Dr Kyung-Min Park, currently a postdoctoral researcher with Barak Kushner’s ERC project, delivered an exciting presentation on his recent research regarding the key role resident Japanese in Korea played in resolving the war repatriation issues. Contrary to previous research that set the preliminary discussion of 1951 as the starting point, Park’s investigation began from August of 1945, the end’s Japanese colonial rule of Korea. By doing so, he disclosed the important presence of resident Japanese in the normalization of Japan-Korea diplomatic relations. What further distinguished his research is his careful selection of a lexicon, choosing the term enkosha (縁故者) in contrast to the commonly used zaichō nihonjin (在朝日本人), to describe resident Japanese. He closed the talk by addressing the relevance of his research to contemporary issues concerning historical recognition between Japan and Korea. The talk and lively discussion were held in Japanese.
A link to Dr. Park’s biography is: http://warcrimesandempire.com/kyung-min-park/
Japan and the World.org 