Japanese-South Korean Textbook Talks: The Necessity of Political Leadership

One of the most notorious issues haunting Japanese-South Korean relations is the controversy over textbook depictions of Japan’s colonial rule and war atrocities in the early twentieth century. In recent years, a number of bilateral projects have been launched on both the non-governmental and governmental level, seeking to narrow divergences in historical perceptions. Focusing on the Japanese side, this article assesses the impact of recent non-governmental textbook projects, arguing that these projects—while important and encouraging—have a limited capacity to prompt changes in educational policies. Textbook talks officially endorsed by the government and supported by a critical mass of politicians remain indispensable to promote a transnational reconstruction of the past. Based on a comparison between Japanese-South Korean and German-Polish government-backed talks, the paper identifies how decision makers can help foster an atmosphere conducive to the work of bilateral textbook commissions. It concludes that a key requirement for successful talks is that politicians, utilizing a variety of measures, pursue the dual goal of demonstrating high-level commitment to the talks and shielding the work proactively from nationalistic pressures. In contrast to their German counterparts, Japanese political elites have so far failed to pursue such an environment, casting doubts about progress in the textbook dispute for the foreseeable future.

日本韓國教科書對話：政治領導的必要性

困擾日韓關係的最臭名昭著的問題是關於教科書中對二十世紀初日本殖民統治和戰爭暴行的描述。今年來開展的一系列的非政府的和政府性質的雙邊項目試圖縮小雙方對歷史的迥異認識之間的差距。本文著重討論了日本方面的呶力， 評估了其近來的非政府教科書項目的影響。本文認為，這些項目雖然很重要並具積極意義，卻在促進教育政策變革方面建樹有限。得到政府官方認可並有足夠數量政治家支持的教科書對話是推進對過去進行跨國重構的不可或缺的一部分。 通過比較日韓之間和德國波蘭之間由政府支持的對話，本文探討決策者如何幫助創造對雙邊教科書項目運作有利的氣氛。本文認為，使這種對話得以成功的一個關鍵因素是政治家要利用各種手段達到兩個目標： 即對對話顯示出高度的承諾，並防止該項工作遭受民族主義的壓力。與其德國同僚相比，日本的政治精英到目前為止未能創造出這一環境，因而使教科書爭論的前景不容樂觀。

Translated from English by Xin Huang