What pops up in your mind when you think of the relationship between Korea and Japan? Friends? Neighbors? Or enemies? It is not easy to conclude the relationship between the two countries, but we need to think of a good way for the two countries to live in harmony in the future.

 In 1905, Japan made a Protectorate Treaty by force and started to have real control of the Korean government. For 35 years since 1910, they took Korea as a colony of Japan and they displayed political oppression, cultural extermination, and economic exploitation. At that time, many harsh things happened, which was portrayed by movies such as “I can speak”, “Gunhamdo” “Malmo” and so on. If you see these movies, you can easily recognize how Japan treated Korea.

Japan calls Dokdo Takeshima because they want to make Dokdo part of their territory. They deny accepting it as the land of Korea and claim it is Japanese territory under international law. Also, Japan misconfigured maps to display 'Sea of Japan' instead of ‘East sea’ to claim territory.

 Japan is a Second World War criminal country along with Germany. The German government has punished war criminals and has been reflecting on the past and apologizing for its cruel history for about 50 years. How about Japan? Even though they killed millions of Chinese and Korean people, they concluded that these actions were committed by parts of some Japanese politicians and soldiers. So, they think there aren’t any responsibilities for criminals. They're far from regretting their wrongdoings, deleting and denying their past. It's quite the shocking fact that they're even teaching the wrong history to their own students.

First of all, what Japan should have to do is start by admitting their misbehaviors and sincerely apologize for the past to Korea and the victimized. Both countries should set the record straight and move forward together into the future, and not take issue about the past anymore. 

 If Korea and Japan have a good relationship, there will be many advantages. We can share and take advantage of each country’s political and economic policies. And we can become good partners for economic benefits. We can have good opportunities to enhance the value of each country by returning relics and cultural properties. Also, through the combining musical culture of K-pop and J-pop, we can reach more fame abroad.

 We hope Korea and Japan could be good friends and neighbors, not enemies anymore.