The following is from an article published today in Sankei Shimbun's regular series, Think about Takeshima, by Masao Shimojo, titled "Japan Should Create a Sustainable Research Institute.
This article is a must-read not only for Japanese citizens but also for people around the world.
Japan Must-Have Sustainable Research Institutions
On February 4, I was invited to speak at a joint meeting of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee and the Working Team to Study Policy toward Korea and the Special Committee on Territory held at the LDP headquarters.
After returning home, I was attacked by what appeared to be acute gastritis. I was urgently hospitalized at Tokai University Hachioji Hospital on March 6, underwent surgery, and was discharged on March 14.
It is why I have suspended my column "Thinking about Takeshima."
The Never-Ending History War between Japan and South Korea
On my sickbed, I had an opportunity to rethink the content of the lecture I gave at the LDP headquarters.
The patient's condition was accurately assessed at this hospital, and appropriate measures were taken.
That promptness is also required in the ongoing dispute with South Korea.
It is because the process from diagnosis of the medical condition to emergency surgery is similar to clarifying the points of contention asserted by the Korean side, anticipating the historical documents and literature that address them, and then using them to refute the claims.
To my surprise, many nurses in their early twenties were smiling at patients under all circumstances, trying to reduce their emotional burden.
It is something that can only be done with training and organizational maturity.
Unfortunately, while the "history war" between Japan and South Korea continues, there is no similar research organization within the Japanese government.
It is due to the fact that the Japanese side continues to suffer from the "history awareness" of the South Koreans, starting with the Takeshima issue in the 1950s, followed by the "history textbook issue" in the 1980s, the "comfort women issue" in the 1990s, and more recently the "conscription issue," the "Gunkanjima issue," and the "World Heritage nomination issue" of the Sado gold mine. It is not unrelated.
When the Japanese government was forced to rewrite the word "invasion" as "advance" in a textbook test, it established a "Neighboring Countries Clause" to ensure that neighboring countries are taken into consideration when compiling history textbooks (it was later discovered that the textbooks were not actually rewritten).
Japan allowed South Korea and China to intervene whenever it compiled textbooks.
The same was true of the comfort women issue, and the "Kono Statement" (Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono's 1993 statement on the results of an investigation into the comfort women issue), which described the involvement of the Japanese military, was taken as a statement by the ROK side.
In the subsequent historical battles, the Korean side always regarded Koreans' forced labor as a problem, based on the premise of remorse for past colonial rule.
In contrast, nothing is surprising when the Japanese side discusses the existence or non-existence of Korean forced labor.
The Korean side makes a problem because it is a "past settlement" to persuade the Japanese side to confirm whether the Japanese side is sincerely reflecting on it.
However, the Korean side's understanding of history is rooted in the sentiment of "anti-correctness" (against what is correct), which can be said to be a tradition on the Korean peninsula.
Therefore, while this may be a pretext, it is not a fact of history.
The Korea Foundation, a Hotbed of Fabrication
This fact is also reflected in the "Sea of Japan Designation Issue," The Korean government has insisted that the Sea of Japan should be designated as the East Sea, as mentioned in "Thinking about Takeshima," dated November 19, 2011.
In 1992, the Korean government stated at the UN Conference on Standardization of Geographical Names that the Sea of Japan should be changed to the East Sea.
The argument (historical understanding) at that time was that Korea was under Japanese colonial rule when the International Hydrographic Bureau compiled "Boundaries of Oceans and Seas" (Guidelines on Sea Designations) in 1929. Therefore Korea could not claim the name "East Sea," used for 2,000 years.
In response, the Japanese government conducted a survey of old maps at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Library of Congress, the British Library, Cambridge University Library, and other libraries to prove that the Sea of Japan was the only globally recognized name for the sea.
However, the survey was not proof enough to debunk the Korean historical perception that the Sea of Japan has been referred to as the East Sea for 2,000 years.
Therefore, the Korean side demanded that the Sea of Japan and the East Sea be marked side by side, and in 2014, the Virginia State Legislature in the United States passed the "East Sea Annexation Act.
In November 2008, the International Hydrographic Organization decided to use the Sea of Japan as the sole designation.
The agency had demanded that Japan and South Korea resolve the Sea of Japan designation issue.
Therefore, I asked Mr. Yoshitaka Shindo, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, to use my article as a diplomatic card in that case.
In my article, I argued that Korea started to call the Sea of Japan "East Sea" after 1946 and that the historical perception of colonial rule and 2,000 years ago was a complete lie.
The Korean government took the occasion of the Shimane Prefectural Assembly's enactment of the "Takeshima Day" ordinance to launch the "Northeast Asian History Foundation," a policy advocacy organization.
The purpose is to have the Takeshima issue studied on a sustained basis. Its president is a historian with ministerial-level authority, and there are about 60 history researchers.
In recent years, Japan and South Korea have had a constant stream of historical problems because false history is being fabricated there.
To end the historical wars between Japan, Korea, and China, Japan needs a sustainable historical research institute.
(Visiting Professor, Tokai University and Shimane Prefectural University)
The next issue will be published on April 1
