It is the 73^rd anniversary of August 15, when Japan surrendered unconditionally in the WW II in 1945. The year commemorates the 65^th year of armistice of the Korean War, too, on July 27. Japanese people have firmly sworn for these years renunciation of war and abolishment of nuclear weapons as the nation experienced Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This year, in particular, let’s share a view that Japanese people should be responsible for realization of peace in the Korean Peninsula.

IN ORDER TO END ‘POSTWAR’ PERIOD

Who is responsible for Division of Korea?

Japan’s postwar era will not end unless the nation should work in some way along processes of official termination of the Korean War. A Korean nation is divided into the north and the south – which is the relic of Cold War left solely in the world. The division, which has tormented people of the Korean Peninsula and those living in Japan, is attributed to the colonial rule of Japan as an underlying cause which lasted for 35 years.

The Japanese imperialism ruined one nation state; it destroyed not only the terrain, but deprived the language of people and forced them to alter their traditional naming system to a Japanese way.

Japan lost in the war, the vacuum of which was not managed independently by Korean people but filled with administration of the United States and the Soviet Union.

Aspiration to rebuild an independent state was very strong, but the situation became tense and acute to lead finally to the Korean War, in which the same-blooded people killed each other: pro-Japanese forces harbored by the colonial reign quelled people’s resistance in Chaeju-do Island, while deals between the then-superpowers made unification difficult.

Japan Made Big Money from the War

Nobody knows the exact number of casualties of the Korean War. Estimations of deaths are made as 400 thousand of soldiers of the US and South Korean military forces, another 400 thousand of soldiers of Chinese and North Korean troops, and as two-five millions of the civilian population. Reportedly 10 million people today suffer from separation of family members.

Japan served as a logistic center of the US forces during the Korean War. It provided military bases, materials and workforce. Businesses made an enormous amount of money thanks to special demands. The Japan’s postwar high-speed economic growth was produced at the expense of blood of Korean people.

In 1965 the Japanese government concluded an agreement only with the Republic of Korea (ROK) to settle the war restitution issue: a small amount of money was paid to the then-government authority of pro-US and anti-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) forces. Japan sided with consolidation of the division of the Korean people and escaped from responsibilities for reparation of people. Up to today Japan has not yet responded sincerely to indignation of Korean people on the war-time sexual slavery.

Independent, peaceful reunification of Korea is an earnest wish of Korean people. Sincere efforts were made during the Kim Dae-jung government in the ROK and hard work has been done. But the governments of US and Japan as well as conservative forces inside the ROK have hindered developments, thus the situation has kept getting better and then worse again. This year, however, a successful meeting was held in April between the top leaders of the north and south regions to reach the Panmunjon Agreement to declare an end of the War in the year 2018.

Japan – Party Responsible for History

Declaring an end of the War combines with denuclearization of the entire Korean Peninsula, not limiting to that of DPRK. In this sense US-DPRK talks will take a long, complicated course and dialogues are not an easy task. However, as long as aspiration for peaceful reunification of people of the both sides sustains the Moon Jae-in government, dangers will not be rekindled through mindless acts.

It is clear what the Japanese government should do in parallel. The first is to ratify the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to win a status to persuade other nations to join. Then Japan should dispose massive amount of plutonium about which the rest of the world worry and speed up abandoning nuclear energy generation. It is crucial for the Japanese government to stop Constitution amendment drives, especially to give up revision of Article Nine, to show its honest posture to the international community. Lastly it is necessary to expedite normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and DPRK and to commit in postwar compensation issues.

These are tasks that Japan has to involve to put an end to the postwar era. The occasion of the 73^rd August 15 is time when Japanese people should think over Korean Peninsula as a party responsible for the history. It is time to reconfirm our duty.

August 14, 2018