-27 min. 26 sec.-
Interviewer said: I understand that you have uploaded a video letter yesterday, saying that you intended to visit South Korea in a peaceful manner. And, you certainly did not expect that the visit triggered turmoil at all. What do you think of the Korean nationals’ reaction to your visit with two others to South Korea although you believe that there must have been some misunderstanding on the part of the government of South Korea?
Shindo Yoshitaka said: First of all, I am so disappointed to know that some people have felt aggravated over our visit or protested against our visit. However, from the beginning, we have been explaining that our visit is designed neither to stir up turmoil, nor to carry out any activities related to the territorial claim over Takeshima islets while waving our national flag there. In other words, we never intended to stress our territorial claim in anyway there. But rather, we truly wished to actually see and feel with our own eyes the South Korean territorial claim over Takeshima by visiting Ulleung Island where South Korea has a museum displaying articles related to their territorial claim and its location to where Takeshima is situated at. Therefore, I feel so disappointed at and shocked over the incident. The government of South Korea should have secured our safety and free travel normally given to the Japanese tourists.
Interviewer said: What do you think of the treatment given by the government of South Korea? I understand that you knew that your entry would be banned by the government of South Korea before visiting there.
Shindo Yoshitaka said: Japan and South Korea regard each other as friendly nations, sharing the same values of freedom and democracy and recognizing each other as law-abiding countries. However, the government of South Korea unilaterally decided to ban entry of the fully law abiding Japanese lawmakers with no intention to carry out any special activities, who represent Japanese nationals. We believe that the action taken by the government of South Korea is completely incomprehensible. Here is what the government of South Korea informed us when executing their ban on our entry. First, we cannot secure your safety. Second, your visit will not have any positive impact on our bilateral relations. These are two reasons the government of South Korea cited for banning our entry. Then, we inquired them about their legal basis for ban on our entry. They replied that their legal basis is Article 11-1-3 of Immigration Control Law of South Korea. It stipulates that it is applicable to those who will execute activities harming national interests and public safety of South Korea. This means it is applicable to the criminals and those who commit violent acts. It should not have been applied to us because we intended to do nothing to harm their national interests and public safety of South Korea at all.
Our safety had been threatened because South Korean nationals were protesting against our visit. It is their responsibility that they should remove any threats to our safety. However, they blamed us for visiting South Korea while neglecting their primary responsibility. I told them that their ban on our entry is construed as being illegal as practiced in dictator nations since the government of South Korea neglected their own national laws simply because of differences of the territorial claims and because they just don’t want us to come in. I then asked them to show us any cases to which the law has ever been applied. They said we don’t know. So, I asked them if the law will be applicable to us, restricting our political activities in the future even when visiting South Korea on an official business and even to our private travel to South Korea with our families. Again, they said we don’t know. A South Korean officer in charge just left us alone after he said I don’t know as I do not have capacity to answer such a question. In midst of dark clouds hanging over our visit, they representing a law-abiding country never asked me about our visit (purpose, itinerary, etc.) in detail before they finalized ban on our entry. South Korea as a law-abiding nation should have directly asked us questions over our visit. Based upon results of questioning, they should have processed our case, so as to determine what to do with our entry. They maintained a position that they just execute an order given even before our arrival. Because I found it totally impossible to accept their decision as the one produced through a law-abiding process, I told our embassy staff to convey our request to the government of South Korea and to demand them to give us full explanation of their decision to ban our entry. We just can’t decide to accept their decision unless they give us full explanation.
Interviewer said: You were just waiting for their full explanation for hours, weren’t you?
Shindo Yoshitaka said: Lots of things we had to do. They didn’t even have South Korean Immigration Control Law Article 11-1-3 with them and didn’t show it to us when executing ban on our entry. So, we asked them to show us an article for us to understand their decision. Then, they brought it to us, however, written in Korean. We asked them to translate it in both Japanese and English. But they declined to do so. Our embassy staff translated it into Japanese. After having exposed to the fact that they did not prepare anything at all conceived necessary for execution of the law and to the fact that they believe in exercising their rights just by declaring they do so, I hardly believe that the action taken by South Korea is the one by the country sharing the same values of democracy and freedom with us but also with those nations whose national principles are based on “freedom and democracy” at all.
Interviewer said: Why did you decide to visit South Korea?
