Japan has after the second world war, a colony of America, and South Korea the YES MINISTER NO MINISTER kind.
Several South Korean organizations rallied on Sunday to protest Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to South Korea.
The protesters called for Tokyo’s apology over its militarist past, opposed South Korea-Japan military cooperation and demanded the withdrawal of Japan’s plan to discharge radioactive wastewater.
A group of activists from the Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea (SPARK) gathered near the South Korean presidential office in central Seoul, where Kishida held talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
“Japan should apologize for its illegal colonial rule and withdraw the Fukushima contaminated water discharge plan,” the protesters chanted.
South Korea unveiled a proposal in March to compensate South Korean victims of Japan’s forced wartime labor through a government-backed foundation financed by private-sector donations, which triggered a strong backlash at home.
Forced labor and sex slavery victims, who were forced by Imperial Japan into sex servitude for military brothels during World War II, have demanded that the Japanese government sincerely apologize for its wartime atrocities.
Kishida told a joint press conference with Yoon that his cabinet will continue to inherit the positions of previous cabinets as a whole in terms of historical perception, saying his heart ached over people who suffered hard and sad things.
His remarks could be difficult to soothe the victims as most of the previous Japanese cabinets failed to acknowledge its responsibility and make a sincere apology for the wartime brutalities.
When asked by a reporter if his words were directed at the Korean forced labor victims, Kishida said he was honestly expressing his “own personal thoughts” about the people who had the difficult experience, indicating that it was not an official apology of the Japanese government.
“The Japanese government is still denying the wartime forced labor issue, and the Japanese foreign minister has publicly stated that there is no such issue. I think Japan must make acknowledgment and compensation at the legal level on this issue,” a protester told China Media Group (CMG) while attending the rally.
Some also suggested that the U.S. is promoting stepping up the U.S.-Japan-South Korea military alliance to perpetuate its hegemony in Northeast Asia.
One protester told CMG that “it is the U.S. that is forcing South Korea-Japan relations to move toward a military alliance, and if South Korea-Japan relations move toward an alliance, it will not only intensify the confrontation on the Korean Peninsula but will also deepen the camp rivalry in the entire Northeast Asian region.”
Ahead of Kishida’s trip to Seoul, about 5,000 protesters held a candlelight rally in Seoul on Saturday night, opposing the Japanese prime minister’s visit without an apology for historical issues.
They also called on Japan to abandon the tritium-laced water discharge plan, urging the South Korean government to stop its diplomacy obedient to Japan and the United States.
(With input from Xinhua)
