06/18/2007The ASAHI SHIMBUN
asahi.com>ENGLISH>Impact of History> article
What better time than the present to take a close look at history in East Asia?South Korea has been taking steps for a comprehensive "settlement of past issues," while a new political movement has intensified discussions of historical events in Taiwan.
Photo: Former "comfort women" from South Korea, front row, chant slogans while a performer with a picture of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fixed to the back of his head apologizes to them during a protest in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on May 2.In China, where historical issues can affect the legitimacy of communist rule, sensitivity is rising about how to acknowledge past events in the country.
And calls are strengthening in Japan to revise the Constitution, which was drawn up based on remorse for past aggression and military rule.
Our new series, "History Lives--150 Years in East Asia," will start out with reports on the current situation in East Asian countries, where "history" has become a weighty topic.
We will also look at the latest developments in history education and how history lessons are changing in an increasingly globalized world.
Themes will be chosen for this series, covering the period from the Opium War in 1840, which marked the start of modern history in East Asia, to the end of the Cold War.
History is reviewed in terms of connections with present-day events and new "interactions and linkages." At the same time, the series compares history textbooks used in different countries and looks into how our "memories" of history have been formed.
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CHINA - A specific view of history from BeijingDifferences in perceptions of history over the war between Japan and China remain a major flashpoint of argument to this day.
Amid dramatic economic and social upheaval in China, the Chinese Communist Party's view of history now faces some criticism from within the country.
Beijing's leadership has been trying to handle both foreign and domestic pressure over history-related issues with a mixture of confrontation and compromise.
In 2005, during 60th anniversary commemorative events to mark the end of World War II, Beijing gave instructions that celebrations should focus on how the Communist Party played a primary role in the Chinese people's unified fight against Japanese military aggression. The Communist Party often resorts to propaganda of this kind because China's modern history of "fighting against an invasion and feudalism, and building a people's country" represents the very foundation of the government.
The Communist Party tries to lead the socialist country's advances on the basis of its achievements. As explained on Page 27, teaching modern history represents an important function for the government in maintaining its rule.
However, people's attitudes have become diversified as China's market economy advances and generations change.
Even though China's media and freedom of thought are tightly controlled, some scholars and writers have managed to offer differing viewpoints on various topics.
Last year, a Chinese scholar ignited a firestorm with an article printed in a major newspaper about the contents of a history textbook used in schools.
The scholar wrote that in the Second Opium War and the Boxer Rebellion, China also violated international law but that history textbooks completely justified the Chinese actions. He said the fundamental spirit of modernization is to be conformable with reason, urging that textbooks be written calmly and objectively.
Authorities condemned the article, saying it overlooked crimes perpetrated through aggression by global powers, went against historical facts, violated regulations on reporting and propaganda, and forced the feature section in which the article was printed to shut down. Editors and others involved were fired.
The government's stance is that anything printed in a newspaper, regardless of whether it is an academic paper, is political propaganda. The party made clear it would not tolerate criticism of history education.
However, sometimes the Communist Party adjusts its views of history. In one recent example, it recognized the role of the Kuomintang army (KMT, Nationalist Party) in the Sino-Japanese War.
The KMT had long been accused of not resisting Japan, but the Communist Party re-evaluated its achievements, casting the KMT in a new light. The move apparently was part of an effort to sway the KMT, which is now an opposition party in Taiwan, to work to unify the island with the mainland.
Leaders of the Chinese government and the country's major media outlets have recently begun to take a positive view of Japan's postwar history of peaceful development. This appears aimed at stabilizing bilateral relations, partly based on requests from Japan.
As long as changes remain within a scope that will not largely affect the evaluation of the Communist Party in modern history, more adjustments may be made in historical views from the standpoint of political strategy.
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SOUTH KOREA - Seoul moves to make peace with the pastIn an unprecedented step on May 2, South Korea's Investigative Commission on Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property decided to confiscate land inherited by descendants of Koreans who collaborated with Japan during its colonial rule. (See Fact file)
Those targeted by the governmental body included family members of Prime Minister Lee Wan Yong, who signed the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty in 1910.
