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Kim Hyo-sun, Executive Editor The Hankyoreh
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By Kim Hyo-sun, Executive Editor The Hankyoreh
Seo Gyeong-sik, a second-generation Korean in Japan and a professor at Tokyo Keizai University, has published a collection of critical articles titled Somewhere Between A Refugee and Citizen (Nanmin'gwa Gungmin Sai), in which, among other writings, he includes memorials to people a few people he knew before they departed life as we know it. One such person was Ryosuke Yasue, president of Iwanami Shoten Publishers, and Seo expresses his gratitude to Yasue for his efforts in helping his elder brothers, Seo Seung and Seo Jun Sik, who had been implicated in the "Foreign Student Spy Affair." The Hankyoreh also published a piece remembering Yasue when he died in January of 1998. Seo did not learn Korean as his first language and, lacking a stable permanent residence, he was essentially considered a refugee, so his position and that of the Hankyoreh are never going to be quite the same, but there must be sentiments held in common for both to have written condolences about the same human being. The Hankyoreh celebrates its eighteenth anniversary this month. Over those eighteen years there have been a lot of changes regarding the Hankyoreh's standing in Korean society and its relationship with the people and issues it covers. Similarly, our experience with Japan has also changed. Back when we started as an eight page paper published on a corner in industrial complex in Seoul's Yangpyeong neighborhood, we were visited by a young diplomat from the Japanese embassy. I remember him as being probably either a second or third secretary, and he seemed to have come to ascertain the views of this new newspaper. Since then the Japanese embassy's channel for dialogue with the Hankyoreh has gradually advanced to first secretary, councilor, and diplomatic minister, and nowadays it is not unusual to have contact with the ambassador. The Hankyoreh enjoys greater status, which also means that it has become an established institution. Nevertheless, we have continued to open up new channels of exchange with Japan. Exchange between Korea and Japan was for a long time limited to members of the foul-smelling establishment on both sides known for collusive relationships between business and politics. The Hankyoreh has instead been promoting the expansion of exchange between members of civil society in our two countries, people not in the mainstream and outside the establishment. The Japanese who warmly welcomed the first official Hankyoreh bureau in Japan four years after we began were some of the same people who supported Korea's democracy movement during the authoritarian years and who have led the campaign for post-war compensation. Yasue was one among them. Others include professors Haruki Wada and Soji Takasaki, Kenichi Takagi, who has been virtually the lone lawyer for Sakhalin Koreans, and Rev. Tsutomu Shoji. Many individuals were labeled "anti-Korean" or "pro-North" Japanese and repeatedly denied visas to visit Korea, even after the installation of the government of Kim Young-sam. Few Koreans can appreciate what it surely felt like to have played leading roles in the campaign to abolish discrimination against Koreans in Japan and to have felt a sense of solidarity with various individuals in Korea only to be denied the right to come here.There are no small number of Japanese who felt envy and greater joy than most Koreans at the birth of the Hankyoreh and for its existence today. This may seem like embarrassing self-praise, but there were some who came to our offices saying they wanted to see the newspaper they'd heard about in real life, who came expressing great respect for all those who have made the Hankyoreh what it is today, including our regular shareholders and the general Korean public. Yayori Matsui was one such Japanese. As a journalist and feminist, Yayori organized the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal that convicted Emperor Hirohito in Tokyo in December 2000. The fact that it was the Hankyoreh that published the Korean language edition of the history textbook History That Opens The Future, jointly authored by scholars in Korea, China, and Japan in May of last year, was in part because of the Hankyoreh's status. Again there are increased tensions between Korea and Japan over the territorial rights to Dokdo, dealing with unresolved issues of recent history, and visits to worship at Yasukuni Shrine. If our two governments end up in an all out confrontation, nationalist sentiments will overwhelm everything and make it hard to have diverse dialogue between our civil societies. That would not be desirable for either country.
