Memori dan Trauma dalam Hubungan Internasional: Pengaruh Isu “Comfort Women” terhadap Kerjasama Keamanan Jepang dan Korea Selatan

Abstract

Japan and South Korea have a complicated relations ever since Japan’s occupation in
Korean Peninsula in 1910. During Japan’s occupation, Japanese military abducted
thousands of Korean women to work in a military brothel and serve as a sex slaves for
Japanese forces, or known as “comfort women”. Trauma left by Japanese colonial rule
created mutual animosities which hamper bilateral relations between both countries. In
2012, South Korea back off from the first military cooperation pact with Japan, due to
overflow public resentment in South Korea toward Japan. The objective of this research is
to understand how “comfort women” issue impacted bilateral security cooperation
between Japan and South Korea. This research used qualitative methods alongside with the
concept of memory, war, and world politics to explain how memory and trauma shape
South Korean’s perception toward Japan, as well as the concept of Public Opinion,
Domestic Structure, and Foreign Policy in Liberal Democracies to explain the impact of
public opinion toward South Korea’s foreign policy. The result of this research indicated
that history of “comfort women” created collective memory in South Korea, which
hampers its bilateral security cooperation with Japan. The bilateral security cooperation
between Japan and South Korea established only after two nations reach consensus in
“comfort women” issue.