Many Japanese may wonder why such a step is being taken now, and why descendants are being held accountable.
Strong public resentment against Japan still lingers in South Korea and many people feel that pro-Japanese collaborators were never adequately punished.
Such movements go beyond the period of Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula. There is also a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Truth Commission to look into the dark side of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency and even the country's postwar dictatorship.
There are 16 such organizations, according to a government source. Of them, 13 were established after President Roh Moo-hyun came to power.
The first attempts to denounce past conduct were taken when South Korea came into being in 1948. The Special Commission for Investigating Anti-Korean Activities was established under Syngman Rhee when he was president. However, it soon became deadlocked.
Despite his strong anti-Japan sentiment, Rhee needed the knowledge and work experience of those who assisted Japan in its colonization of the peninsula before he could embark on the immediate task of nation-building.
President Park Chung Hee, who took over from Rhee, established diplomatic relations with Japan in 1965. However, the standoff with North Korea during the Cold War, the necessity to spur economic growth, dictatorships and a clampdown on democratic movements served to hamper any settlement of past events.
The situation began to change in the 1990s, however. Democratization advanced and the Cold War ended. South Koreans gained latitude and confidence through economic growth.
President Kim Young Sam pioneered such settlement efforts while his administration was in power from 1993 to 1998. By advocating a proper understanding of history, Kim had no tolerance for previous military governments that had banned him from politics. One symbolic event was his decision to demolish the Government-General building that Japan had built in front of a Joseon Dynasty palace.
Such actions were not systematic, however.
But it was the current Roh administration that fully systematized such efforts to revise history.
This reflects the political roots of Roh and his confidants, who had worked hard in the democratic movement and were not among those with vested interests. The government's recent efforts must reflect its strong will to bring hidden history to light, and interpret and digest events from the standpoint of the general public.
"This amounts to settling and reflecting upon our own history by our people," said Seo Min Gyo, a member of the Investigative Commission on Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property.
In its reviews of history, South Korea has not targeted Japan or the rest of the world. However, there is no getting around the fact that former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to war-related Yasukuni Shrine and other sticky issues generate a strong reaction in South Korea because of the rising momentum to settle issues of the past.
Concern has been expressed in South Korea that such recent movements are nothing more than a political tool to attack conservative forces.
At the same time, many regard it as inevitable that this era should strive to shed light on the truth of history. This would suggest that such efforts would have been made even if the government was not led by Roh, though perhaps to a different degree. The rising clout of the public, which goes hand in hand with the advancement of democratization and generational change, is the driving force behind this movement.
Fact File: Confiscation of land owned by pro-Japanese collaborators
The Korean government's Investigative Commission on Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property announced May 2 that land totaling about 255,000 square meters inherited by descendants of Prime Minister Lee Wan Yong, who signed the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty, and that of eight other pro-Japanese collaborators, would be appropriated by the central government. The nine people cited were recognized as having accumulated wealth through traitorous acts such as cooperating with Japan and clamping down on resistance movements during the period from Japan's colonization to independence.
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TAIWAN - Perception of a Taiwanese identity firmly taking rootWhile Beijing is insistent that Taiwan is Chinese territory under the "One China" policy, it does not fulfill its obligations to the island.
So says a young bureaucrat in the Mainland Affairs Council that deals with relations with China under Taiwan's Executive Yuan, or Cabinet.
For example, the official said the Chinese government has not extended any official apology or compensation to the people of Taiwan for ceding the territory to Japan, or for the so-called 2.28 Incident of 1947 (See Fact File).
Antagonism against China is rooted in the sentiments of such past events. Furthermore, new political movements are triggering a fresh awareness among Taiwanese of historical issues.
The Democratic Progressive Party that took power from the Kuomintang (KMT), or Chinese Nationalist Party, in 2000, is stressing Taiwan's indigenous identity in an effort to "break away from China" and set Taiwan apart from the mainland.
