Why Japan Never Apologizes to South Korea for Its Crimes from the Colonization Period

Having spent much of my youth years in South Korea, I must admit that my understanding of history is from the perspective of a South Korean. And, from that perspective, it has always been clear to me that the Japanese committed several unforgivable crimes during its colonization of Korea. The surviving forced laborers and the comfort women who are currently seeking an apology from the Japanese government are living proof of such crimes. There are also other artifacts and documents from then that backup the victims’ stories. Yet, the Japanese have apologized and have no plan to ever apologize. Why they don’t apologize was a mystery for years! I knew that I couldn’t find the answer by thinking about the matter from the same perspective. So, I thought of a completely different approach, which wasn’t impossible but admittedly tedious.

In my new approach, I first set out to learn about the holocaust and the Germans’ apologies to the Jews. I then forced myself to understand the Japanese from a Japanese person’s perspective. Finally, I juxtaposed the two countries and looked for differences that could explain why the Japanese never apologized but the Germans did. It seems that my efforts were not wasted, for I now think I know at least one reason for Japan’s unapologetic attitude.

Upon my analysis of Japan and Germany’s histories, I noticed that religion was one crucial difference between the two countries.

In Germany, the dominant religions are Catholicism, which preaches that committing sins and not repenting will cast one’s soul into an eternal hell. This provided the Germans with enough incentive to atone and apologize to the Jews for causing the holocaust. For the Germans, even if it would require admitting their guilt, it is better to get punished than suffer infinitely in their afterlife.

In Japan, however, Catholicism has no place. After the Catholic missionaries, now known as “The Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan,” were crucified on February 5, 1597, Catholicism gained a foothold in Japan. Also, while Japan has Shinto, an indigenous polytheistic religion, and Buddhism, an imported religion, they don’t preach “a hell” or “a heaven” based on one’s deeds. Rather, the two religions provide only guidelines for ways of life and have little bearing the everyday life of the Japanese. Hence, the predominant religions do not provide the Japanese with an incentive to repent their sins and/or apologize to the South Koreans.

Despite having found out the difference in the two countries’ religious beliefs, I was still lost, however. There were plenty of evidence and even living proof that the Japanese committed many crimes. So, why wouldn’t they acknowledge the forced laborers and the comfort women and just apologize? The surviving victims, who are now old and weak, initially did not seek huge monetary compensations but only an apology. So, why can’t the Japanese government just say sorry? In my research, I found two deterrents that prevented the Japanese from making such an apology.

One deterrent is the Japanese belief in the Bushido, a strict moral code for warriors, or samurais, which originated during the Edo period (1603–1868) and is still used in the social and economic organization today. Bushido values sincerity, frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor, but of these, the most important is honor, which must be maintained at all cost. Once the honor is disgraced, the only way for one to redeem oneself is by performing a seppuku, a form of suicide in which one cuts across one’s abdomen with a sword and kills oneself through disembowelment. In extreme terms, for the Japanese, acknowledging their crimes equates to dishonoring themselves and they could only redeem their honor by killing themselves, which would deter the Japanese from admitting their guilt. Hence, the Japanese history textbooks, rather than acknowledge their crimes, glorify Japan as a country that helped, rather than rape, South Korea’s economic development.

The other deterrent is the lies, such as those in the Japanese history textbooks, that the Japanese created to hide their crimes. In glorifying Japan as a magnanimous country that helped to expedite South Korea’s economic development, the Japanese have painted South Korea as a country that is composed of people who are unappreciative of Japan’s benevolence. Hence, despite their predecessors’ having committed horrific crimes, most Japanese people today are unaware of the truth and only learn to hate and condescend towards the South Korean. The Japanese would never want to apologize to those whom they perceive as unappreciative and inferior. As for the Japanese government, it cannot get caught with its lies in front of its citizens. It must continue its lies and must keep the truth a secret.