Amid escalating conflict over history between Korea and China on the one hand and Japan on the other, a memorial hall for Ahn Jung-geun, a revered Korean independence fighter, has recently opened in Harbin in northeast China. 

The 100-square-meter memorial is located at Harbin Railway Station, where Ahn assassinated Hirobumi Ito, the architect of modern Japan who played a central role in Japan’s colonization of Korea, on Oct. 26, 1909.

The commemorative hall, which displays a bust of Ahn and other materials introducing his life and thoughts, has reportedly emerged as a place of interest to Chinese people as the Korean independence martyr is widely respected in China.

It is quite unusual, however, for China to build a memorial hall for a foreigner, even if we take into account the high regard that Chinese people have for the Korean hero. It is the result of a combination of factors.

The memorial symbolizes the strength of the friendship between President Park Geun-hye and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

For years, Korea had asked China to allow it to install a monument for Ahn at the site of the assassination. But up until last year, Beijing had turned a deaf ear, apparently out of concern that such a monument would offend Japan, a generous provider of development aid to China until 2008.

Yet China changed its attitude following a summit between the two leaders in Beijing last June. At the meeting, Park asked for China’s cooperation on the matter. Xi accepted the request and went a step further by having a memorial hall built for Ahn.

The commemorative hall also reflects the two countries’ intention to warn Japan against recklessly pursuing military ambitions without first atoning for its historical wrongdoings.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been seeking to make Japan a military powerhouse. He has taken steps to build up the country’s military. He is also pushing to revise Japan’s “peace constitution” to reclaim its right to collective self-defense, which will allow Japan to exercise military force in overseas conflicts.

Abe’s military ambitions, which he euphemistically calls “proactive pacifism,” are cause for grave concern to Japans’ neighbors as they are based on a distorted view of history and denial of Japan’s past aggressions against them.

But Tokyo took the memorial hall for Ahn as a slap in the face. Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, protested China and Korea for honoring a “terrorist” who was executed for killing Japan’s four-time prime minister and the first resident-governor of Korea.

He also asserted that the coordinated move by China and Korea, based on what he claimed was a one-sided view of history, would not contribute to building peace and stability in the region.

China dismissed Japan’s protest as totally unacceptable. Qin Gang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, rightly asked, “If Ahn was a terrorist, then how should we define the 14 Japanese Class-A World War II criminals enshrined in the Yasukuni Shrine?” He called the criminals the “Nazis of Asia.”

Qin further asked, “If the establishment of a memorial hall for Ahn was a tribute to a terrorist, then how should we define Japanese leaders’ visits to the Yasukuni Shrine?”

Abe visited the shrine, a potent symbol of Japan’s past militarism, in December, sparking condemnations from China and Korea, as well as the international community.

The Japanese prime minister drew scathing criticism from around the world again last week by defending his visit to the shrine. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Abe said he visited the shrine simply to “pray for the souls of the war dead” without any intention to “hurt the feelings of the Chinese and Korean people.” He suggested he would continue to visit the shrine.

Abe’s remarks reveal his self-centered attitude. He fails to understand that his visit to the shrine simply fuels public hostility in Korea and China. He also fails to understand how his revisionist view of Japan’s wartime history fuels security concerns in neighboring countries.

As Abe continues to anger Korea and China, the United States is reportedly seeking assurances from Japan that the foolhardy Japanese prime minister won’t repeat a visit to the shrine. Washington is also pressuring Abe to reaffirm Tokyo’s previous formal apologies over World War II to ease tensions in East Asia.

U.S. officials are also reportedly asking Abe to end bickering with Korea and take steps to address the problem of the Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

What Abe needs to do is to heed the suffering of the victims of Japan’s past wrongdoings and make genuine apologies for inflicting it. If he wants to make Japan a country that can contribute to promoting peace and security in the region, he should first strive to improve ties with its neighboring countries rather than antagonizing them.

This is exactly what Ahn Jung-geun preached more than 100 years ago. Ahn was much more than a simple anti-Japan activist. He was a thinker. In his “Treatise on Peace in East Asia,” an essay he wrote before his execution in 1910, he outlined his pan-Asianism.

Ahn called for the union of the three East Asian countries ― China, Japan and Korea. He assassinated Ito because he thought that it would put an end to Japanese imperialism and pave the way for cooperation among the three countries.

The memorial for Ahn should serve as an occasion for the three countries to look back and reflect on the past so that they could start to march together toward a prosperous future.

By Yu Kun-ha 

Yu Kun-ha is chief editorial writer of The Korea Herald. He can be reached at khyu@heraldcorp.com. ―Ed.