South Korea expresses ‘deep regret’ to Japan over history textbooks – Reuters

“Stab in the back”, “The Japanese will never change and compromise”, “And why were all these concessions ours? – South Korean publications are now full of such publications, which comment on the content of new school textbooks on the history of Japan, approved by the government of the Land of the Rising Sun. As part of the benefits, the mention that during World War II workers from Korea and China were “compulsorily mobilized” to work at Japanese events is gone. Instead, the neutral expression “participated in the work” is used. Moreover, the thesis that Japan possesses the Dokdo (Takeshima) archipelago located in the Eastern (Japanese) Sea, which is under the control of South Korea and which the Koreans regard as their own, is repeated again and again and again. even more actively.
All this happened in the context of the South Korean-Japanese summit signed in Tokyo on March 16-17, where President of the Republic of Korea Yun Seok-yeol and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to improve relations. bilateral. At the same time, Seoul made important concessions by proposing an indirect system of compensation for Korean workers forcibly mobilized in Japanese companies. Compensation will not be paid by Japanese companies, which they and the Japanese government have adamantly opposed, but by Korean companies, which received subsidies from Tokyo when paying post-war reparations. Furthermore, Japan’s prime minister directly refused to personally apologize for past crimes, saying only that he supported the government’s statement in 1998, in which deep regret was expressed on behalf of Japan. These agreements, which the South Korean government and president have diligently heralded as a “diplomatic breakthrough”, have met with a negative reaction in the country due to serious unilateral concessions.However, it turns out that the critics were right, because Japan has once again demonstrated that it has simply “eaten up” Korea’s concessions, while itself remaining on its previous position. ROK President Yoon Sok-yeol, who urged his fellow citizens on the need for compromise, called his moves “forward-looking” and “beneficial for Seoul,” he said. acts as a blow to the image. “It is significant that Japan has not changed its approach in any way, despite the big concessions that Seoul has made… It is really a very big disappointment from the point of view of the Koreans, who were certainly hoping for reciprocal steps from Japan . “The Korea Times quoted University professor Yang Gi Ho Songgonhoe.
A wave of criticism against Japan and its crimes, as well as Tokyo’s official assessment of historical facts, began again in society and the media. On Tuesday, the Minister Counselor of the Japanese Embassy was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, to whom the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed his deep regrets about the content of history textbooks. “Japan should come to terms with what it has done in the past and educate its younger generation more responsibly…Japan must keep its promises to support previous apologies,” a spokesperson told reporters. of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry.Experts note, however, that the South Korean government, which has made concessions in an effort to develop ties with the United States and strengthen economic cooperation with Japan, is unlikely to modify the agreements in any way. , not to mention abandoning them. “The pro-Japan policy of the Yun government, which is actively supported by Washington, will not change. Most likely, they will just try to slow down this unpleasant incident, hoping that the public will quickly forget about it, as the agreements signed with Tokyo will remain in force,” he told Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a local political scientist on condition of anonymity.