“이것은 역사갈등이 아니다!” : 한일관계의 심층

Abstract

On October 30, 2018, the Korean Supreme Court ruled that Japanese companies should compensate victims forcedly labor󰠏mobilized by Japanese state during the 2nd World War. On July 4, 2019, the Japanese government implemented measures to regulate exports of core components of semiconductors. Since then, Korea󰠏Japan relations have been deteriorating. The so󰠏called “two󰠏track policy”, which dealt with economic cooperation separately from historical conflict, has become no longer available. There happened a new phenomenon, such as embarking on economic sanctions on a pretext of historical conflicts between Korea and Japan, and the economic sanctions instigating historical conflicts. This study suggests that the current situation cannot be understood only by the traditional framework of historical conflicts, and that the cause should be sought from the long󰠏term changes in the economic relations between Korea and Japan. Unlike in 1965, when the Korea󰠏Japan Agreement was signed, Korea in 2020 became a potential challenger to Japan politically and economically. Not only Japanese political leaders’ group but also the mass are sensitively responded to the political and economic coupling of Korea and China. Therefore, it is necessary to look at the recent conflicts between Korea and Japan on the viewpoint of ‘decreasing Japan’ (becoming smaller country) and its emotional response rather than the dimension of historical conflicts. Citizens of Korea and Japan should work together to solve a problem: how to control and manage rising nationalist sentiments among the Korean people and boiling feelings of revenge among the Japanese people in the new political and economic conditions.