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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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 Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:54 am Post subject: Japanese prime minister ready to confront past |
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In his summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Japan�s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pledged to face up to his country�s wartime past and improve bilateral ties between the two Asian neighbors.
On the sidelines of a UN General Assembly meeting, Lee and Hatoyama sat down for talks on Wednesday, New York time, to discuss bilateral and regional issues, including North Korea�s nuclear arms programs.
It was their first summit since Hatoyama came into office a week ago, ending more than half a century of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party�s rule of Japan.
According to South Korean and Japanese officials, Lee and Hatoyama agreed to build �closer than ever relations between South Korea and Japan,� noting that the launch of the liberal Democratic Party-led administration in Japan is an opportunity to do so.
Hatoyama also told Lee that unlike his conservative predecessors, his government �has courage enough to look straight into the face of history,� said Lee Dong-kwan, the Blue House senior secretary for public affairs who accompanied President Lee at the summit.
�President Lee said the two countries must strive to build a new, trustful and close relationship,� the secretary said. �Lee said he is confident that Prime Minister Hatoyama will do so and he is also ready to do the same.�
The bitter memories of Japan�s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 and that country�s subsequent dealings with its past have been sensitive issues in Korea.
Hatoyama vowed in August that he would not visit the contentious Yasukuni Shrine honoring Japanese war dead as a part of his plan to engage Asian neighbors, such as China and South Korea. He also proposed that a new state memorial be built to replace the shrine.
Past visits by Japanese leaders to the shrine, which honors the war dead including 14 convicted Class A war criminals, have angered Japan�s neighbors.
Just last week, President Lee urged Japan to take steps to close a painful chapter on the two countries� past and take bilateral ties to the next level.
In his interview with Korean and Japanese news services, Lee reiterated a desire that the Japanese emperor visit Korea in order to end lingering animosity between the two countries over Japan�s past colonial rule of Korea.
No mention of the emperor�s visit was included in the Blue House press release on the summit.
According to Blue House officials, Lee and Hatoyama also agreed to cooperate on a South Korea-Japan free trade agreement and other global issues, including efforts to fight climate change.
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Wow. Imagine a visit by the Japanese emperor. Not sure how well that would go over. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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| It's pretty remarkable that it's taken this long for a Japanese PM to take simple steps like establishing a new, war criminal-free Shrine to replace Yakasune, and acknowledging plain historical truths about what Japan did over 50 years ago. |
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Old Gil
Joined: 26 Sep 2009
Location: Got out! olleh!
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| Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:03 am Post subject: |
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It must be noted in Japan's defense that the US or its allies have not really owned up to what a sham that the post-war Tokyo trials were. This doesn't excuse what Japan did, because it was horrible, but it does inform (partly, part of it is just Japan's polite version of 우리민족 thinking) why exactly they haven't been so eager to apologize.
This is indeed long overdue, but very necessary if Japan wants to shore up Korean support against China, its traditional enemy. |
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Neil
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Location: Tokyo
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| Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 5:28 am Post subject: |
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Interesting to note that since 1993, the Japanese PM has been a conservative and the Korean president a liberal....now the positions are reversed.
Hatoyama's comments seem little different to what Hosokawa said 16 years ago. |
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