ABSTRACT
The victimization of Koreans during the Second World War attracted local, regional, and global solidarity in the 1990s, through which it was given a much more complex and human face. Among victims, a supportive civil society, and the governments of Japan and Korea, a more thorough and systematic approach to coming to terms with the past – kwagS ch’Sngsan or ySksa baroseugi in Korean terms – has emerged. The progressive wing of the South Korean government, growing civic activist groups, and international human rights organizations coalesced in the cause. They learned that reconciliation is a two-way process that emerges from a joint effort by the victimizers and the victimized. The litigation tactics of the 1990s, while seemingly not successful in establishing the legal culpability of imperial Japan, nonetheless provided valuable publicity and education on issues such as universal human rights, the rehabilitation of victims’ violated rights, and the redress of historical injustice between Japan and its Asian neighbors. Legal activism also formed public platforms for civic activism in both societies, which are now Internet-based, transnational, and crosscultural. These are all valuable assets for Asian regional cooperation and coexistence.
