Japan and Korea: The Political Dimension (Hoover Institution Press Publication)

Events of recent years have revealed that the practical problem of Japanese-Korean diplomacy are complicated by underlying emotional issues. A proposed change in Japanese textbooks, which would have subdued criticism of imperial expansion into the Asian continent, elicited protests in Korea as well as China. In Japan, scholarly research into the Korean contribution to Japanese culture and history has sparked both support and opposition. Such seemingly peripheral issues played a significant role in the loan negotiations of 1981-1883, and, unless resolved, threaten to hinder future cooperation between these two peoples. Yet Japanese-South Korean cooperation has become increasingly important in the 1980s as the United States has pressured Japan and the ROK to assume more responsibility for their own defense. This book analyzes the political, psychological, and economic differences that divide two neighbors with common geopolitical concerns. Success or failure! in resolving those differences will, to a large degree, determine the nature of East Asia in the twenty first century.