March 4, 2018
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
◆ On November 16, 2001, an international academic conference was held under the auspices of the Asia Center at Harvard University in the United States.
The conference was reportedly prepared under the leadership of Korean scholars with support from the Korea Foundation, an organization affiliated with the South Korean government.
The South Korean side intended to establish the argument that the Japan-Korea annexation was illegal on the international stage.
Scholars from the United States, Britain, South Korea, and Japan gathered there for a debate.
The South Korean side began by arguing that Japan had annexed Korea illegally.
However, Professor J. Crawford of Cambridge University, an expert in international law, made a forceful argument for its legality.
He argued that “it was common at the time for neighboring countries, from the standpoint of international order, to incorporate a country that could not survive on its own, and the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was not illegal under international law.”
Naturally, the South Korean side strongly objected, arguing that “it was forced upon Korea by Japan,” but the professor reportedly rebuked them, saying, “The argument that something is illegal because it was forced dates from after the First World War; it would not have been an issue at the time.” As a result, the South Korean participants are said to have left with their shoulders slumped in dejection.” P. 106
It has finally become clear to the Japanese people that our Japan is surrounded by a troubling group of states: North Korea, the abductor; South Korea, the island thief; and China, the sea thief.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
◆ East Asia’s “Anti-Japan” Triangle (Bunshun Shinsho), by Hiroshi Furuta