Shindo Yoshitaka said: We have observed a lot of things going on in relation to Takeshima after the Democratic Party of Japan took over the government. When we were in power, we had taken a number of actions to prevent anything serious from happening, thereby restricting the government of South Korea not to take any major actions.
South Korea has just completed a large scale construction of structure on Takeshima islets, which took them one year. They will hold a completion ceremony on Takeshima islets on August 5. However, more than ten years ago, they had a completion ceremony on Ulleung Island but not on Takeshima islets, honoring an agreement for the high-ranking officials not to step into Takeshima when they completed a light house on Takeshima.
Japan and South Korea agreed not to unnecessary irritate our relations by constructing any structures. Immediately after the Great Tohoku earthquake occurred, they resumed construction of a helipad after 30 years of suspension. It will be soon completed. And, they even started constructing a 15 story high marine research center nearby Takeshima, whose superstructure is now being assembled in South Korea. KAL airline flew its new Airbus 380 airliner over Takeshima island chain without permission from Tokyo. They even announced that they would hold a special committee of South Korean Parliament with attendance of cabinet members and parliamentarians on Takeshima on August 12.
Every time South Korea takes any actions related to Takeshima, Japan protests the government of South Korea against their actions. However, I believe that the government of South Korea can no longer control itself.
As far as the government of Japan goes, it keeps saying that it has taken appropriate measures against South Korean actions. I have submitted question prospectus to the government of Japan a number of times, thereby requesting the government for its official views. The statement reads that the government has taken appropriate steps to fully deal with the South Korean actions. The government maintains a position that the government sends its official messages to the government of South Korea and that due to diplomatic considerations, disclosure of individual cases should be withheld. The government limits disclosure of the measures even to us. As the government does not make any announcements to the press, almost all media here seem to remain indifferent to what’s happening there; thereby failing to inform the Japanese nationals of what South Korea is doing and is expected to do. On the other hand, the government of South Korea has aggressively taken a number of measures to strengthen its control over Takeshima islets. Exchange of messages between two governments over Takeshima islets, if there is any, has not been backed up by the general consensus in Japan. Only in the last two years, limited transmission or absence of transmission of the public opinion by mass media has been often interpreted as Japan’s tacit general agreement on the unilateral actions taken by the government of South Korea. Therefore, we decided to visit Ulleung Island where the government of South Korea has a museum displaying a number of articles insisting to be substantiating its territorial claims over Takeshima islets and to confirm with our own eyes why the government of South Korea has arrived at the point where it has executed a number of wrongdoings Japan and her people have abhorred and have never accepted at all.
Interviewer said: What do you think of measures taken by the government of Japan?
Shindo Yoshitaka said: Before our departure, the government of Japan officially requested the government of South Korea to provide us with security, and free and safe passage. Even during stand-off at Gimpo airport, the government of Japan (based on statements made by Chief Cabinet Secretary and Minister for Foreign Affairs) through the Embassy of Japan there officially expressed its regrets over our detention and strongly requested the government of South Korea to allow us to enter South Korea.
When at the airport, Japanese embassy staff helped us to carry out a number of things we in fact had to do since our freedom was severely constrained at the airport. Our embassy staff helped us communicate with the government of South Korea through the Embassy of Japan. Therefore, I think we can appreciate that we were all united to send our clear messages to the government of South Korea.
Interviewer said: What do you think of our future relations with South Korea?
Shindo Yoshitaka said: It is not my desire that the incident at Gimpo airport will eventually suspend all relations at every level. Economic issues, etc. should be separately promoted while we must say that a major obstacle is a failure to see Takeshima issue on an official negotiating table, lack of which elicits distortion of Takeshima issue in South Korea while producing indifference in Japan. Once Japanese nationals are exposed to the facts related to Takeshima, they all object the actions taken by the government of South Korea. And, I hope that once South Koreans get to know the facts, they will not resort to such outrageous and unilateral actions as seen in their recent protests against Japan by saying that our islands will be stolen by Japan while totally refusing to listen to what Japan claims.
