Koreans of different background would describe Japan, or Japan-Korea relations in different ways. Here is what a woman intellectual from Korea spoke to the Asahi published on 22 July.
She was born in the former Manchukuo, the Chinese Northeast under de-facto Japanese rule, in 1929. Her father came to Japan in 1910, the year Japan incorporated Korea, studied technology there, and became successful as a businessman in Manchukuo as a manufacturer of footwear. She went to the kindergarten and schools meant for the Japanese ruling classes, and the Japanese language became her virtual mother-tongue. She used to call her parents in Japanese way, having been accustomed to think primarily in Japanese. Even now she reads Japanese much faster than Korean, and the interview itself was given in Japanese.
In her view, Japan since the Meiji period became successful because she had got translated a lot of foreign literature and thought into her language. In fact, she read Shakespeare in Japanese translation, by Tsubouchi Shouyou, by which she made up her mind to study English literature as her life's work. (After Tsubouchi's, we have two more complete translation of Shakespeare. However, in terms of import and export, I am afraid we are overwhelmingly import-oriented in the fields of literature and ideas.)
Her family was back in Seoul when Japan surrendered. They suffered from the Korean War. She does not discuss Japan's surrender itself, but I would wonder if there had been the War if Japan had surrendered a little early, by, say, ten days, before the Soviet intervention in the War against Japan. There would have been no atomic bombs also. If Korea could have remained united then is a different question.
When the relations were established between the two countries, many of her students went to join the demonstration against it, in 1965. She herself was in favour of it, as she thought Korea needed economic ties with Japan. But she also understood how the students felt then.
She is worried about the move virtually to change the present Constitution in Japan. She thinks Korea needs to hear more words to appeal to their mind. She would like the Prime Minister of Japan not to push his neibhbour to the point where relations would worsen.
She was born in the former Manchukuo, the Chinese Northeast under de-facto Japanese rule, in 1929. Her father came to Japan in 1910, the year Japan incorporated Korea, studied technology there, and became successful as a businessman in Manchukuo as a manufacturer of footwear. She went to the kindergarten and schools meant for the Japanese ruling classes, and the Japanese language became her virtual mother-tongue. She used to call her parents in Japanese way, having been accustomed to think primarily in Japanese. Even now she reads Japanese much faster than Korean, and the interview itself was given in Japanese.
In her view, Japan since the Meiji period became successful because she had got translated a lot of foreign literature and thought into her language. In fact, she read Shakespeare in Japanese translation, by Tsubouchi Shouyou, by which she made up her mind to study English literature as her life's work. (After Tsubouchi's, we have two more complete translation of Shakespeare. However, in terms of import and export, I am afraid we are overwhelmingly import-oriented in the fields of literature and ideas.)
Her family was back in Seoul when Japan surrendered. They suffered from the Korean War. She does not discuss Japan's surrender itself, but I would wonder if there had been the War if Japan had surrendered a little early, by, say, ten days, before the Soviet intervention in the War against Japan. There would have been no atomic bombs also. If Korea could have remained united then is a different question.
When the relations were established between the two countries, many of her students went to join the demonstration against it, in 1965. She herself was in favour of it, as she thought Korea needed economic ties with Japan. But she also understood how the students felt then.
She is worried about the move virtually to change the present Constitution in Japan. She thinks Korea needs to hear more words to appeal to their mind. She would like the Prime Minister of Japan not to push his neibhbour to the point where relations would worsen.
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