Wed 5 Oct 2022, Day 23/61. It happens to be interesting for me personally to hear the South Korean perspective on these issues as I grew up with a mother who had lived and worked in Japan. Here she is, some time between 1951 and 1954.

Wed 5 Oct 2022, Day 23/61. One live dispute with Japan, hard to avoid because of South Korean government publicity, concerns the islands called ‘Dokdo’, 독도, by the Koreans but ‘Takeshima’ by the Japanese. Wikipedia diplomatically sticks to a French name.

Wed 5 Oct 2022, Day 23/61. The relationship with Japan has surfaced in several conversations here. I expected the prime preoccupation to be with North Korea. But many long for reunification with their fellow Koreans & continue to nurse grievances against Japan.

Wed 5 Oct 2022, Day 23/61. The Japanese embassy is opposite our hotel. Every Wednesday there are demonstrations demanding the resolution of injustices against Korean sexual slaves; but also counter-demonstrations protesting against an ‘anti-Japanese lobby’.