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"It will be the end of Korea as a member of the international community if it breaks its promise."
I was thunderstruck when I read this warning attached to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "heart-felt" apology to the last surviving Korean victims of the government-organized sexual enslavement before and during World War II published in the Dec. 31 edition of the Korea Times.
The "promise" that "Korea" should not dare to break allegedly means to once and for all silence the issue and to remove the monuments reminding the world of the undeniable historical truth. Having dishonored the victims as common prostitutes so far, Abe now wants to be respected for his generosity to utter the truth, unheard and never to be heard again, that it was indeed Imperial Japan's government that masterminded and systematically organized the sexual exploitation of women in occupied countries. Abe leaves no doubt that the only purpose of his "heart-felt" apology is not to be bothered any further by Korean victims on the international stage and to make sure it would not cost Japan more than the petty amount of $8 million.
As if not to be suspected of any shred of decency and conscience, Japan's political leader could not prevent the amazing coincidence that his wife visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on the very day while Korea's government, for whatever reason, was signing this deal. (The shrine honors Japan's war dead including 1,068 war criminals, 14 of whom are considered Class A.)
There are only two ways to interpret her move, as China's official news agency Xinhua in this case correctly distinguished, as either a "misguided, heartless gesture" or a "flagrant display of hypocrisy and contempt."
Not to attribute such a degree of intellectual dullness to the Prime Minister and his wife, we have to assume the latter. To say it more clearly: While the politician instrumentalizes the apology demanded by the Korean government in order not to hear again of the girls enslaved and abused in WWII, the gentleman's wife spits the 90-year-old women in the face. In Abe's own terms we have to say: It will be the end of Japan as a member of the international community if the Japanese society does not clearly distance itself from its morally confused leader. No apology for grave misdeeds can insist on being "final and sufficient."
Any sincere apology means having to live with a red face at least for some time. Abe seems to regard it as his own historical mission to save Japan's present and future generations from the burden of guilt and shame. What a cynical mission, confusing having to apologize on a national level with being a victim! National identity, in my case, as a German does not mean having to feel like a more evil sinner individually, but it will include some element of shame, I would say for a thousand years. In the case of Japan, I would humbly estimate a hundred, counting from the day of the first credible and responsible national apology. Forgiveness cannot be demanded, not even expected. We can only hope that fingers will point at our red faces less penetratingly as healing time passes. And should then be grateful for it.
And still I hope there will be reconciliation between Korea and Japan, those two great countries representing the endangered principles of freedom and democracy in present-day Asia.
The writer is a German citizen who has lived in Korea for 10 years as a teacher. Reach him at bergmann2473@yahoo.de.
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