Interview: S. Korean historian warns Japan against repeating its wartime past

SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Japan's growing military ambitions and its increasingly equivocal approach to its wartime past are raising fresh concerns about the direction of the country, according to a South Korean historian.

"Even in 2026, Japan has yet to truly break away from the imperialist era, which is deeply unsettling," Kim Joo-Yong, director of the Institute of Korea-China History and Culture at Wonkwang University, told Xinhua in an interview in Iksan, South Korea.

With the 81st anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule approaching, Kim said Japan's recent moves, from expanding its military capabilities and strengthening military alliances to showing greater ambiguity over its long-standing Three Non-Nuclear Principles, should be viewed against the backdrop of its unresolved wartime history.

He warned that attempts to dilute Japan's responsibility for its past aggression could create new risks for peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

Kim was particularly critical of what he described as efforts by some Japanese political forces, including Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, to reinterpret the country's wartime history.

The issue, he argued, goes beyond the familiar debate over "historical revisionism."

"What we are seeing is closer to historical denialism," he said.

Both South Korea and China endured Japanese imperial rule and military aggression, leaving behind historical wounds that continue to shape public memory.

Kim pointed to the suppression of the March 1 Independence Movement on the Korean Peninsula in 1919 and the Nanjing Massacre in China in 1937 as two of the most devastating episodes of Japan's wartime history. He also cited the Japanese military's system of sexual slavery, commonly known as the "comfort women" issue, as a grave violation of women's rights.

Such episodes, he said, cannot be erased through changes in textbook wording or by reducing the degree of official responsibility attached to them. "Those are historical facts," Kim said. "But historical denialists are still passing distorted accounts of the past on to younger generations."

Against this backdrop, Kim welcomed the recent donation of 12 materials related to the anti-Japanese resistance to the Independence Hall of Korea by a Chinese collector.

The significance of the materials, he said, lies not only in the historical details they add, but also in what they reveal about the shared experience of the two peoples. "People in China and South Korea once stood side by side in resisting aggression and fighting for independence," Kim said, stressing that the sacrifices made during that period should neither be forgotten nor distorted.

He noted that academic research as well as exchanges between historians and public education from both countries should continue over the long term.

Kim, however, pointed out that the target of criticism is militarism and imperialism, not ordinary Japanese people.

Many ordinary Japanese, he noted, were themselves victims of the war. The central issue is the state violence that launched wars of aggression and the continuing reluctance to confront the history.

"Peace is one of the most universal values in human history," Kim said, adding that a return to militarism would bring new instability and suffering to Japan itself and to the broader Northeast Asian region.

"For Japan, the right path is to reflect deeply on its history, cherish peace and remain committed to a peaceful future," he added.