Published : Feb. 8, 2017 - 17:32
At my neighborhood Starbucks, there’s a Japanese barista who always manages to say a few words of Korean to me. It’s a simple but gratifying gesture, and I always enjoy the short exchange.
But he is one of the few people I meet who goes out of his way to be nice to Koreans. I hear that only a few years ago, during the “Hallyu boom,” there were many more like him, and that Japanese people were eager to learn and speak Korean and invited Korean celebrities on TV and for concerts. At the time, anything Korean was viewed with interest and affection.
The times seem to have changed considerably since then. Yesterday, a man on the subway told me and my friend to quiet down. Right across from me were a French couple conversing quite loudly. The day before, a woman called me “obnoxious” for neglecting to put a shirt back after accidentally causing it to slip off a hanger in a department store. Recognizing my nationality, she added she would never understand the “Korean way.”
Many Koreans living in Japan say the increasingly hostile mood is palpable. It is against this backdrop that relations between Korea and Japan are becoming more frayed than before. One of the key points of contention are, what else, but the euphemistically named “comfort women.”
Seoul is trying to back out of an already done deal, and Tokyo is furious. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe went as far as to berate Seoul for accepting the money in the deal that the two nations signed in December 2015 to wrap up the comfort women issue, in “a final and irreversible resolution.”
Japan’s opinion on the matter and its regard toward Korea appear to be at one of its lowest points right now. People don’t even bother to shield their contempt, and the scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye is making it even easier to look down on Korea.
My question is this, to the Koreans who want Seoul to retract the deal, who are they doing it for? Are they doing it for the comfort women, for politicians, or for themselves?
In a recent interview with the Japanese press, one of the Korean comfort women anonymously said she honestly wishes this nightmare would just end. She has no desire to push ahead with any kind of crusade -- all she wants is to put this all behind her.
She said even money was not an issue, because regardless of how much the Seoul government gets from any deal with Japan, many of the comfort women won’t see a penny of it. That’s because due to the shame and social stigma attached to the government funds offered to them, many of these former sex slaves chose to live anonymously and out of the administrative eye. They also don’t want to hurt their families by revealing their past.
Instead of taking part in the “media circus,” she said all she wants is to get on with her life and die in peace.
So are we doing her a favor? Or are we doing a favor to the politicians who are anxious to use the deteriorating ties with Japan to their advantage – by stimulating the patriotic spirit of the nation’s most conventional right-wing groups?
Then there is Korea’s reputation in international society. If Seoul had not wanted to sign such an agreement, it should not have. To back out now would be reneging on an official, bilateral contract that had been signed, sealed and delivered. What does that say about South Korea’s credibility? Who would look to sign anything with a country that has so much trouble achieving consensus, even after a deal is sealed.
Korea also keeps forgetting about Japan’s status in the world. It is a G-7 country that is globally the third-largest economy. Bad relations with this country will have lasting, physical and material repercussions on Korea.
One example is the suspended currency swap deal talks. Tokyo broke them off, criticizing Seoul for letting a statue symbolizing the victims of Japan’s wartime sex slavery be installed near a Japanese consulate in Busan.
Policymakers are downplaying the issue, but experts have warned the fallout from a lack of a currency swap deal could have an impact on Korea’s currency and financial market stability. The Japanese yen is considered one of the world’s most stable currencies, next to the US dollar.
As a Korean living in Japan, it’s a struggle to settle one’s temper when feeling discriminated against, albeit subtly. In fact, the more subtle it is, the more annoying. But at the same time, we know there is nothing we can do about it. And that Korea and Koreans have nothing to gain from ruining relations with one of the world’s most powerful nations, which has backing from the US and China.
When I started to get upset at the man on the subway who snapped at me to keep it down, my Korean friend -- who has lived in Japan for more than a decade -- quietly asked me to hold my tongue. “Let’s not be who they think we are,” she said.
Yes, let’s not.
By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)
(Tokyo Column)