South Korean President Park Geun-hye might soften her policy toward Japan even while insisting on her stance on Japan's colonial rule of Korea, suggested a dispatch from Seoul published in The Japan Times on May 4 ("Park signals two-track foreign policy toward Japan"). Her partial change of stance might reflect her top aides' concern that the tension between China and Japan has been easing, the report said.
This set me wondering: Where does Park's open antipathy toward Japan come from? Is it rooted in Korea's historical tradition? Or is it of recent vintage? Japan's colonization that ended 70 years ago continues to rankle many, not just Park, and it continues to raise questions both in South Korea and Japan.
Historically, Park's feelings may be traced to the prevailing view during the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) that held the Japanese as a culturally backward people, as Sonfa O, who was born on Jeju Island and naturalized in Japan, suggests in her recent book "On Korea's Contempt for Japan" (2014). This view is evident, for example, in my favorite travelogue, the report by scribe Sin Yuhan on the Korean embassy that visited Japan in 1719.