369. Airgram From the Embassy in Japan to the Department of State1
A–1065. Subject: Japanese-Korean Relations in the Year Since Normalization
Introduction and Summary
1. The first anniversary of the ratification of the treaty and agreements which normalized relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea came on December 18, 1966. The anniversary occasioned a flurry of background articles in the Japanese press, but there were no major public celebrations in Tokyo (the Korean Embassy selected last June 22, the anniversary of the signing of the agreements, as the occasion for an enormous party to which the conservative establishment of Japan came in their hundreds), and the day was a quiet reflection of the matter-of-fact acceptance by most Japanese of the controversial settlement with their closest neighbor.
2. The Embassy’s overall impression is that, in the year since the restoration of formal diplomatic relations, there has been a significant broadening and deepening of private and unofficial contact and understanding between the two countries, although the Korean minority in Japan remains unpopular and the state of Japanese media and scholarly coverage and research of Korean affairs can only charitably be termed modest in comparison with Japanese interests there. On the official side, not only has a great deal been done to clean up the detailed problems surrounding implementation of the Treaty settlement, but problems which have arisen de novo during the year have for the most [Page 802] part been solved—although not, of course, without stresses and strains. Basic differences remain between the two countries in terms of their disparate levels of economic development and the gulf in their attitudes toward Communism (or, more precisely, the gulf in the range of attitudes and actions required of the two governments by their publics’ differing estimates of the threat which Communist power poses to their national interests). The huge trade gap (in Japan’s favor) remains a continuing problem, and Korea’s intensified efforts during the past year to obtain commitments from Japan for larger imports of specified commodities (e.g., laver, cuttlefish) and for other concessionary trade treatment were only moderately successful. There are indications, however, that the two governments have evolved working relationships which not only recognize these differences realistically, but may even surmount them in favor of increased cooperation in multilateral forums for Asian economic development and in the United Nations vis-à-vis preservation of the ROK’s special position there.2
[Here follows a detailed discussion of Korea-Japan relations.]
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1964–66, POL JAPAN–KOR S. Confidential. Drafted by Armstrong; cleared by Farrior and in draft by Ainsworth, Gallagher, Baker, Fahs, and Nickel; and approved by Zurhellen. Repeated to Seoul, Consulates in Fukuoka, Kobe-Osaka, Nagoya, and Sapporo, CINCPAC for POLAD and HICOM for POLAD.↩
- Department of State intelligence analysts shared the Embassy’s favorable impression of Korea-Japan relations, concluding that the two governments have created a “relatively amicable relationship” since normalizing relations. (Intelligence Note 1022, December 22; ibid.)↩