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Korean Independence and 70 Years Thereafter: Japanese Colonial Rule and Post-War Settlement

Woondo Choi 1

1동북아역사재단

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ABSTRACT

What did the Korean liberation of 1945 mean to Japan? Why is it important to Korea of today? Japanese perception of disparagement and degradation on Koreans, which began to be formed since early modern period had been expanded and reproduced throughout the colonial period. Koreans were discriminated as an inferior being but they were mobilized during the war on an equal basis as one of Emperor's soldiers and as one of Empire's subjects. Japanese has been perceiving Koreans based on double standards. When the war was over and Japan had to embrace its own defeat, Japanese society went through with apathy toward Koreans. When its own interest is at stake, as was in war reparations and the treatment of Koreans in Japan, they viewed Koreans only as the subject of its own colonial rule but neither as Japanese citizens nor as the citizens of Allied powers. This perception is reflected into the legal frameworks of the San Francisco Peace Treaty and Korea-Japan Treaty of 1965. Excluded from the list of signature countries in San Francisco Peace Treaty, Korea had to face the negotiation table for property claims against Japan in a disadvantageous position. Even though Korea's limited claims on war-time damages excluding the reparations on Japan's colonial rule was not considered in the pearce treaty and had be dealt in the separate bilateral negotiation. The illegality and invalidity of the Annexation Treaty of 1910 was not confirmed in the Korea-Japan Treaty and the issue was stitched up without final decision. The economic aid, which was the main topic in the process of negotiation was interpreted as the fund for the claims against Japan by Koreans and as the congratulatory donation for independence. Because of this ambivalence, Japan has kept avoiding its legal responsibility for individual reparations and compensation during the last 70 years. Korean liberation, as long as the bilateral relationship between Korea and Japan is concerned, will be completed only when Japan changes its perception on Koreans and accepts the invalidity of the Annexation Treaty of 1910.

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