Published on September 11, 2019.
As the conclusion of Matsumoto Koji’s essay published in the September issue of the monthly magazine WiLL, this article argues that Japan must proactively communicate the truth of Japan-Korea relations in order to break down Korea’s fiction as an anti-Japanese state.
Through Fukuzawa Yukichi, Inoue Kakugoro, Ogura Shinpei, Tomita Gisaku, the Gapsin Coup, the Sino-Japanese War, modern Korean, and Korean cultural history, it examines the need for Japanese people themselves to reclaim history.

September 11, 2019.
Being confronted with the truth strikes directly at the vital point of an anti-Japanese state built upon fiction, and this is, in fact, what hurts Korea most.
Naturally, it will deny it outright and counterattack, but that is fine.
The following is the continuation of the previous chapter.
Breaking Down the Fiction.
—Can we expect Korea to stop being anti-Japanese merely by conveying historical facts?
Matsumoto.
Being confronted with the truth strikes directly at the vital point of an anti-Japanese state built upon fiction, and this is, in fact, what hurts Korea most.
Naturally, it will deny it outright and counterattack, but that is fine.
I think such points will work like body blows, and anti-Japanese sentiment will lose the wildness and driving force it has now, and self-restraint will also begin to work.
For the time being, if something like the détente of the Cold War period, meaning a relaxation of tension in a confrontational relationship between two countries, can be realized, that would be excellent.
In any case, it is unavoidable that this will be a long struggle.
For that reason, the Japanese people also need to possess knowledge about the truth of Japan-Korea relations.
The people know far too little.
For example, the Ainu-language scholar Kindaichi Kyosuke is famous, but Ogura Shinpei, who was of the same generation and was born in the neighboring prefecture, is known by almost no one.
I think this is strange, but of course it is not the fault of the people.
After the war, a handful of Japanese scholars driven by an abnormal sense of mission continued to put a lid on the truth of Japan-Korea relations.
In order to return history to the hands of the people, it is necessary to take up, one by one, the things that have until now been deliberately ignored.
To put it symbolically, Japan should not only demand the removal of comfort women statues; Japan should build statues too.
The scene of patriots of the Independence Party such as Kim Ok-gyun surrounding Fukuzawa Yukichi and asking for his teaching, for example, would be suitable for sculpture, would it not?
Inoue Kakugoro landing on Korean soil with the Hangul type that had been handed to him by Fukuzawa can be called a major event in Korean cultural history.
That statue must express the determination and youthful passion of a young man firmly resolved to bring a modern written language to that land.
I do not know whether he actually had the type in his hand at that moment, but as a symbolic form it would be good.
And if it were that, even if it were placed in front of the Korean Embassy in Japan, perhaps it would not violate the Vienna Convention.
There are any number of themes.
Japanese soldiers dying in the Gapsin Coup while protecting the patriots of the Independence Party.
Tomita Gisaku restoring celadon.
Ogura Shinpei conducting dialect surveys in poor Korean villages.
Funakoshi Gichin, head of the Shotokan karate dojo, giving training to Lee Won-kuk, who would later become an elder of taekwondo.
Ahn Eak-tai, the composer of the Korean national anthem, holding a concert at the residence of his patron Gangwon Gwang-il, counselor at the Manchukuo Legation in Germany.
And so on.
I will not go so far as to say that statues should be made, but it is necessary to create a situation in which such scenes naturally come to the minds of many Japanese people.
All of these are facts that Japanese people should naturally know, and the present situation, in which they are collectively blindfolded, is abnormal.
The famous prewar literary historian Kim Tae-jun regarded the year of the Gabo Reform, 1894, the year the Sino-Japanese War broke out, as the watershed dividing the history of the Korean Peninsula in two.
It is an extremely plain fact that the Sino-Japanese War was the starting point of the country of the Korean people, and yet after the war even such a basic thing has not been properly accepted.
If this is not abnormal, what is?
People speak of future orientation, but what Japan now needs is to be thoroughly past-oriented.
Japan must ascertain the true nature of the distorted past, put an end to the condition in which lies strut around openly, and make free and vigorous discussion possible.
Although they rarely come out into the open, there are in fact not a few people in Korea who have doubts about the anti-Japanese myth.
If the truth of history is conveyed through various routes, one may expect some kind of resonance to arise in that land.
It may seem roundabout, but I think that is the shortcut to the normalization of Japan-Korea relations.
Matsumoto Koji.
Born in 1944.
Graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
Entered the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Served as counselor at the Embassy of Japan in the Republic of Korea, counselor at the Embassy of Japan in Australia, professor at the Graduate School of Saitama University, and in other posts.
His works related to Korea include Japan-Korea Economic Friction, Toyo Keizai Inc., and Anatomy of the Korean Economy, co-edited, Bunshindo.