When thinking about Taiwan's future, its people cannot avoid pondering whether they identify themselves as Taiwanese or Chinese. That is when history rears its head.
Several opinion polls show that the number of people who answered they were Taiwanese began rising in the second half of the 1990s, while those who more readily identify themselves as Chinese are declining in number.
In a survey last December by the National Chengchi University Election Study Center, 44 percent of respondents said they were Taiwanese and 45 percent said they were both. Only 6 percent said they were Chinese. Clearly, a sense of being Taiwanese is on the rise.
Lee Tenghui, Taiwan's former president, proposed a "two-state theory" in 1999 with a "special state-to-state relationship." President Chen Shui-bian asserted in 2002 that China and Taiwan are separate countries.
Both statements triggered a furious backlash from China.
Pro-independence forces in Taiwan are campaigning to change the island's name from "Republic of China" to "Taiwan" or the "Republic of Taiwan." Responding to the movement, Taiwanese authorities changed the names of state-owned corporations: Chunghwa Post Co. and Chinese Petroleum Corp. were renamed Taiwan Post Co. and CPC Corp., Taiwan, respectively.
Reviewing names and the status of the state itself naturally leads to reviewing history. Re-examining history even takes place in history education as explained on Page 27.
Against this background, there are rising calls for a full accounting of the 2.28 Incident, an issue that had been taboo under the KMT government.
"The 2.28 Incident lies at the root of Taiwan's sovereignty," said Yang Cheng-long, executive director of the 2.28 Incident Memorial Foundation. "We will recover the truth that was distorted by the KMT."
With financial support from the government, the foundation is promoting construction of the National 2.28 Memorial Museum, which is set to open in 2009.
History carries a lot of weight in Taiwanese politics. This extends to the presidential election in spring 2008 that will set the course for Taiwan's relations with China as Beijing does its utmost to keep Taiwan's independence movement in check.
Fact File: 2.28 Incident
This refers to a clash in 1947 between the public and the Republic of China government in Taiwan. The military fired at people demonstrating against a crackdown on tobacco smuggling on Feb. 28, triggering protests across the island.
The government clamped down hard.
It is estimated that between 18,000 and 28,000 people were killed.
This incident lies at the root of Taiwanese resentment toward the Kuomintang and those who came from mainland China.
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JAPAN - Abe acts as if there is no history issueJapan under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reaching a turning point.
Abe is determined to revise the Constitution that was written during the postwar occupation. His slogan is to "break away from the postwar regime."
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has submitted a revised draft Constitution in which statements of remorse for the war would disappear from the preamble, and in which Article 9 is changed to allow the existence of a military. The proposal tries to draw a clear line in the country's postwar history. That is tantamount to claiming that outstanding problems over perceptions of history have already been solved.
As generations change, memories of the war are fading away. Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to war-related Yasukuni Shrine triggered an uproar in China and South Korea, but attracted some support within Japan. Even some members of the opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) backed the visits.
Against this background, 43 LDP Diet members supporting Abe formed a group in May to strengthen ties with nations that share the same basic values.
With "freedom, democracy, human rights, and rule of law" as principles, the group names China as a country that does not share such values. Meanwhile, it says visiting Yasukuni Shrine is one issue that should not be compromised due to "fundamental principles and political philosophy." The group aims to strengthen unity among members who share the same goals.
Many of its members are in lockstep with Abe with regard to the controversy over history textbooks and other issues.
Still, the Abe administration's stumbling on the comfort women issue points to its instability. Abe's initial arguments regarding forcible recruitment--in a broad sense versus a limited sense--sparked sharp criticism in the media in the United States and Europe.
Illustrated by the fact that many of these critical comments cited the Holocaust, what was truly questioned was a universal question of how political leaders in this day and age should face negative history.
Controversies over history cannot be easily overcome even if a single country tries to unilaterally put an end to them.(IHT/Asahi: June 15,2007)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
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