This opinion piece by PCI board member, Fumio Matsuo, appeared in the Seien Magazine
January 2019 issue.

First, let's begin by making quiet contacts with South Korea -- while also preparing for negotiations with North Korea
concerning the abduction issue(Appeared in the January 2019 issue of the monthly magazine
Seien, published by the Shibusawa Eiichi Memorial Foundation)
By Fumio Matsuo, journalist
In mid-November 2018, I visited Seoul, Korea in search of a way
to achieve "reconciliation." The Supreme Court of South Korea
had just ordered two Japanese companies to pay restitution toindividuals who had performed forced labor in Japan during WorldWar 2, and the Korean government also announced it was issuing
guidelines for dissolving the body organized "for reconciliationand psychological healing," based on a 2015 agreement between
the two nations' governments, to address another thorny issue.
These recent developments spawned new tensions in therelationship between the two countries.

This visit marked my first to Seoul in nearly 20 years, and among
the things that most surprised me was not only the large number ofskyscrapers that had transformed the city's skyline, but also thealmost complete disappearance of Chinese characters in signage andadvertising posters, their having been replaced by *hangul*, theKorean native script. On the broad avenue that passes the front ofthe "Blue House," South Korea's presidential palace, is a massive
statue of a seated King Sejong, who is credited with creating thehangul script in the 15th century. The statue, erected 10 years ago,
is illuminated at night, evoking what I sensed was a new spirit of
Korean nationalism --- an aspect of South Korea that I sense ispoorly understood by Japan.
Having flown over from Tokyo wearing only a lightweight coat, Ishivered from the cold. With the arrival of winter, in addition
to "yellow sand" recently transported by winds from the China
mainland, I was also concerned with "fine-particle" airborne dust
capable of causing respiratory ailments, and was again remindedthat Korea's location on China's periphery has resulted in not
only environmental, but geopolitical difficulties as well.

l Hikari and Nozomi: Names of express trains from the Japan
colonial era

Why should I, who do not claim to be an authority on Korean issues,
make an effort at this time to achieve reconciliation with South
Korea? Seated next to a famous scholar of Korean history while at adinner engagement that took up the theme of reconciliation, I
related to him one of my earliest childhood memories. My father had
been posted as an army officer in Shanhaiguan, a famous border town
where the Great Wall of China meets the sea, serving as thephysical barrier between North China proper and the region formerly
known as Manchuria. In 1936 I had returned to Japan with my motherto attend the funeral of my grandfather, traveling by steamshipfrom Tianjin to Shimonoseki.
On our return to China, however, we had to take an express
train from the port of Busan to Shanhaiguan via Mukden(present-day Shenyang, Liaoning Province) through the Japanruled Korean peninsula and Manchuria. During a portion of thatjourney we had shared a four-passenger section with two Korean
men clad in traditional white garments.
As I related to the scholar about this experience, he promptly
replied, "The express trains you rode on the Chosen Tetsudo Railway
were named 'Hikari' and 'Nozomi.' Looking at the reality of how
Japan impassively revived these same names and used them for its
world-famous Shinkansen, I feel doubts about whether Japan, after
the war, engaged in self criticism over its colonization of Korea,"
he said to me.
The scholar's remarks left me momentarily speechless. Upon
investigation, however, I found that what he told me about the namesof the express trains was true, as I was to later confirm from a1940 timetable for the Manchu-Chosen railway.
Looking at imports such as Chinese characters and the cultivationof rice, I realized the further back one goes in history, the more
it becomes clear that the two countries' mutual history isinseparable. I was confronted with a sense of how deep the wounds
remain from Japan's annexation of its closest neighbor and theforced imposition of the Japanese imperial system on the Koreanpeople.
For the remainder of 2018 following the Winter Olympic Games atPyeongchang, the South Korean government under President Moon
Jae-in had achieved a rapprochement with the North, even to thepoint that a study had been initiated on restoring railway links
between the North and South.
I nevertheless continue to hold my breath in anxiety over how longthe "love affair" between President Donald Trump and First Secretary
Kim Jong-un will continue. I think that Japan today is called uponto accurately understand the acute position that the Moon government
faces.
In 2016, in response to a question from an opposition member on thefloor of Japan's Diet, who had asked him, "Do you intend to send to
the each of surviving Korean comfort women a letter of apology?",
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had replied, "No, not under anycircumstances." While this provoked a strong reaction in SouthKorea, I am quite certain that Mr. Abe had considered for such anoption to exist.
lMaking a floral offering to depart from the "unfortunate past"

Winding up my recent Seoul visit, I would like to offer, in noparticular order, three proposals for achieving reconciliation.
(1) The joint research conducted by the group of Japanese andKorean historical scholars in 2009, whose Secondary Report wasabandoned after submission, should be resumed as soon as possible.
A Korean scholar of history directly informed me, "While it might
be a pipe dream for Japan and Korea to engage in research for acommon history textbook in a manner similar to that undertaken
by France and Germany, it would at least be a start to efforts
to relieve the current thorny relationship, even if onlyslightly." Shouldn't we then at least try it?
(2) Bilateral agreements such as the 1965 pact dealing with Korean
claims against Japan, and the accord of 2015, must be maintained.
At the same time, however, I believe that differences between thegovernments of 54 years ago and four years ago, and the current
public consensus and feelings among the people of South Korea need
to be taken into consideration. In other words, I suppose it means
we should avoid such high-handed and dismissive remarks as"In accordance with international law, this is not possible." At
the very least, I would propose that various "policy measures" bequietly considered within the scope of dealing with South Korea'sgovernment. Considering as how these can be made to connect tothe relationships with the United States and North Korea, theimportance becomes clear.
Most Japanese today are unaware of the secret pact concluded in 1905
between U.S. President Howard Taft and Japanese Prime Minister Taro
Katsura, an old wound in that it represented a "deal" by which, inexchange for the US recognizing Japan's annexation of Korea, Japanagreed to recognize America's authority over thePhilippines. If Mr. Trump wishes to succeed in building a new
relationship with Kim Jong-un, the U.S. must precede Japan by first
addressing this unhealed wound from 114 years ago. Consequently
resolving the abduction issue will call for Abe diplomacy to enter
into talks with Kim Jong-un, and "to not let matters with South
Korea go unresolved" will be a type of overriding necessity. Thisis because North Korea is certainly closely observing how matters
go between Japan and South Korea. The initiation of contacts withKim Jong-un itself had been realized by Trump's "cooperation" in
the Singapore talks.

(3) Across the street from the Japanese embassy in Seoul, which
is presently in the process of being rebuilt, I went to see
the comfort woman statue. Perhaps because the day I went was nota Wednesday --- the day when support groups typically assemble
there --- not even the slightest air of hostility was in evidence,even among the students in the tent set up beside the statue.
Seeing the statue of that young woman as the symbol most evocativeof the "unfortunate past" between Korea and Japan, I humbly offereda floral tribute while praying that a resolution will be achievedby members of the next generation. My suggestion would be forJapanese who visit Seoul continue to make floral offerings. What doyou, the readers of Seien magazine, think about this? I would
welcome your comments.

(December 11, 2018)