Contemplate, ask again and look the other way

Kim Hyun-ki
The author is the Tokyo bureau chief and rotating correspondent of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Henry Kissinger passed away at the age of 100 last week, and I was reminded of an interview he had with legendary interviewer Oriana Fallaci in November 1972. At the first meeting with Fallaci, Kissinger, then U.S. Secretary of State, was distracted throughout. She was told to come back in two days, and she accepted. Two days later, the interview was again half-hearted, and Kissinger said he needed to wrap it up because he had to leave for California. Then, Fallaci asked how he would explain to the people why he was more popular and famous than President Nixon.

President Yoon Suk Yeol prepares to speak to the nation after the government’s failed bid for the 2030 World Expo in the presidential office on Nov. 29. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

It was a key question that caught Kissinger off guard. He became relaxed and responded, “The main point arises from the fact that I’ve always acted alone. Americans like that immensely. Americans like the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse, the cowboy who rides all alone into the town, the village, with his horse and nothing else.” When the interview was released, Kissinger was criticized for posing as the only cowboy and hero. Later, Kissinger confessed that he made the remarks out of vanity to emphasize his influence.

However, Kissinger’s style changed drastically around that time. He liked to say, “Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.” He always asked his aides for different opinions. Kissinger, who fled Nazi Germany’s persecution of the Jews and came to the United States, and Fallaci, who pursued the defiant spirit of Greeks who engraved “No” in Greek on the hill of Peloponnese during the Nazi occupation, had something in common. They always contemplated, asked again and looked the other way.

Tsuneo Watanabe, the chief editor of Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun, which boasts the world’s largest circulation, is 97 years old. Currently, he is hospitalized at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University hospital, but he is briefed by the chairman and the president every day about the next day’s editorials. I recently heard about Watanabe’s story, as he played an enormous influence behind the scenes at major crises between Korea and Japan. It was about the process of the Japanese government releasing the “Abe Statement” in August 2015, which marked the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Yomiuri is a conservative newspaper but was adamant about war of aggression. About two months before the Abe Statement was released, Abe visited Watanabe in secret. Then, he gave a draft of the statement, and Watanabe reportedly responded that it was not enough as four key words from the earlier Murayama Statement — “invasion,” “colonial rule,” “heartfelt reflection” and “repentance” — were missing. Watanabe said that Japan’s war of aggression was not a crusade but a slaughter. He knew it well as he fought as a private while Abe’s maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, a Class-A war criminal, was a prime minister. Watanabe added that if the four keywords were not included, Yomiuri would campaign to oust Abe’s cabinet.

It is not clear why Abe visited Watanabe and heard voices of opposition, or why Watanabe made such harsh comments despite being dissuaded by people around him. But Watanabe’s advice was eventually reflected. While the Abe Statement was criticized for being ambiguous on its subject and predicate, it included a new wording, meaning “acknowledging wrongdoing and regretting.”

Of course, 2023 is different from the era of old men around age 100. It is hard to find such big shots now. But there are certain timeless lessons. When a leader gets only words and reports pleasing his own taste, the leader will misjudge and misgovern, leading to damages to the nation and the people. Kissinger and Fallaci — and Abe and Watanabe — must have known it. Korea also witnessed this at the crushing defeat in bidding for the World Expo.

Going back in time, similar things happened at the 2019 North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. Most foreign media and people at the site were pessimistic about the result. However, South Korea remained optimistic until 26 minutes before the collapse of the summit and became a laughingstock. The “Red Team” that calmly conveys the situation failed to work. Let’s go back and recall Fallaci’s advice. “There are moments in life when keeping silent becomes a fault, and speaking an obligation — a civic duty, a moral challenge, a categorical imperative from which we cannot escape.”