The Two Koreas_ A Contemporary History - Don Oberdorfer [32]
One year earlier, Japan had been furious at the violation of its sovereignty in the Tokyo kidnapping of South Korean opposition leader Kim Dae Jung. Now, after Mun Se Kwang's deadly run down the aisle of the National Theater on the day commemorating Korean liberation from Japan, it was Seoul's turn to be furious. Mun, although an ethnic Korean, was a resident of Japan, had used a Japanese police pistol, and had entered Korea on a Japanese passport obtained under false pretenses. Citing these facts, the South Korean president demanded an apology from Japan, punishment of all those in Japan who were connected with the case, and disbandment of the pro-North Korean residents' association, the Cho Chongryon, popularly known as Chosen Soren. Japan balked at such strong measures, and to make matters worse, the Japanese Foreign Ministry issued a statement refusing to accept any Japanese responsibility for the assassination attempt.
Park and others were outraged. The speaker of the ROK National Assembly, Chung Il Kwon, said Japan's reaction "shows how much they despise and look down on Koreans.... If [Chinese leader] Mao's wife had been killed by a Chinese raised in Japan, the Japanese prime minister would crawl on his hands and knees from Tsingtao to Beijing to apologize for Japan's responsibility, but they sneer at us because we're Korean." Because of Japanese mishandling and latent anti-Japanese sentiments, South Korea seemed more furious about the involvement of Japan than about that of the North Koreans who hatched the assassination plot.
Park personally summoned the Japanese ambassador, Torao Ushiroku, and threatened dire consequences if Japan did not cooperate. To emphasize his anger, Park refused to speak to the ambassador in Japanese-though, having been a lieutenant in the Japanese army, he knew the language perfectly-insisting that his foreign minister interpret his words instead. As added pressure, Park instigated and orchestrated daily anti-Japanese demonstrations in the capital, during one of which protesters chopped off their fingers in ritual sacrifice against Japan and marched on to storm the Japanese Embassy and smear its walls with blood. Most importantly, Park made serious preparations to break off diplomatic relations with Japan and nationalize all Japanese assets in Korea if satisfaction was not forthcoming.
At that moment the United States was transfixed with its own domestic crisis. Just six days before the assassination attempt in Seoul, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency as a result of the Watergate scandal, and Gerald Ford became president. Although Asia experts in Washington were aghast at the dangerous breach between the two U.S. allies, the orders to American diplomats were to stay out of the dispute.
Disregarding the instructions, Deputy Chief of Mission Richard Ericson, in charge of the embassy in Seoul after the departure of Philip Habib to be assistant secretary of state, placed his career on the line and worked out a face-saving accommodation. In secret meetings with Japanese Embassy officials and South Korean prime minister Kim Jong Pil, Ericson arranged a carefully phrased Japanese letter of regret, pledges of a limited crackdown on "criminal acts" of pro North Korean elements in Japan, and a peacemaking visit to Seoul by a respected Japanese elder statesman.
The showdown with the mistrusted Japanese and the venting of national emotion over the killing of Park's wife temporarily unified the South Korean body politic behind Park. He took advantage of the changed political