The Japan–South Korea agreement brought only short-term diplomatic relief while deepening Japan’s long-term burden over historical issues. This article exposes how Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly avoided fighting for national honor, leaving the prime minister isolated and allowing global misinformation on the comfort women issue to spread unchecked.

2016-02-01

The Japan–South Korea agreement reached at the end of last year did indeed improve bilateral relations and made cooperation among Japan, the United States, and South Korea easier.

However, this was nothing more than a short-term diplomatic victory.

It was instead reinterpreted internationally as “Even the conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged forced recruitment and sexual slavery,” and the severity of international criticism of Japan over historical issues has not changed.

From a long-term perspective, Prime Minister Abe’s statements have caused Japan to shoulder an even heavier burden than before.

That is precisely why Japan must now cast aside optimism and assume the grave responsibility of disseminating information far more intelligently and persistently than ever before.

I infer that Prime Minister Abe was fully aware of this when he clearly stated in the Diet, in response to a question from Kyoko Nakayama of the Party for Japanese Kokoro, that “there is no fact such as sexual slavery or 200,000 victims,” and that “the government will firmly demonstrate that these claims are not factual.”

His reference to “under the involvement of the military” meant involvement—direct or indirect—in the establishment, management, and transportation related to comfort stations, and likewise did not signify forced recruitment.

Why does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not confront such crucial statements by the prime minister more seriously, especially when they are made in the most public forum of the National Diet?

Why does the ministry fail to clearly demonstrate the resolve to read the prime minister’s words as a commitment to protecting national interests, and to commit itself wholeheartedly to the battle to defend them?

Surely it does not intend to leave the prime minister standing alone on the front lines, forced to fight a solitary battle.

Chief Cabinet Secretary’s Deputy Koichi Hagiuda stated clearly that refraining from mutual criticism between Japan and South Korea and explaining objective facts are entirely separate matters.
Yet while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs fails to grasp this distinction, plans to further demean Japan continue to advance both in South Korea and around the world.

On the day of the agreement, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida expressed the understanding that South Korea would not apply to UNESCO to register the comfort women issue as part of the Memory of the World program.
However, the South Korean side flatly denied this the very next day.

China is now calling on South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, and others, and is preparing for a joint application two years from now.

Rather than being removed, comfort women statues are increasing both within South Korea and abroad.

Unless Japan fights with full force now, it will be virtually impossible to dispel the distorted image implanted against Japan—that its “true nature is as cruel as that of beasts,” as Kyoko Nakayama described.

Yet the habitual practice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to negotiate without fighting.

In the cases of Mike Honda, Asahi Shimbun, and the Coomaraswamy Report alike, the ministry offered no substantive rebuttal.

It has continued to flee from the battle fought in the name of Japan’s honor.

Does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs believe that its mission lies solely in diplomatic negotiations, and that disseminating historical facts and defending the honor of the nation are not part of its responsibilities?

If so, then the dissemination of historical truth must be entrusted to another organization.

It is the prime minister’s responsibility to establish a new structure that fights boldly and intelligently, wielding historical facts as its weapon.