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South Korea Korea and Japan
National or ethnic groups often need an "other," a group of
outsiders against whom they can define themselves. While Western
countries with their individualistic and, from a Confucian
perspective, self-centered ways of life provide important images
of "otherness" for South Koreans, the principal source of such
images for many years has been Japan. Attitudes toward Japan as
an "other" are complex. On the most basic level, there is
hostility fed by memories of invasion and colonial oppression,
present-day economic frictions, and the Japanese government's
inability or unwillingness to do anything about discriminatory
treatment of the large Korean minority in Japan. The two
countries have a long history of hostility. Admiral Yi Sun-sin,
whose armor-plated boats eventually defeated the Japanese navy's
damaging attacks in the 1590s, was South Korea's most revered
national hero.
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture's
adoption in the 1980s of revised textbook guidelines, softening
the language used to describe Japan's aggression during World War
II, inspired outrage in South Korea as well as in other Asian
countries. The textbook controversy was a major impetus for a
national campaign to build an Independence Hall, located about
100 kilometers south of Seoul, to keep alive memories of Japanese
colonial exploitation. Opened on August 15, 1987, the anniversary
of Korea's liberation from Japan, the building houses grim
exhibits depicting the atrocities of the Japanese military
against Korean nationalists during the colonial period.
During the colonial period, and particularly during World War
II, the Japanese initiated assimilation policies designed to turn
Koreans into obedient subjects of the Japanese emperor. Under the
slogan Nissen ittai (Japan and Korea as One), newspapers and
magazines published in the Korean language were closed, the
Korean Language Society was disbanded, and Korean writers were
forced to publish only in Japanese. Students who spoke Korean in
school were punished. There was pressure to speak Japanese at
home, adopt Japanese family and given names, and worship at
Shinto shrines, the religious basis for which had been
transplanted from the home islands. Korean Christians who refused
to show reverence to the emperor as a divinity were imprisoned or
ostracized. In the words of historian Ki-baik Lee (called Yi Kibeck in Korean), "Japan's aim was to eradicate consciousness of
Korean national identity, roots and all, and thus to obliterate
the very existence of the Korean people from the face of the
earth."
This shared historical experience has provoked not only
hostility but also a desire to purge Korean culture of lingering
Japanese influences. In the late 1980s, the government continued
to prohibit the distribution of Japanese-made movies and popular
music within the country in order to prevent unwanted
contemporary influences from crossing the Korea Strait.
On a more polite level, depiction of Japan as the "other"
involves contrasting the "essences" of the two countries'
cultures. This process has spawned a popular literature that
compares, among other things, the naturalness and "resonance" of
Korean art and music and the alleged imitativeness and
constriction of their Japanese counterparts; the "individualism"
(of a non-Western sort) of Koreans and the "collectivism" or
group consciousness of the Japanese; and the lyric contrast
between the rose of Sharon, Korea's national flower, which blooms
robustly all summer long, and the Japanese cherry blossom, which
has the "beauty of frailty" in springtime.
The search for a cultural "essence" involves serious
contradictions. The literature of Korean cultural distinction is
strikingly similar to Japanese attempts to prove the "uniqueness"
of their own cultural heritage, although "proof" of Japan's
uniqueness is usually drawn from examples of Western countries
(the significant "other" for modernized Japanese). Ironically,
official and unofficial sponsorship of the Tangun myth, although
a minor theme, bears an uncanny resemblance to pre World War II
Japanese policies promoting historical interpretations of the
nation's founding based on Shinto mythology.
Mixed in with feelings of hostility and competition, however,
is genuine admiration for Japanese economic, technological, and
social achievements. Japan has become an important market for
South Korean manufactured products. Both countries have been
targets of criticism by Western governments accusing them of
unfair trading practices. Friendly interest in South Korea is
growing among the Japanese public despite old prejudices, and
large numbers of young Japanese and South Koreans visit each
others' countries on school and college excursions. Like South
Koreans, Japanese liberals have been disturbed by official
attempts to revise wartime history.
Data as of June 1990
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