Japan believed in 1984 that it was "inevitable" for its emperor to express regret over Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula when a South Korean president made a state visit to Tokyo, diplomatic documents showed Monday.

When South Korea prepared for a state visit by then President Chun Doo-hwan to Japan, topping the agenda was whether then Japanese Emperor Hirohito would make comments or apologize over Japan's wartime wrongdoing, according to the documents released by Seoul's foreign ministry.

Chun's visit to Japan on Sept. 6-8, 1984, marked the first trip by a South Korean leader to Tokyo since 1965, when the two nations normalized their diplomatic ties. Chun's visit was in return for one made by then-Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone a year earlier.

Seoul delivered its stance to Japan that the Japanese emperor should make remarks containing an expression of deep regret or an apology for Japan's colonial rule and such comments should be made officially, according to the documents.

The documents showed that Japan also believed it was "inevitable" for the emperor to make such comments at that time.

But as Tokyo claimed that the contents of the remarks were not the subject of a diplomatic compromise, Seoul took the stance of remaining calm.

"It is very regrettable that there was a miserable history between the two countries during that time of this century and such a history should not be repeated," the documents quoted then-Japanese Emperor Hirohito as saying at a welcoming dinner on Sept. 6, 1984.

It marked the first time that a Japanese emperor, a symbolic figure of Japan's colonial rule, made such comments on the shared history.

"It is meaningful that the Japanese emperor expressed regret for Japan's (wartime) history when meeting with the South Korean president," the Seoul government said at that time, according to the documents.

Every year, Seoul's foreign ministry reveals diplomatic documents that were produced more than 30 years earlier after they have been reviewed. This year's documents were mostly written in

1984 under the government of Chun, who took power through a military coup in 1979. (Yonhap)