From now, what we have to do is to help many people recognize differences of opinions over Takeshima claimed by both Japan and South Korea and then to put Takeshima issue on a negotiating table between two nations. In reality, as soon as Japan voiced its opinions on Takeshima issue during a bilateral meeting held here in Japan, South Korean officials actually turned a table upside down we both were sitting at. And, they just left the room in Seoul when we tried to discuss it. As this territorial issue is closely related to historical facts, we both conducted a research on historical facts a few years ago. However, the government of South Korea showed an outrageous behavior as if to threaten the government of Japan to cancel the entire joint research unless Japan agreed to remove Takeshima issue from agenda of our joint research. Recognizing Takeshima issue as a historical issue, the government of South Korea removed Takeshima issue from agenda of our joint research on historical facts. Their attitude has become obstinate as seen in their total rejection of any talks with Japan. As long as they maintain the unregenerate attitude toward Takeshima issue, the same incident will be repeated in the future.
Therefore, as we are firmly determined not to settle for any obscure conclusions, we regard the incident as a turning point to improve the prevailing situation particularly in South Korea. I was told that one eccentric cut his finger off and other poured kerosene over his body and ignited it in protest against Japan when they went off the deep end during demonstrations. In this relation, it is my wish that South Koreans will not harm themselves over my unjustifiably blocked visit to South Korea. Due to the failure to recognize facts, these undesirable incidents have occurred. I truly believe that it is the duty for both governments and politicians to resolve the failure.
Interviewer said: Would you like to visit South Korea again?
Shindo Yoshitaka said: Of course, I would like to. To fully analyze their territorial claim over Takeshima, our visit to Ulleung Island is indispensable in terms of our exposure to display items at the museum on the island and to landscape features, etc. However, I don’t believe that the government of South Korea will accept our visit if we try it in the same manner. Thus, the visit must be carried out in a friendly and peaceful manner. To realize this, we propose that we the Liberal Democratic Party should hold “Symposium on Takeshima Issue” with the South Korea, only if the government does not initiate this action. It should be held alternately in Japan and South Korea. We really want South Korea to hold “Symposium on Ulleung Island” and to extend invitation to us. Our party will prepare for the action at our special committee and then propose to the South Korean side as early as possible.
Interviewer said: What do you think of the foreign policy the Democratic Party of Japan has so far implemented?
Shindo Yoshitaka said: I will give you an example of South Korean parliamentarians’ visit to Kunashiri Island to better describe the foreign policy pursued by the Kan Cabinet. South Korean parliamentarians visited Kunashiri Island of Japan with approval from the government of Russia and entered Kunashiri Island through a Russian route. As far as reports made by South Korean media are concerned, their visit to Kunashiri Island is strictly private. However, South Korean parliament allocated budget to their visit and South Korean Foreign Ministry officially requested the Russian government to accommodate them during their visit.
Immediately after we were exposed to their planned visit to Kunashir Island, we staged a fierce protest against it. At the very moment when they arrived at Karafuto (Sakhalin), pres. Lee was in a meeting with Prime Minister Kan before his trip to the disaster stricken areas in northeastern Japan. However, Prime Minister Kan never said a word about their visit to Kunashiri Island to pres. Lee, just shaking hand with Lee, and showing lots of smiles on his face. I really wonder what kind of message Prime Minister Kan must have given to South Korea.
As we are readily accessible to the reports made in Korean, we came to know the planned demonstration flight by KAL over Takeshima Islets even before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed it. I contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and informed the Ministry of our finding. The Ministry told me “We have no knowledge of it.” And, we then requested the Ministry to protest the government of South Korea against KAL demonstration flight over Takeshima islets. The Ministry decided to protest it against South Korea at its own discretion. Only recently, in the last three months, the government of Japan started to give the press very short press release describing its protests. The Ministry officials have been heavily influenced by the Kan Cabinet whose political judgments are believed to be misleading.
Therefore, I believe the Democratic Party of Japan is guilty of political misjudgments for which the party should deserve a heavier punishment than death since it has committed the most serious crime against Japan and her people ”Banshi ni ataisuru=万死に値する。”
Note: The above is subject to change whenever Ted Yokohama finds it necessary as it is provisional.
For your reference, read an article published by The Japan Times, most probably based upon the above interview with Mr. Shindo Yoshitaka, one of the three Japanese lawmakers banned to enter South Korea based on a questionably inappropriate application of Article 13-1-3 of Immigration Control Law of South Korea.
Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011
Lawmaker defends attempt to observe disputed Takeshima isles
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