History of Japan–Korea relations
For over 15 centuries, the relationship between Japan and Korea was one of both cultural and economic exchanges, as well as political and military confrontations. During the ancient era, exchanges of cultures and ideas between Japan and mainland Asia were common through migration, diplomatic contact and trade between the two. Tensions over historic military confrontations still affect modern relations. The Mimizuka monument near Kyoto enshrining the mutilated body parts of at least 38,000 Koreans killed during the Japanese invasions of Korea from 1592 to 1598 illustrates this effect.
Since 1945, relations involve three states: North Korea, South Korea and Japan. Japan took control of Korea with the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty of 1910. When Japan was defeated in World War II, Soviet forces took control of the North, and American forces took control of the South, with the 38th parallel as the agreed-upon dividing. South Korea was independent as of August 15, 1945, and North Korea as of September 9, 1945. In June 1950, North Korea invaded and almost conquered South Korea, but was driven back by the United Nations command, leading South Korean, American, European and international forces. North Korea was nearly captured, with the United Nations intending to roll back Communism there. However, China entered the war, pushed the UN forces out of North Korea, and a military stalemate resulted along the lines similar to the 38th parallel. An armistice was agreed on in 1953, which is still in effect, and the cease-fire line of that year remains the boundary between North and South.
Diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea were established in 1965. In the early 2000s, the Japanese–South Korean relationship soured when the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the Yasukuni Shrine, controversial for its inclusion of war criminals, every year during his term. Furthermore, conflicts continue to exist over claims of the Liancourt Rocks – a group of small islets near the Korean island of Ulleungdo and the Japanese Oki Islands. Bilaterally and through the Six-Party Talks, North Korea and Japan continue to discuss the case of Japanese citizens abducted by the North Korean government during the 1970s and 1980s, although there are no existent diplomatic relations between the two; Japan does not recognize North Korea as a sovereign state.
In recent decades, disputes over history and history textbooks have soured relations between Japan and the two Koreas. The debate has exacerbated nationalist pride and animosity, as teachers and professors become soldiers in an intellectual war over events more than a half-century old or even two millennia older. Efforts to reach compromise agreements have broken down. Meanwhile, a much less controversial, less politicized and more study-oriented historiography has flourished in Western nations. In 2013, polls reported that 94% of Koreans believe Japan "Feels no regret for its past wrongdoings," while 63% of Japanese state that Korean demands for Japanese apologies are "Incomprehensible".
Pre-modern period
Relations between Korea and Japan go back at least two millennia. After the 3rd century BC, people from the Three Kingdoms and Gaya in the Korean Peninsula, started to move southwards into the Kyushu region of Japan. Knowledge of mainland Asia was transmitted via Korea to Japan. According to the description of the Book of Wei, Yamatai-Koku kingdom in Japan and Four Commanderies of Han had diplomatic exchanges around the 3rd century. There are indications of cross-border political influence, but with varying accounts as to in which direction the political influence flowed. Buddhism was introduced to Japan from this Korean monarchy. By the time of the Three Kingdoms period of Korea, Baekje and Gaya sent their princes to the Yamato court in exchange for military support to continue their already-begun military campaigns around 400. Historians believe that by the 4th and 5th centuries AD, Baekje and Gaya would regularly send economical, cultural, and technological aid to Japan in exchange for military and political aid, as the Yamato court desired technological progress and cultural advancement while Baekje and the Gaya states desired Japan's military aid in their wars against Silla and Goguryeo. Records of Baekje missions to Japan and Japanese missions to Baekje help reinforce this position, as many of Baekje's missions to Japan involved sending specialists, Buddhist goods, various books and medicines while Japan regularly sent thousands of soldiers, hundreds of horses and scores of ships. Later on, Baekje began to lose its status as the most favored partner of Japan, in part due to its relative decline compared to Goguryeo and Silla as well as the subsequent unification of China by the Sui Dynasty.Uija, the last king of Baekje, formed an alliance with Japan and made Prince Buyeo Pung and King Zenko stay there as their guests. In 660, Baekje fell when it was attacked by Silla, who was in alliance with Tang China. The fall of Baekje was met with an immediate response by the Yamato Court, which considered Baekje a close ally and related country due to their long history of alliance as well as their shared history of intermarriage between the ruling classes and monarchs of their respective nations. The loss of their key ally was so great that Empress Saimei said:
"We learn that in ancient times there have been cases of troops being asked for and assistance requested: to render help in emergencies, and to restore that which has been interrupted, is a manifestation of ordinary principles of right. The Land of Baekje, in its extremity, has come to us and placed itself in our hands. Our resolution in this matter is unshakable. We will give separate orders to our generals to advance at the same time by a hundred routes."
