[From Kwanghwamoon] Double-faced Japanese

With the recent disclosures in Japan, I have been wrestling with my thoughts on the nature of the Japanese people.

It was last Monday morning. The moment I got the news -- "A ceramic artist`s claim of having reconstructed the Koryo porcelain a fraud" -- I had a sudden wash of feeling that he could be someone I knew.

The special report was carried on the society page with the banner, "The successful reconstruction of Koryo porcelain, an act of fraud by the artist." The disgraced man was none other than Dani Shunjai, a 71-year-old man whom I did indeed knew.

I had met him in Paris in 1993. Sent to Paris as a special correspondent, I received a letter from UNESCO three months after my transfer. It stated, "Perfect replication of Koryo porcelain," and invited me to the opening of the Japanese ceramic artist`s exhibition.

With great curiosity and expectation, I went to the exhibit being held at the UNESCO headquarters. My self-introduction as a special correspondent from Korea was well received, and he explained his work in great detail. He explained in detail how he was able to replicate the Koryo porcelain and whether anyone in Korea has been able to do so successfully. I remember him stating that although there were a couple of people who nearly had succeeded in the replication of Koryo porcelain, but none approached his level of success.

To say the least, it was a bit perplexing to be in a center of world culture, Paris, attending the exhibition by a Japanese man who so proudly boasted of having perfectly replicated the Koyro porcelain, which was the pride and heritage of the Korean people. Stumbling with what to say, I saw the exhibit pamphlet that labeled the work "Koryo porcelain." I made a request that it would be better if the work were labeled "Porcelain de la Corxe" (Korean porcelain) so that the visitors might know the country of origin of such works.

Afterward, the bitter memory was more or less pushed out of my mind. Near the end of that year, I received a New Year`s card from the artist thanking me for having come to his exhibition. I was surprised. Actually, I was moved by the grace and generosity of the great artist who for decades had striven and finally succeeded in perfect replication of another country`s cultural inheritance.

Although a bit late, the revelation of the artist`s fraud has freed me from the ambivalence and the embarrassment I had felt so long ago.

However, there are Japanese people who are much different from the artist. They are the Japanese whom I have come to meet through the death of a peer who was the special correspondent in Tokyo. At the funeral held in Seoul, many of the deceased friends and acquaintances from Japan attended. Even after the funeral, many Japanese friends came to make condolence visits. The reporters the neighbors whom the deceased had come to know came to Korea during their vacation and visited the grave to pray for heavenly bliss. Through them, I could see the kind of human bond that transcends borders.

Although it should not be generalized thus, I am confused about who represents the Japanese people on the whole more. Who is more close to reality? I wonder whether I will have an opportunity for a third experience that might shed more light.