SOUTH KOREA: Crack in the Door

Under unforgiving old Syngman Rhee, South Korea for 15 years treated Japan as almost a worse enemy than the Communist regime in North Korea. Unable to forget 35 years of Japanese colonial rule Rhee stubbornly refused to exchange ambassadors with Tokyo, drew an arbitrary “Rhee line” upwards of 60 miles out at sea over which Japanese fishermen crossed at their peril.

Last week, at the invitation of the new South Korean government of Premier John Chang, Japan’s Foreign Minister Zentaro Kosaka flew into Seoul, the first Japanese official to set foot on South Korean soil since the end of the war. Though students paraded, shouting, “We still remember your occupation,” the official reception was cordial. Kosaka flew back to Tokyo, remarking, “I hope my visit will have an effect like a magic mallet [Japan’s version of Aladdin’s lamp] which produces inexhaustible treasures.”