Japan slams planned memorial in Harbin for anti-Japanese Korean hero
Japan has reacted angrily to plans by South Korea to erect a statue in China to commemorate an independence activist who in October 1909 assassinated the Japanese governor of Korea.
Details of the plan for a memorial to Ahn Jung-guen, who shot Hirobumi Ito on a platform at Harbin’s railway station, were discussed in a meeting in Seoul on Monday between Park Geun-hye, the South Korean president, and Yang Jiechi, China’s state councilor.
South Korea has the sovereign right to put up a statue within Korea’s borders, doing it in a third country is a very anti-Japanese action
According to media reports, Park expressed her gratitude for China’s co-operation with the proposal.
In a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga described Ahn as “a criminal”.
“This is not good for Japan-South Korea relations,” he said, adding that Tokyo’s position that Ahn carried out a criminal act has been conveyed to the South Korean government.
“To us Japanese, Ahn was a terrorist,” said Yoichi Shimada, a professor of international relations at Japan’s Fukui Prefectural University. “And while I agree that South Korea has the sovereign right to put up a statue within Korea’s borders, doing it in a third country is a very anti-Japanese action.
“It makes me question whether Mrs Park really wants better relations with Japan at all,” Professor Shimada told The South China Morning Post, adding that the South Korean leader “should have better advisers.”