[REPORTER’S COLUMN] Hiroshima, and Japan’s unfinished business

With Japan welcoming U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Hiroshima later this month, a frosty and bitter air has gripped diplomatic and academic circles in Seoul.

The White House gave reassurances that there would be no apology for the U.S. nuclear bombing 71 years ago or a major speech during his visit. Yet concerns persist that the stopover itself would be tantamount to indulging a government that has been accused of raising the specter of militarism through its revisionist moves.

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial indeed embodies one of the most appalling chapters of world history, standing in memory of about 200,000 people who lost their lives in the nuclear attacks that ended the Pacific War.

In contrast to the prevailing sentiment that the city was a victim of brutality, conspicuously absent is the reflection of what had driven the calamity.

In the lead-up to the bombing, Japan had pressed ahead with its imperialist ambitions throughout Asia, occupying Korea from 1910 and parts of China from some time later. It massacred millions of innocent civilians, forced hundreds of thousands into slave labor and sexual servitude for its military, and committed cultural cleansing and other forms of persecution.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ongoing drive to return to a “normal state” has alarmed not only his neighbors but also his own, now pacifist population. He has pushed through a constitutional amendment to lift key postwar restrictions, while riling former sex slaves and laborers by whitewashing past atrocities and refusing to compensate the victims.

Within and around his administration are dozens of officials, including cabinet ministers, who regularly worship at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. Some 100 lawmakers, from both the ruling and opposition camps, have even formed a fraternity just for the twice-a-year ritual. The temple is home to some 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including 14 Class A World War II criminals, such as Gen. Hideki Tojo, who orchestrated the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Now that Obama will soon set foot in Hiroshima, observers fret that some of the premier’s closest aides and hawks like Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda may well attempt to politically capitalize on the historic expedition thereafter. Abe is speculated to be mulling responding to its ally’s decision by traveling to Pearl Harbor.

Seoul officials sought to play down expectations but could not conceal their resentment, especially in light of a December settlement with Tokyo on the “comfort women” issue, which was a product of months of grueling negotiations but failed to satisfy many of the victims.

The Abe administration has intensified the storm by demanding the removal of a statue that portrays the victims in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul before it provides reparations. It also continues to deny the forcible nature of the sex slavery such as at the U.N., and reinforces its claim to the Dokdo Islets which it briefly seized ahead of a full-blown incorporation of the peninsula. Despite all the efforts, the two old foes apparently have a long way to go before putting their ties back on track in earnest.

With around 70,000 Koreans estimated to have suffered from the two bombings in Japan, the Foreign Ministry here is now intensifying diplomatic efforts to add a visit by Obama to the Korean memorial within Hiroshima park during his tour.

The president’s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, when announcing the trip three days ago, also painted it as an opportunity to honor the memory of “all innocents” who were lost during the war.

The envisaged journey may mean closing unfinished business for any U.S. leader given its solid alliance with Japan. But he must not forget that his Japanese counterpart has to do his own, well overdue part, and a stop at the Korean memorial could just be that reminder.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)