8 May 1956

To Minister Yong Shik Kim
From the President
I have received your reports of 3 May, including your Political Report No.17. With the Japanese Ministry of Justice and the Minister of Foreign Affairs disagreeing among themselves we cannot do much more than you have been doing. But of course you must continue to reveal Japan's diplomatic duplicity as strongly as possible, and give correct information to the Japanese public as well as outsiders. I hope our Embassy in Washington is doing something along these lines also.
I want you to think over very carefully whether this is now an opportune time to demand reparations. The Philippines' repatriation question is settled, I understand. According to a report the Japanese have agreed to pay 800 million dollars for four years of occupation of the Philippine Islands. We had better ask Japan for eight billion dollars. Of course this is only my suggestion for you to think over and discuss with some of your trustworthy confidants and friends. We might as well tell the world that we have exhausted every means to reach some agreement with Japan for permanent peaceful relations. In order to do so, as We have explained, Japan must show her desire to be a peaceful neighbor to Korea by settling our minimum terms. Instead, she claims nearly all the Korean peninsula and its properties and absolutely refuses to retract her preposterous claims which are positively in violation of the Japanese peace treaty. We asked Japan to accept our peace line for the sake of peaceful relations between our two peoples and their fisheries interests, but now Japan threatens to expel some 700,000 Korean residents in Japan without any compensation and will not allow them to bring their own properties to Korea. If Japan insists on returning some of the Korean residents we may consider receiving them if the Japanese Government compensates the Korean residents and also allows those who have property to take it along with them.
Japan has benefited by United States aid and by supplying raw materials, war machines and weapons for the Korean war. There are certain American friends who would give everything they could to make Japan richer and stronger. At present the Japanese Government has in reserve 1½ billion dollars, but refuses to return the Korean gold reserves which they took away from Korea with no reason or excuse.
Japan propagandists tell the world that President Rhee, out of hatred for the Japanese, makes peaceful relations with the two countries impossible. We would like to know what Japan has done to show her love for Korea and Koreans. We have told Japan that we are willing to forgive and forget the past if they are willing to meet us half way. But they never think of meeting us half way. They are still the domineering and conqueror nation of Asia, suspected and feared by all other Asiatic peoples. We are willing to forgive and forget the past, but we cannot forgive and forget what the Japanese are doing now. We do not love them enough to tell them to come and take the 85% of our property they claim and give them our nation.