ABSTRACT
The year 2015 marked seventy years since the end of World War Two. In the decades since its liberation from Japanese rule, the Korean Peninsula has been divided into two nation-states. In both Koreas, attempts have been made to settle the domestic social and political legacies of Japanese colonialism, and this division along historical lines of interpretation concerning those who “collaborated” or were pro-Japanese during this era remains a political tinderbox. In the ideological, cultural, and institutional realms it is clear that the decolonization of the Korean Peninsula remains incomplete. This same year, 2015, also commemorates a half-century of normalization of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan. Even so, however, it is not rare for friction to arise between these two nations even today. This occurs, for example, in the way that World War Two is commemorated in Japan or presented in history textbooks, how the meaning of Japan’s colonial legacy on the Korean Peninsula is explained, and how the “comfort women” issue is understood. During the Cold War, these unresolved issues were largely shelved for a variety of political and strategic reasons, but they have emerged with renewed vigor in the decades since, along with further disputes about territorial boundaries. Relations between North Korea and Japan remain arguably even more distant, marked by distrust, fear, and outright disdain, and diplomatic relations have yet to be restored. Normalization talks between Japan and North Korea began in 1991, but progress has been slow and twice they have completely collapsed. Seventy years after the war’s end, it would not be an exaggeration to say that half of the legacy of Japan’s colonial past in the Korean Peninsula continues to haunt the present.
