(EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on Aug. 15)

On Liberation Day
It's crucial to know and surmount former colonizer

No other month has brought about so much joy and sorrow on Koreans in their
modern history as August.

Today, the whole nation celebrates the 64th anniversary
of liberation from Japanese colonial rule. Two weeks later ??? on Aug. 29 ???
Korea will face "National Humiliation Day" when it was forcefully annexed by
Imperial Japan exactly 99 years ago.
Most Koreans think about their former colonizer twice a year ??? on March 1
Independence Movement Day and Aug. 15 Liberation Day ??? unless of course some
ultra-right Japanese politicians touch their historical or territorial sore
spots.
This seeming indifference to ??? and ignorance of ??? the neighboring giant is
amazing, particularly considering most of Korea's hardships and disgraces stemmed
from its loss of sovereignty to Japan. The nation was split into South and North
Korea as the price of liberation and even South Korea itself is now virtually
divided into two ??? liberals and conservatives ??? one of whose differences is
how they justify the Japanese colonial days and how much they are willing to
forgive pro-Japanese collaborators.
But none of these should revive anti-Japanese sentiments here, because the time
has long past to let bygones be bygones. Of course, Japan ??? at least its
establishment ??? has been far from repenting their military past and wartime
atrocities.
One needs to look no further than Tokyo's refusal to unequivocally admit and
apologize for the "comfort women," or World War II sex slaves, despite
resolutions to that effect adopted by dozens of countries, including the United
States, Canada and the Netherlands. As U.S. Congressman Mike Honda, himself a
third-generation Japanese-American, points out, Japan's apology "lacks true
depth." Japanese leaders may think time will wash away their past war crimes, but
time will only strip away opportunities for forgiveness, as all victims pass
away.
Still, we can't help but notice Rep. Honda, though a U.S. citizen, is of Japanese
descent, a good illustration of "good Japanese" opposed to "bad Japanese," as
seen from the viewpoint of its neighbors. Likewise, it was some Japanese private
groups that worked hardest to compensate for Korean victims of the Pacific War, a
job even the Korean government sometimes neglects.
But there are only two groups of Koreans regarding Japan ??? pro-Japanese and
anti-Japanese. Most of their reactions to Japanese challenges in historical and
territorial issues are also mainly emotional and transitional. This comes in
stark contrast with the Japanese tactics, marked by quiet accumulation of data
and development of logic, while ceaselessly testing Koreans' response to renewed
provocation. A case in point is the bilateral brawl on the Dokdo islets.
President Lee Myung-bak was right to say the two neighbors should not be bound by
the past too much, but seek a future-oriented relationship. But the future comes
only to those who don't cease to prepare for it ??? in diplomacy, too. We doubt
the Lee administration ??? or any of its predecessors for that matter ??? have
made efforts to know Japan better than Japan knows Korea. To borrow from the
Israeli people's "forgive but not forget" axiom, Koreans seem not to forgive but
forget.
Small surprise then that Korea's trade deficit over the past decade alone has
reached 200 trillion won ($160 billion), more than eclipsing its surplus with the
rest of the world.
(END)