The following is from a series of columns by Mr. Shí Píng in today's Sankei Shimbun titled "The Japanese Cannot Tolerate Korea's Attitude.
It is a must-read article not only for the Japanese people but also for people around the world.
In 2016, I published "The Korean People Are the Perpetrators of History: Troublemakers in East Asia" (Asuka Shinsha).
It was a book that broadened my focus from the China issue to the Korean Peninsula issue.
I am not an expert on Korean Peninsula issues.
Even so, I felt compelled to write about it.
Once I decided to do so, I would use my pen (speech) to cut through the issues. That is my style of writing.
My 2002 debut novel, "Why Chinese People Hate Japanese People" (PHP Institute), was motivated by my opposition to the emotional "anti-Japanese" sentiment that the Chinese Communist Party administration intentionally created.
The starting point of "indignation" has not changed.
I was motivated to address the issue of the Korean Peninsula by a statement made by then-South Korean President Park Geun-hye in 2001: "The positions of perpetrator and victim will not change even if a thousand years pass.
A thousand years? Does this mean that I have to keep apologizing to my children, grandchildren, and beyond forever?
As a Japanese citizen (naturalized in 2007), I felt that this was unacceptable and unforgivable.
That's when I began to research the history of the Korean Peninsula thoroughly.
From the geopolitical point of view that it is connected to the continent, I think many people on the Korean Peninsula have a tragic history of being frequently invaded by neighboring countries.
In reality, however, this was not the case.
For example, it is well known that the Goryeo army was the first to attack Japan during the Genko Incident, and the king of Goryeo even offered to invade Japan against Yuan.
In the modern era, the Korean War (1950-53), a "civil war" fought by the same ethnic group, resulted in heavy casualties for South and North Korea, involving the United States and China, respectively.
In the end, nothing was accomplished, and the situation just went back to the way it was before the war started.
In other words, the countries of the Korean Peninsula were more on the side of "perpetrators" than "victims" throughout history.
They were troublemakers who caused trouble for neighboring countries such as Japan, China, and Russia.
It is understandable when you see how they still violate international rules and agreements between countries without hesitation.
I don't think many people had this kind of perspective.
The Japanese rule of Korea (1910-45) modernized a society obsessed with Confucian values, political corruption, and oppression.
In "Why Hell Always Repeats Itself on the Korean Peninsula" (Tokuma Shoten), I delve into the influence of Confucianism.
During the Yi dynasty, Confucianism (Cheng–Zhu school) was the state religion in Korea.
According to this value system, the literati were ranked higher than the warriors, so the "warrior" was devalued.
That is why the Korean people's foreign wars always involve the help of outside forces.
They also looked down on commerce, industry, medicine, etc., placing those involved in these fields in a low position, which prevented the development of the merchant culture that flourished in Japan during the Edo period.
On the other hand, Japan, where even the ordinary people could read, write and do the abacus, was the first to achieve modernization with the Meiji Restoration.
Sadaejuui" Joseon, which was trying to protect itself by following assertive China, called itself "little China" in the Huayi order with China as its suzerain.
The records of the Chosun envoys who often came to Japan during the Edo period show that they looked down on the Japanese people, treating them as "animals" or as "bloodstains."
They were not ambassadors of friendship and goodwill.
