문화재에 관한 한일 간의 갈등 ―그 역사와 인식의 차이 ―

Abstract

Most of cultural properties had disappeared during Japan's occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945. From the late 19th century until Japan's defeat in World War Ⅱ, Japanese colonial officials and private collectors amassed at least 100,000 artifacts and cultural treasures from all corners of the Korean peninsula. Japanese looters and government-sponsored archaeologists and art historians, even in the government itself violated the tombs of Korea's Kings and Queens, plundering finely worked all kind of artifacts. They carted off stone carvings, pagodas and reliquary caskets from Buddhist temples and removed tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts from libraries. But the story of Japan's plunder of Asia and in particular of Korea, where the worst abuses occurred, remains relatively unexplored. While conspiracy theories of hidden troves of gold looted by the Japanese abound, there has been little serious of stolen art and artifacts. One reason for this “little seriousness”: postwar discussions of Japanese cultural restitution were rapidly superseded by political considerations. A key opponent of Japanese restitution was General Douglas MacArthur. The issue of missing cultural property remains unsettled and emotive thorn in the tortured relationship between Japan and both Koreas. The North has put the return of stolen cultural property high on the agenda in its talks with Japan on normalizing relations. Even after decades of relatively cordial political relations between the South Korean and Japanese, the lack of mutual understanding is staggering. While the Koreans see the Japanese as a ruthless wartime occupation force even who tried to wipe out Korean culture, the Japanese contend they rediscovered and helped to preserve the glories of ancient Korea which the Koreans had long forgotten. The issue of restitution surfaced again in 1965, but ― under the dictator Park Chung Hee who wanted to build its economy in South Korea ― retrieving artifacts was not a high priority. After the treaty to normalize relations, the Japanese returned only a thousand items and argues now that the treaty put an end to any Korean claims against Japan, cultural or otherwise. Given such official intransigence, the restitution of cultural property still remains as a hot issue and raises many problems for the proper relationship between Korea and Japan.