Subject : The relationship between Korea and Japan.

Japan is one of the closest countries from Korea geographically,but relationships between the two countries are not as good as some foreign people think because of some histiorcal facts.

Korea has a long history of around 5,000 years.there was a period of 36 years of Japanese occupation from 1910 until 1945, which is known for most Koreans as the most shameful part of history,which we want to forget,hide and remove form Korean history.the horrible part about the Japanese occupation of Korea is that more than 200,000 young girls between 12~25 years from Korea,China and othe Asian countries were estimated to have been forced to serve as sex slaves by Japan during the World War II.sadly the large majority of the young girls were from Korea and this horrible part subject is still an ongoing issue between Korea and Japan to this day.In Korea there are still some survivors called "Comfort Women" strongly requesting Japan;s sincere apologizes and compensations.recently some comfort women made a speech in English in Washington, USA, to let many peolpe of the world know anout Japan's brutality and historical facts.despite the historical facts and the survivors's speech,Japan continues to deny their brutality.some Japanese peole take pride in the fact that Japan occupied the majority of Asian countries during World War II.they want to show off how strong Japan was at the time.

There is another issue about a Korean-owned island called 'DOKDO' located in the East Sea.DOKDO island is clearly marked as Korean territiry historically and also, the UN recognized DOKDO island as a Korean territory.despite these facts, Japan still insists that DOKDO island is Japanese territory.the reason why Japan insists on this unreasonable claim is that there are lots of natureal resources around DOKDO sea area, which will be able to be used in the future instead of oil.both Korea strongly condemaned Japan about their unreasonable claim.for these reasons South Korea has a diplomatic conflict with Japan and also, relationships between the two countries are not good. the boggest problem is that most Japanese peole don't know exactly what happend during Warld War II and Japan's brutality because of Japan's distortion of history.

Japan is also country who takes full advantage of an opportunity of shpporting for UN forces during the Korea war from 1950 until 1953.for Japan, the Korean war was a big chance for an economic boost after Japan's surrender in 1945.Japan also made the biggest profit economically during the Korean war, and that is one of the reasons why Japan got over the difficulties more easily after surrender.

For better relationships between Korea and Japan , a few things must be solved smoothly.

First, Japan must face up to the fact of their brutality occured during the World War II and must sincerely apologize to the Asian countries including Korea.

Send, proper compensation must to be made.

I am not trying to tell that Japan is a bad country.I really respect Japan in some part and have co-workers.

I do hope both countries will become closer soon.