How Bias Forms History

This past week, Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of Japan, visited the United States. Major publications of the United States—The Economist, The Guardian, Forbes—wrote that the prime minister’s visit strengthened the ties between America and Japan and that Japan seems to be penitent of its wartime actions. In light of Abe’s visit, even President Obama said that “adversaries in history can be overcome.” However, when Abe visited Harvard University and was directly confronted with the issue of comfort women—or rather wartime sex slaves—of Korea by one of the university students, Joseph Choe, Abe avoided Choe’s question. Although Abe’s visit gained attention and coverage from major media sources this past week, Abe’s clear circumvention at Harvard was not covered by any of the major publications. It seemed that major media sources tried to reshape the image of Shinzo Abe.

“Comfort women” were teenage girls forced to serve in the Japanese military during the second World War. Two hundred thousand women in Korea alone were forced into Japanese military camps, and currently only 54 of them are alive. Even at this moment, the number is decreasing.

The conflict in history between Japan and other Asian countries date back to years ago, and Korea in particular, the 1970s. Korea was in its phase of rapid economic development known as the “Miracle of the Han River” and desperately needed foreign investment. The Japanese offered to give Korea funds; in exchange, Korea would not talk about its colonization anymore. Korea’s president at that time, Park Jung Hee, accepted Japan’s offer. This decision is flawed because first, Park Jung Hee was a dictator. His interests did not accurately represent the general interest of the country, because his single goal was rapid economic development. Second, even if that contract still stands, going over one’s history and accepting mistakes is crucial for a country’s development.

Abe was not put on the spotlight until he visited the Harvard Kennedy School and faced with the direct word “sex slavery,” by Choe. Abe had previously given a lecture to the students about “Abenomics” and the economic ties between Japan and the United States. The questions that were asked after the lecture naturally tilted toward government policy and economics, mostly friendly and amicable towards Japan’s stance. Choe was the fourth student to raise a question to Abe, and he directly confronted the Japanese prime minister by saying, “even though there is clear evidence that the Japanese government was involved with sex slavery at that time, why is there no response from the government?” In response to his question, Abe tried to somewhat emphathize with the comfort women by saying that “it was a tragic event and it hurts me to think about it,” but never said a formal apology. In fact, he defended Japan’s actions by stating that they spent twenty million dollars last year in effort to decrease sexual assault for women, and that they were a protector of womens’ rights.

Korea and Japan are considered somewhat similar by the West, but we have a totally different historical background. Just until sixty years ago, one was an attacker, and one was a colony of the other. Perhaps this is why it is hard to find unity among East Asian nations. Various countries except for those of East Asia have unified interconntinental organizations. For example, European countries have the European Union and Southeast Asia has ASEAN. Europe similarly had problems regarding history because of Nazi Germany and the Second World War, but Germany has proven to the world that they strongly regret its actions in World War II and directly apologized to the victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. Japan has never shown regret or an apologetic attitude toward East Asian countries.

The bigger problem with Japan is that the government is teaching the current students a flawed history. They intentionally leave out the parts where they did wrong, or manipulate history in their favor. For example, they change the part where they invaded Korea into “we went into Korea by Koreans’ will to inform them about civilization.” The Japanese people currently have a blurred version of history far from the truth. There is not much time left. Only 54 people are alive to tell what exactly happened during Japanese rule. And the Japanese government should make an attempt to listen.

Abe’s response to Choe’s question was disappointing. Of course, the Japanese government had never taken a stance on this historical issue, so there was no way they would suddenly make a formal apology now. However, answering that question by stating the budget used to decrease sexual assault was disppointing, because Japan, as a nation, or at least the government officials leading the nation, is trying to move forward without cleaning up the past. It was contradictory how they never admitted the fact that they treated their colonies’ women as slaves, but they are currently promoting womens’ rights. If they are so proud of themselves for trying to protect womens’ rights, why can’t they admit the fact that they did wrong?

We don’t want monetary compensation—that was all done in the past and irrelevant to the main point of this issue. I’m sure many Koreans feel the same way. What we want is a formal apology by the Japanese government, admitting the truth and expressing remorse and an official “sorry” for the actions they committed in the past. Of course, the current generation is not responsible for what their ancestors did during the Second World War. However, that reason did not stop the Germans from giving an apology. What happened in the past does not stay in the past. Rather, it has a bigger effect on the present, which is why accepting the past—whether it be an individual or a government scale—is so important.

I remember someone in assembly saying, “If we want to promote ‘youth from every quarter,’ then our history documents should also be from every quarter.” A nation is a group of people that remembers the same things and forget the same things. This is clearly proven in the United States’ capitol. The mall in Washington D.C demonstrates everything that Americans consider proud in their history—particularly their technological advancement in the field of space exploration. However, we cannot see any historical record or trace of slavery or the other inhumane things that happened in American history. Of course, D.C. is the capitol, and it draws a lot of attention, which is why only good representations of America are being portrayed there. Nevertheless, it is only when we accept history—both the good and the bad sides of it—we can fully move on. I hope Japan recognizes this fact soon.