International law clearly states that treaty obligations between nations cannot be nullified by domestic circumstances.
This essay examines South Korea’s attempt to undermine the Japan–Korea Claims Agreement and questions the stance of Japanese politicians, media, and opposition parties that remain silent or supportive despite Korea’s actions.

2019-02-05

Why is it that opposition parties, which constantly criticize the government, remain silent when it comes to the outrageous behavior of South Korea?
The Japanese people should think carefully about that.

The following continues from the previous chapter.

◎The Meaning of Agreements Between Nations

It is an international norm that treaties and agreements concluded between nations cannot be broken.
As stipulated in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties adopted by the United Nations, “A party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty” (Article 27).
In other words, it is strictly forbidden to trample treaty obligations due to domestic laws or internal circumstances.

After the Opium War, Britain and the Qing dynasty concluded the 99-year lease of Hong Kong.
Neither the subsequent Republic of China nor the People’s Republic of China has ever claimed that “it was invalid because it was concluded after losing a war.”

Japan also never declared the unequal treaties concluded by the Meiji government to be “invalid.”
Instead, Japan strengthened its national power, continued negotiations, and after tremendous effort finally succeeded in revising them.

Likewise, Japan would never claim that the Potsdam Declaration—which it accepted after the Japanese archipelago had been reduced to ashes and after two atomic bombs had been dropped—was “invalid because it was accepted under tragic circumstances.”
That is because the Japanese people understand how serious national promises are.

Such international common sense does not exist in South Korea.

Yet astonishingly, Kazuo Shii, chairman of the Japanese Communist Party, visited South Korea last December as a member of the Japan–Korea Parliamentarians’ League and told President Moon Jae-in that “The Japanese government has officially stated that the individual claims of victims have not been extinguished. The two governments agree on this point. Calm discussions are important so that a constructive solution can be found to restore the honor and dignity of the victims.” (according to the report in Akahata).

I cannot believe that a Japanese political party would support South Korea’s attempt to nullify the Japan–Korea Claims Agreement, which forms the basis of the Japan–Korea Basic Treaty.
This is something the Japanese people must firmly engrave in their minds.

There are also many media organizations and political parties in Japan that have supported the comfort women issue, believing in the nonexistent “forced recruitment” without evidence and continuing to demand apologies.

There are also political parties that support court rulings in which young people who applied for corporate jobs under “voluntary recruitment,” dreaming of the Japan dream, were somehow transformed into “forced laborers” for a period of only six months starting in September 1944 and won lawsuits.

I find it incomprehensible that there are Japanese politicians and commentators who follow South Korea, which condemns Japan by twisting black into white and white into black without regard for facts.

What kind of background do those people have who, despite being Japanese, support South Korea in overturning treaties and agreements between nations without regard for facts?

And why is it that opposition parties that so aggressively criticize the government remain silent about South Korea’s outrageous behavior?

The Japanese people should think carefully about this.

(To be continued.)