How Modern Japan Is Described in Textbooks around the World

(Select a Country to review excerpts)

Europe ……………  Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland, UK
Asia ………………   China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Vietnam
North America ……  Mexico, USA
South America ……  Brazil

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ASIA

Korea
Title: South Korean Military: Contemporary History
Pages: 251-252, 269, 294, 342
Publisher: Korean Authorized Textbook Association, Seoul, South Korea, 2002


Excerpt:

The Transformation of China & Japan
Japan, which had provoked the Sino-Japanese war and the Pacific war, lost all its colonies after it was defeated during World War II. Also, it was put under the control of the Allied Powers, which meant that it would be under the control of the supreme commander of the Allied Forces for the next seven years. The Forces, consisting mainly of American forces, carried out the dissolution of the Japanese military and the great industrial families, liquidating militarism and enacting a democratic constitution, and reforming farm land. As the Cold War confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union grew increasingly aggravated, the American government continued its economic support of reconstructing Japan because Washington considered itself in need of Japan to defend the free world.

Japan restored sovereignty through the Treaty of Peace with Japan in the early 1950s. Afterwards, under the protection of the American nuclear umbrella, Japan achieved economic growth and extended its international status. Due to American assistance and the specific boom caused by the Korean Civil War, Japan attained rapid economic growth. Especially in the 1960s, the Tokyo Olympics and the Vietnam War helped Japan to continuously gain remarkable economic prosperity. Japan has grown as an economic superpower, enlarging its global influence on the basis of the powerful economic strength.

The Activities of the Special Committee for Investigation of Anti-National Activities
One of the significant tasks Koreans had to undertake after the restoration of independence on August 15 was how to deal with Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese during Japan’s forceful occupation of Korea. It was a necessary step for restoring Korean national spirit and for clearing up the vestiges of Japanese imperialism.

Most of the major political parties and social groups that organized immediately after liberation demanded that national traitors and collaborators working in positive collaboration for the rule of Japanese imperialism should be punished. Most of the general population at the time also wanted punishment for the collaborators. However, the American military administration authorities neglected to deal with the collaborators, making use of the officials and the police of the Japanese Government-General of Chosun as they were. The U.S. military administration had let the officials under Japanese imperial rule keep their positions based on the notion that southern Korea lacked the qualified workers to carry out their policy. Thus, the settlement of the collaborators was not dealt with until the establishment of the Korean government.

Korea’s National Assembly provided in the established constitution, “The National Assembly which enacted this constitution can legislate a special law that punishes flagrant anti-nationalistic acts committed before August 15, 1945.” Based on this clause, the National Assembly formed the “Special Committee Drafting Antinational Acts Law”, which initiated enacting the special law. Eventually, the National Assembly enacted the “Antinational Acts Law” after ongoing controversy in September, 1948. Accordingly, the “Special Committee for Investigation of Anti-National Activities” was set up, composed of ten National Assemblypeople.

Starting its activity in earnest in January 1949, the special committee arrested Heungsik Park, the head of Hwasin group, for having collaborated in the Japanese war effort, both Jonghyung Lee, an agent of the Japanese military police, and Teoksul Roh, an executive member of the Japanese police for having clamped down on independence movement leaders, and Jungja Bae, for having pretended as a foster daughter of Ito Hirobumi and worked as a secret agent. In addition, those who had once been admired as national leaders but been collaborators at the end of the Japanese Empire included Kwangsu Lee, Nahmsun Choi, Lin Choi and so forth.

However, the activity of the committee wasn’t smooth. Giving priority to anticommunist policy, Seungman Lee’s government was passive in punishing the collaborators. The Lee government tended to restrain and oppress the committee. In the meantime, the statute of limitations of the public prosecution on the case ran out and the committee eventually broke up. Most of those put under the investigation by the Special Committee Drafting Antinational Acts Law were released. Those who were sent to special trial were also allowed to go on probation. Very few national traitors were actually punished. Thus, a national task on the punishment of the collaborators was not properly dealt with and failed following the collapse of the Special Committee for Investigation of Anti-National Activities.

The Junghee Park government was optimistic about normalizing Korea-Japan diplomatic relations. What Koreans wanted most was Japan's apology and compensation for their imperial rule. With the negotiation between Korea and Japan under way, dissidents and university students were rallying against the humiliating conditions of the negotiations.

In 1964, demonstrations led by college students against the humiliating Korea-Japan meeting furiously arose. Even high school students from Seoul participated in the demonstrations, expressing their objection about the meeting. The demonstration advanced out into other cities including Pusan and Kwangju. The demonstration reached its peak on June 3, with the call to overthrow the Junghee Park’s government. Accordingly, proclaiming martial law both in Seoul and in other cities, the government subdued the demonstration. This is called June 3rd Resistance.

Eventually, a Korea-Japan agreement was made in June, 1965 and the normalization of Korea-Japan diplomatic relations were realized since Seungman Lee’s government was finally achieved, though it left much to be desired.

Most Koreans living in Japan consist of those who could not return home even after the defeat of the Japanese Empire and their descendants. They live mostly in big cities including Osaka. Koreans in Japan maintain their Korean nationality in spite of discrimination in Japanese society, and keep their pride as Koreans. In addition, they have made a great contribution to the development of the Korean economy.