ABSTRACT
In May of 1990, the former President of the Republic of Korea, Roh Tae-woo, followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Chun Doo-hwan, and visited Japan as a guest of the Japanese state, banqueting with the Japanese Emperor. During his speech to the assembled notables of Japan’s political, economic, and social worlds, President Roh Tae-woo welcomed the new Japanese era, Heisei, as a time when the Cold War had ended and Korea and Japan had a particular leadership role to play for the new age. But, he cautioned, Japan had to re-assess realistically its own history to appreciate the sentiment of its neighbors. As an example of sensitivity towards others, particularly Japanese sensitivity towards Korea, the President recounted the following:
[Some] two hundred and seventy years ago, Amenomori Hdshe, concerned with Korean relations, left to [you], as an article of faith, [the injunction to practice] “sincere relations [with Korea.]” His opposite number in Korea, Hynn Tnk-yun, built the Snngsin-dang (Hall of Truth and Sincerity) in Tongnae and entertained Japanese Envoys. Similarly, with that sort of mutual respect and understanding, the relations between our two countries hereafter should develop [based on] the identification of mutual ideals and interests.2
