Korea and Japan: the history wars

Japan recently has removed South Korea from its 'whitelist' of countries that are allowed to buy goods that can be diverted for military use with minimal restrictions.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, right, are locked in a conflict that, at the surface appears to be about trade, but is really about the difficult history of relations between an ex-imperial power, Japan, and its former colony, Korea.Photographs courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

August 13, 2019

Nation-states, like four-year-olds, find it very hard to admit they are in the wrong and apologize. Adult intervention often helps, but all Japan and South Korea have is U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (who tried and failed to mediate a week ago in Bangkok). So th...

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