Many experts and diplomats knowledgeable about Japan have warned us that Korea-Japan relations would end up like this. They predicted.
I am considered an authority on the U.S., but somehow have become somewhat an expert on Japan as well, I have weighed in with words and writing. I kept saying that “Japan Passing” a local term that refers to how the government ignores Japan in negotiations on North Korea’s denuclearization was not beneficial in dealing with security matters or North Korea-South Korea relations.
It was last winter when I became seriously concerned. I have made a lot of TV programs in the U.S. and Korea which made me unwilling to watch TV as hobby. Last year, I was hospitalized and watching a wall-mounted TV was the only pastime I was able to be indulged in. The Pyongchang Winter Olympics was on TV just in time.
President Moon was frequently on screen in the opening ceremony. He was preoccupied with taking care of Kim Yong-nam and Kim Yo-jong from North Korea, and he didn’t shake hands or lay eyes on Shinzo Abe, who was sitting far behind him. That worried me. Of course, things could have been different than it appeared on TV, but that’s how it looked.
Abe may be the leader of a country but he is still human. He must have been hurt by this. Whenever an opportunity popped up, I told everyone that “the Japanese that I know always return a favor when someone else does a small favor for them. When we try to build up North Korea-South Korea relations, Japan should be included in the negotiations too ”
Several years ago, when Samsung established itself as the best in its field, one of its directors boasted that Sony could never catch up with Samsung. This worried me. They didn’t know Japan’s potential; that Japan could always strike back if they wanted.
I could feel how bitter the Japanese felt when our electronic industry surpassed theirs. Before that, Japan’s electronic companies had led the industry.
So, I guess what was meant to happen finally happened. Now I collect myself and ponder over situations amid this vortex.
It’s frustrating to see Japan’s narrow mindedness.
In 1592 they invaded a good people who have never invaded another country. They invaded us again in 7 years. They fought Qing on the Korean peninsula in 1894, insisting that they were doing it for “peace in the East Asia” and fought Russia in 1905 because Russia was trying to take over Chosun – and after the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905 which deprived Korea of diplomatic sovereignty, Japan annexed Korea in 1910. For 35 years they occupied Korea and tried to annihilate our language and national consciousness. The people who prided themselves on not bothering others did this. So what are they so angry about? Is it just because of our supreme court’s forced labor ruling and the dissolution of comfort woman foundation? I was born after our liberation and never learned Japanese history or about Japan. I recently studied at the Japanese university,and I was astonished by the deep connections between Japan and Korea that dated back 2,000 years. If there is a problem, it’s that the two countries are ignorant of each other’s history. My mother, the Korean poet whom Japan loves, was a quiet person. While alive, I never heard a word of resentment about the pain or difficulties she experienced during the Japanese colonial area.
And I found this paragraph in a script for her special lecture commemorating the 100th anniversary of her ala mater in Tokyo. “After the lecture, I was approached by my Japanese classmates who graduated from a primary school in Seoul with me. They said that they came to apologize for the past wrongdoings and bowed politely. The sense of resentment from decades ago against the Japanese classmates who discriminated me, melted away, It was a moment when the past conflict dissolved and a door opened ”
My mother was a forgiving person. I didn’t know that such resentment existed in a person like my mother. I realized that sincere apologies do indeed resolve ill feelings.
I stroke mugunghwa and cherry blossoms wishing the neighboring countries will be close to heart too And despite all this, the poet shows her hope thru one line poem like this that the two countries will be close.
The word めでて(medete) which I translated as ‘stroke’ has a rich mixture of meanings, including to embrace, overlook, endure, tolerate, forgive, love, look and embrace even when you don’t want to. Now I understand my mother’s deep feelings that chose that vocabulary. Even though her scar from the discrimination and hardships during the Japanese colonial era and the pain of being unable to learn Korean while living in Korea was big, yet, it took courage to make a resolution – mother who seemed shy to me, made a resolution to stop conflicts with a heart of ‘medete’ That is right. It’s heart after all. We should resolve in our hearts to ‘medete’
Even after this colossal Tsunami, there is no assurance that there will be no more Tsunami like this in the future. Therefore, the government as well as we should make a resolution in our hearts. It is time now that we recognized Japan as our neighbor to live together the future in this shrinking world. | 
