This essay, drawing on a piece by Yojiro Sato published in the Rekishitsu supplement to WiLL, seeks to fundamentally reconsider the historical relationship between ancient Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
The author argues that the historical formation of the peninsula was deeply connected with the Japanese, pointing to records that describe Wa bloodlines and Wa figures within the Silla royal house and political leadership.
The essay further sharply criticizes distortions in Korean anti-Japanese thought and historical interpretation, insisting that genuine Japan–Korea friendship cannot exist without a fair understanding of history based on official records and material evidence.

2019-03-12
The reason South Koreans discriminate against people from Jeollanam-do is that Jeollanam-do was a region ruled by the Japanese…。It was territory of the Wa kingdom…。That is what I realized.

A book-loving friend told me, “There is an article published that proves what you suddenly realized the other day,” and bought for me the Rekishitsu special supplement to the April issue of WiLL…。Countdown to the Disappearance of “South Korea” in 202X.
This issue is indispensable reading for every Japanese citizen…。
One must go at once to the nearest bookstore and buy it…。
Anyone would surely nod and say, indeed.
Those who did not know will feel profound gratitude.

It Was the Japanese Who Ruled the Ancient Korean Peninsula.
*That is the very origin of the anti-Japanese ideology of the people of the Korean Peninsula.
In other words, the Koreans are proving “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies.”

The reason South Koreans discriminate against people from Jeollanam-do is that Jeollanam-do was a region ruled by the Japanese…。It was territory of the Wa kingdom…。That is what I realized.
South Koreans know this…。
In other words, they are lying through and through…。
Unless true Japan–Korea friendship begins from South Koreans coming to know that this is an unmistakable fact = history, and something that cannot be changed, there can be no genuine friendship between Japan and Korea.
So long as they continue to deny history, South Koreans will remain forever an abnormal people…。
Perhaps they will go on living as such fools.
It goes without saying that we must no longer merely watch or stand by while these fools spread across the world lies meant to disgrace Japan.
It is only natural not merely that I harshly denounce Kenzaburo Oe and the like as human trash, but that Japan too must demand enormous damages from them as well. *

Yojiro Sato.
Writer.
Professor, College of Art, Nihon University.

Even while growing weary of the Korean people’s habit of falsehood, there are still not a few Japanese who remain convinced that much culture came to the archipelago by way of ancient Korea.
Do not be deluded by such newly coined words as “torai-jin.”

Japanese blood flowing in the Silla royal house.

Many of the Japanese words we use today were, after the Meiji era, coined when new culture entered this country and intellectuals of the time such as Amane Nishi, Chomin Nakae, and Yukichi Fukuzawa translated or freely rendered them while taking into account the overall meaning and nuance.
For that reason, there are also words that do not match the original meaning of the terms.
And words change and transform with the times.
There is the word “history.”
The character reki in history means to make things reki然, that is, to make them clear, and shi means writing.
Therefore history means making things clear through writing.
And if written characters have not been left behind, history cannot be traced back.
However, when it comes to myths, folktales, traditions, and legends, even if written words remain, that does not immediately make them history.
For something to become history, material evidence is necessary.
History is written down by the victors, and those acts are carried out by us human beings.
Moreover, human emotions are not simple.
Assertions and exaggerations of one’s own legitimacy will no doubt enter into them.
But as years pass, those who know the matter disappear, and the means of confirming it also become fewer.
It is like a police interrogation.
Even if a suspect confesses, he does not at once become the culprit.
Only when one goes to the murder scene as described in the confession, material evidence is found, and those things match, does he become the culprit.
That is how I think about historical recognition, and therefore I consider it to strike the mark to trace things from written words that remain and, furthermore, to visit the actual places.
With such feelings, I have walked among shrines for more than thirty years.
There are legends and traditions there that differ from the “official history,” and it is enjoyable to explore them.
In the relationship between the Korean Peninsula and Japan as well, one can see history from another angle different from the “official history.”
Because the Korean Peninsula and Japan are geographically close, at times they became close, at times came into conflict, and built their histories together, but in recent years Japan and South Korea’s historical perceptions have diverged markedly.
I believe the basis of democracy is openness, fairness, and impartiality, and that can also be said of historical recognition.
Each nation has its own face and self-respect, and therefore one naturally hesitates to acknowledge the other side’s claims, while if one does acknowledge them, one may distort one’s own nation’s history.
If taken too far, this leads to nationalism, and feelings of discrimination also begin to sprout.
Just as with democracy, to view overlapping history openly, fairly, and impartially leads to knowing true history.
Incidentally, it is said that the character ko, “public,” depicts a person raising both elbows.
If one raises one’s elbows, one cannot hold many things.
In other words, one is not greedy.
By contrast, the character shi, “private,” has the grain radical.
That signifies grain, and by extension means property.
To possess that property and strike others with one’s elbow is the character “private.”
In other words, it means greed.
A person driven by private interest and selfish desire cannot be a public person.
Are not today’s politicians merely private persons who repeat corruption and illegal donations, and is that not why politics does not function well.
It is also true that such rulers make history.
There must also have been people with the will to carry out good government for all the people, but when the world is peaceful and calm, history too settles down, and there is less to write down.
Whether in Japanese history or world history, what is listed there is nothing but abnormal events in society.
If one lists the Taika Reform, the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, the Meiji Restoration, and so on, one sees that politics and the world reversed themselves.
The fact that such things have been handed down in writing is what history is.
Now then, the reason we can speak of history today is also because various books remain, beginning with the Kiki.
As the official history of Korea there is the Samguk Sagi.
It is the oldest historical work of the Korean Peninsula, compiled by Kim Busik and others by imperial order of Injong, the seventeenth king of Goryeo, covering the period from the Three Kingdoms era to the end of Unified Silla.
Compilation began in 1143 and was completed two years later.
As the first officially compiled history, it is in fact very recent in date.
It came more than four hundred years after the Nihon Shoki, completed in 720.
There may have been older books before it, and it may have been written in reliance on them, but they do not appear to survive.
In the section on the fourth Silla king Talhae Isageum in the first Silla Annals of the Samguk Sagi, it is written:
“When Talhae ascended the throne, he was sixty-two years old. His surname was Seok, and his queen was Lady Ako. Talhae had once been born in the state of Tapabang. That state lay one thousand ri northeast of the Wa kingdom.”
The original text is “From the queen country, crossing the sea eastward for more than a thousand ri, there is again a country, and all of its people are of Wa stock,” and what that means is that a man from that country became the fourth king of Silla, and that his bloodline flowed through the Silla royal house generation after generation.
Also, a man named Hogong, who was the highest political commander of the time, is described as follows:
“He was originally a Wa man, and in former times came to Silla with a gourd hanging from his waist. Therefore he was called Hogong.”
Talhae appointed that man and governed politically through him, and if so, then it means that the foundations of the state of Silla were made by Japanese.
How, then, do the people of South Korea explain these descriptions saying that the origins of today’s Korea were made by Japanese.
They say, “The Emperor is a Baekje man,” and “Japan was made by Korea,” but where is the basis for that.
To be continued.