To say that the Korea-Japan* relationship is fraught with difficulties and difficult memories is an understatement. To say that it is important is an even greater one. At the moment, things are bad and getting worse. They have never been good – certainly not for the last hundred years or so – but if you were to put a date on the current slide into ever increasing acrimony and economic disruptions, it would have to be October 30, 2018. That was when the Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea ruled that Japanese companies can be sued today for the harm done to Korean citizens in the 1940s.
This has led, among other things, to trade actions on both sides of the Sea of Japan (the East Sea), including a 97 percent drop in Japan’s sale of beer to Korea and a serious disruption in Korea’s ability to import from Japan chemicals that are must-haves for manufacturing semiconductors. Korea is a major producer and exporter of semiconductors and the disruptions are being felt around the world. As for the Mr. Jang’s denying himself the pleasure of the most recent Spiderman movie, we’ll get to that in a moment. But first, a few dates.
1910 – August 22
, Japan and Korea sign the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty. The first article declared that
His Majesty, the Emperor of Korea makes the complete and permanent cession to his Majesty the Emperor of Japan of all rights of sovereignty over the whole of Korea.
1945 – September 2,
Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Mamoru Shigemitsu
signs the instrument of surrender aboard the U.S. battleship
Missouri
. This was the formal end of World War II. It was also the end of Japan’s rule in Korea.
The hardship endured by the Korean people during this 35 year period (1910-1945), especially during the war years, are integral to the current conflict between Japan and Korea. Forced labor and “comfort women” are at the top of the list of grievances.
1950 – 1953. The Korean War
. North Korean troops invaded the Republic of Korea on June 25, 1950. The armistice that brought an end to hostilities if not the war was signed on July 27, 1953. We almost left this one out as it is arguably not part of the feud between South Korea and Japan. Yet it is part of the history and part of the picture.
1965 – On June 22,
Japan and Korea signed the Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea, and Japan paid substantial sums to Korea as a result. The question today – and it is a recurring one – is whether the 1965 treaty settled the matter of wartime wrongs or not.
Shifting to more recent developments…
October 30, 2018.
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea orders Japan’s Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metals to pay compensations to four Korean men forced to work for those companies in the period from 1941 – 43. Other such rulings followed.
July 4, 2019
– Japan tightens export controls and key chemicals used by Korea’s high-tech companies, viz., fluorinated polyimide, resist polymers, and high purity hydrogen fluoride.
September 11, 2019
– The Republic of Korea initiates a case against Japan at the World Trade Organization, arguing that the restrictions mentioned above violate the rules of the WTO.
There have been numerous other developments in this saga, and it is likely that we will soon expand our chronology. The basic point is clear enough. Relations between Korea and Japan are bad and getting worse. As today’s featured quote suggests, the issues are hardly restricted to governments and big companies. They are topics that engage citizens of both countries including
Mr. Jang
, the Spiderman fan. As
Joori Roh
of Reuters said in his article:
For now, emotions [in Korea] are running high. Marvel fan Jang Bum-jin, 34, said he threw away all his Japanese pens and is not going to watch the latest Spiderman movie, which is distributed by Sony Pictures – a U.S. based company owned by Japan’s Sony Corp.
“I love Spiderman, but I am fighting my desire to watch it,” he said.