Panel still bickers over history issues

A joint history research project intended to improve ties between Japan and South Korea spiraled into a plethora of disagreement, criticism and heated exchanges mainly over Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The committee's final report Tuesday from a second round of the joint study underscored the deep gaps over how the countries view their recent history and what should or should not be included in their textbooks.

The animosity was so great that some people see little reason to continue the project.

"Dialogue on history is difficult without mutual respect and trust," a South Korean member of the committee's newly created working group on textbooks said.

In 2001, Tokyo and Seoul agreed to start the project to restore relations that had turned sour after Japan's screening system approved a history textbook that South Korea said whitewashed Japan's history before and during World War II.

The first round of the joint history study produced a final report in June 2005 under three categories: ancient history, medieval and modern history, and contemporary history.

The second round began in June 2007.

Cho Kwang, the South Korean co-chairman of the committee and a professor at Korea University, described the work on textbook issues as "of great significance."

But the final report showed bitter disagreement between members of the two countries.

"I think South Korea wanted the Japanese to accept its historical views," said a Japanese member of the contemporary history subcommittee.

A South Korean member of the textbook working group raised the issue of "comfort women," who provided sex for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II. Many of the women forced or deceived by Japanese were Koreans.

The member said descriptions about comfort women in Japanese textbooks "have been clearly on the decrease since 1996" because of increased conservatism in the Japanese political world and society.

A Japanese member rebutted that the decrease resulted from the removal of "inaccurate descriptions."

The South Korean side also took issue with the fact that no Japanese textbooks describe the 1910 Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty as "illegal."

The Japanese side, meanwhile, said South Korean textbooks should mention war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, as well as former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama's 1995 statement that recognized Japan's mistaken past national policy of colonial rule and aggression.

In the final report, a Japanese member of the contemporary history subcommittee said Korean Emperor Gojong wanted to protect the interests of his imperial family through the 1905 Japan-Korea Protectorate Treaty, which deprived the Korean Empire of its diplomatic sovereignty.

In response, a South Korean member said the Japanese side failed to provide any grounds for that conclusion.

While the Japanese side insisted education in Japanese in Korea during the 1910-45 colonial rule had some positive aspects, the South Korean side objected, saying, "Few people learned the language willingly."

The selections of members for the second round were made during the administrations of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who called for a "departure from the postwar regime," and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, who urged a thorough review.

As a result, the committee turned into something of a "proxy war," critics say.