전후 한일 관계의 쟁점 및 양상

Issues and Aspects of Postwar Korean-Japanese Relations

It took twenty years before Korea and Japan normalized its diplomatic relations in 1965. The long process of negotiations between two countries shows the historical legacy of the Japanese colonial rule would overshadow their postwar relations. The relations between two countries developed remarkably for the last four decades. Human, economic and cultural exchange is enormous, and there exist efforts to establish the free trade agreement and the economic community modelled after the European Union. In spite of these dramatic changes in the relations between two countries their relations are far from problem-free and amicable. One of the most pressing issues involving the postwar Korean-Japanese relations is the controversy over the interpretation of the past history, the Japanese colonial rule over Korea. The controversy broke out right after two countries began the negotiations to establish the normal relations between them and continued until recently without an amicable settlement. This paper aims at examining how the discrepancies in historical interpretation and understanding led to one of the most thorny issues in the establishment of relations between Korea and Japan. Firstly, this paper will try to understand why and how these discrepancies in historical understanding occurred. Secondly, this paper will look at how these discrepancies in historical understanding influenced the negotiations between two countries and the later development of relations between two countries. In this sense it is very important to understand how the two countries saw the reparation for the colonial rule. The issues such as the comfort women and the publication of the new history textbook will be discussed in detail to understand the historical legacy which overshadow the relations between two countries.