialists.
With the agreement
between ruling and opposition parties to open the probe,
South Korea is engaged in heated debates over the nature
and breadth of the investigation and its ramifications.
"I am quitting the post of the party chairman
with the belief I shouldn't undermine the great cause of
shedding the legacy of the Japanese colonial rule and
restoring the nation's spirit," Shin said at a news
conference. Shin has been under fire since it was
revealed on Tuesday that he attempted to cover up his
father's service in the military during the 1910-45
Japanese colonial rule.
"I deeply apologize, on
behalf of my father, to independence fighters and their
bereaved families who enabled us to live in a democratic
independent state, for the fact my father served in the
Japanese military and his faults during that time," Shin
said.
Shin's sacrificial resignation helps
the party Uri decided to accept Shin's
resignation to prevent the recent controversy from
hampering the party's initiative to investigate
unsettled issues of history, including pro-Japanese
activities before Korea's liberation and human-rights
violations by past military governments.
Former
dissident leader Lee Bu-young replaced Shin, who quit
the chairmanship only three months after succeeding
Chung Dong-young, who now holds the post of
(North-South) Unification Minister. Lee, who defected
from the Grand National Party (GNP) before the April
general elections but lost the parliamentary vote, will
lead the troubled Uri Party until it elects a new leader
through a party convention early next year.
Trying to minimize the fallout from Shin's
resignation and his father's collaboration with the
Japanese occupiers, the majority party vowed to step up
its efforts to get to the bottom of the past, as it
believes it has gained an upper hand on the issue by
sacrificing its leader. Uri held a series of meetings to
discuss relevant regulations for the investigation and
contacted opposition parties to call for their
cooperation.
Concerned about any spill-over
impact on its chairwoman, Park Geun-hye, the GNP shifted
from opposing such a probe to supporting it, as public
pressure to examine the past increased in the wake of
Shin's resignation. Park has also been under scrutiny
because her father, the late president Park Chung-hee,
served as an army lieutenant under the Japanese
colonialists and oppressed pro-democracy activists
during his rule in 1960s and 1970s.
But the
ruling and opposition parties are expected to undergo a
major battle because the GNP still opposes the idea of
establishing an investigating committee within the
National Assembly as proposed by President Roh Moo-hyun
and his Uri Party.
They also differ on the scope
of the probe. Uri wants to focus on pro-Japanese
activities and military dictatorships, but the GNP
intends to include pro-North Korea activities during the
1950-53 Korean War.
"It should be clarified who
protected the nation during the Korean War, who fell
victim at the time and who secured the national security
when communism and democracy confronted [each other],"
Park said.
Political observers said the leader
of the conservative GNP is trying to shift the proposed
investigation in her favor by highlighting the period of
the North's invasion of the South, rather than Japan's
colonial rule and her father's activities at that time.
The GNP gains major support from conservatives who bear
strong anti-communist views.
She also wants to
stress her father’s contribution in rebuilding South
Korea after the war, the observers said. Despite
criticism about his dictatorship, former president Park
has been praised for laying the groundwork for the
nation to achieve "miraculous" economic growth,
eventually becoming the world's 11th-largest economy.
Fears of purges and witch-hunts "I am
worried that the re-evaluation of the past will be
deteriorated [as an objective contribution to
understanding history] when political parties are
obsessed with their political gains," said Professor Kim
Ho-ki of Yonsei University. Kim urged the parties not to
engage in political ploys for their own advantage in
probing the past, and he said scholars and experts
should be asked to settle controversial issues
concerning the investigation.
The history issue
will dominate political debate as lawmakers tackle it
during the National Assembly’s temporary session this
month and regular session next month.
The
investigation will also have a major impact on Korean
society as it is expected to affect many high-profile
figures, especially if there is a public naming of
individuals and groups who collaborated with the
Japanese or benefited from the occupation.
Some
lawmakers in the previous parliament said they found 708
people who betrayed the nation by collaborating with the
Japanese colonizers. The list included famous scholars,
businessmen and chiefs of media organizations.
The proposed investigation gains a majority
public support, but it still faces staunch opponents who
say the move will only divide the nation. A recent
survey by the Korea Society Opinion Institute showed
that about 62% of the public support the investigation
while 35% rejected the idea.
"The investigation
will only divide public opinion by pinpointing those who
collaborated with the Japanese colonialists and thus
burdening their offspring," said Professor Kim Chul-soo
of Myongji University.
Mindful of such concerns,
President Roh and the Uri Party have stressed that the
investigation is not intended to compensate some
citizens or punish those who may be found guilty of
collaboration, but to reveal the truth for the sake of
healing and national unity.
Kim Chul-soo said,
however, that the Seoul government will have to deal
sternly with Japan's atrocities during its colonial rule
before investigating South Korean collaborators.
He accused President Roh of applying dual
standards to evaluating the past, as Roh said he would
not raise the issue of Japan's brutalities during its
domination of Korea when he held a summit meeting with
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on the
southern island of Jeju last month.
Some experts
worried that the investigation will result in straining
the relationship between South Korea and Japan. "When
the probe is launched it will be revealed who did what
during the Japanese colonial rule and this will make the
people have animosity toward Japan," said Jin Chang-soo,
a senior researcher at the private Sejong Institute. Jin
said civic groups will step up their calls on Japan to
compensate for its past atrocities and ask the Seoul
government to take appropriate measures toward Tokyo.
He also said civic activists will also other
contentious issues between the two countries, including
Japan's glossing over its colonial rule in its history
textbooks and Japanese politicians' visits to a
controversial shrine honoring the war dead, including
some Class A war criminals.
"All these will put
the South Korean government in hot water and will have a
negative influence in its relations with Japan," Jin
said.
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