Former generals of Baekje, including Gwisil Boksin, asked Japan to return Prince Buyeo Pung and requested military aid. Japan responded by deploying tens of thousands of troops onto the Korean Peninsula and some estimates claimed that as many as a thousand Japanese ships were dispatched to support Baekje. In 663, Japan, supporting Baekje, was defeated by the allied forces of Silla and Tang China in the Korean Peninsula, and the restoration of Baekje ended up in failure. After the fall of Baekje, Japan took in many Baekje Korean refugees who were mainly craftspeople, architects, and scholars who played a major role in the social development of Japan during that period. While at the same time hostility between Japan and Silla escalated. Empress Jitō honored King Zenko by giving him the hereditary title of Kudara no Konikishi and allowed him to pass on his royal lineage to future generations. According to the Shoku Nihongi, Takano no Niigasa came from a background of the naturalized clansmen Yamato no Fuhito clan and was a 10th-generation descendant of King Muryeong of Baekje. She was chosen as a wife for Emperor Kōnin and subsequently became the mother of Emperor Kanmu.
Japan has had official contact with the Chinese since the 7th to 8th centuries. Chinese culture was introduced to Japan via the Korean Peninsula, but the Korean value slumped when Chinese culture was introduced directly via Japanese missions to Tang China. Emperor Kanmu severed diplomatic relations with Silla in 799. From the early 9th–11th centuries, Japanese pirates plundered the southern region of Korean Peninsula and Korea-Japan relations deteriorated.
During the middle Kamakura period, Japan suffered from the invasions of the Mongol Empire, which was then dominant on the continent, and its partner kingdom, the Goryeo of Korea. The History of Yuan states that the Mongol invasions of Japan began with King Chungnyeol of Goryeo "persistently recommending an expedition to the east to Yuan's emperor in order to force Japan to become its vassal state." In order to invade Japan, the Mongols ordered the Korean king to manufacture 1,000 warships. Additionally, the Japanese saying, "The Mongol and Goguryeo demons are coming! " has its origins back during the time of the Mongol Invasions of Japan. Kokuri is the name of Goguryeo in Japanese and was used as a reference towards Goryeo soldiers that accompanied the Mongols during the invasions.
Early modern period (16th – 18th centuries)
During the Muromachi and Sengoku periods in Japan, pirates sailing from Kyushu attacked ships along the coasts of Korea and China and were feared as Japanese pirates. Beginning in the 15th century, feudal lords from Tsushima established three treaty ports on Korea's southern coast, which were then known as waegwan, as enclaves for Japanese envoys and merchants to freely trade at.Imjin War (1592–1598)
plan to conquer China was the catalyst. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had unified Japan, ordered daimyōs all over the nation to the conquest of Ming Dynasty China by way of Korea, after the latter's refusal to allow Japanese forces to march through, while King Seonjo alerted its Chinese counterpart regarding the Japanese threat. Japan completed the occupation of the Korean peninsula in three months, thus starting the Imjin war. The Korean king Seonjo first relocated to Pyongyang, then Uiju. In 1593, The Ming Chinese emperor intervened by sending his army and recaptured Pyongyang. However, the Japanese military were able to gather in Seoul and successfully counterattacked China. Although during the war Korean land forces lost most of their land battles, the Korean Navy won almost all the naval battles with decisive defeats of the Japanese fleet by Admiral Yi Sun-sin, cutting off Japanese supply lines and helping to stall the invading forces on the Korean peninsula. Amid the stagnation of the battle between the Ming army and the Japanese army, Hideyoshi died in September 1598. The Council of Five Elders ordered the remaining Japanese forces in Korea to retreat.File:Chōsen Tsūshin-shi Raichō-zu.jpg|thumb|right|This image of a Joseon diplomatic procession through the streets of Edo in 1748 is entitled Chōsen-jin Uki-e by Hanegawa Tōei, c. 1748
After the war, Japan then initiated a series of policies called Sakoku to isolate itself from world affairs. It forbade Japanese to go abroad in ships, and initiated the death penalty for Japanese people returning to Japan from abroad. This ended Japanese piracy definitively. During the Japanese invasion, much of Korea's cultural heritage was destroyed and looted by the invading Japanese armies. Among the atrocities of Japanese soldiers was the practice of cutting off noses and ears of slain enemy soldiers, which evolved into cutting off those of the living and the civilians in order to fulfill the "kill quota" assigned to the troops. Hence the origin of the Korean saying to misbehaving children, "Ear and nose cutting devils are coming!".
The Imjin War had the effect of severing relations between Korea and Japan. Many Korean experts cite the war as the origins for nascent pre-modern Korean nationalism. Korean Historian Kim Haboush cites the widespread mobilization of the civilian volunteer Righteous armies as well as the pre-modern nationalistic rallying cries of the Korean scholar-gentry as indications that a sense of collective consciousness that had formed during the Goryeo period began to fully soldify, cemented by anti-Japanese sentiment amongst Koreans from all societal levels.
It was not until the Tokugawa shogunate started trading again with Korea by concluding the Treaty of Giyu with the Sō clan of Tsushima Island in 1609, establishing a relationship of near equality through mutual visits of Korean messengers. Tsushinshi were sent from Korea to pay homage to a new shogun or to celebrate the birth of an heir to a shogun. Korean envoys were used for showing the prestige of the Tokugawa shogunate and vice versa. After the wars, Korean missions were dispatched 11 times to the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan between 1607 and 1811.