KOREA: A Tussle Over Treasures; Who rightfully owns Korean artifacts looted by Japan?

Byline: Kay Itoi and B. J. Lee

Eisei Miki, the head monk of Kakurinji Temple in the western Japanese city of Kakogawa, still shivers with anger when he describes the robbery the temple suffered in 2002. Among the stolen goods: one particularly important painting of the Amida Buddha from Korea's Koryo period (918-1392), which the temple had treasured for hundreds of years. Caught last October, the two Koreans responsible for the theft insisted they were on a mission to reclaim pieces of Korean history, which had been appropriated by the Japanese. Worse, the Korean media and public bought the argument. "Have you heard of anything more ridiculous?" asks Miki.

His frustration embodies yet another thorny controversy embroiling Japan and the Korean peninsula: to whom do hundreds of thousands of ancient Korean artifacts in Japan rightfully belong? Koreans accuse the Japanese of plundering the artwork, mostly during their 36-year occupation of the peninsula, and they blame their own government for not seeking the objects' return. Most Japanese consider the issue a dead one, resolved by the 1965 Japan-Korea Treaty, which led to the return of some 1,400 items. To be sure, not all the works were looted; Kakurinji Temple, for instance, received the painting--probably as a gift--long before the Japanese invasion. Nor was the settlement in the 1960s definitive, as it neglected artifacts in Japanese private collections as well as those originating in North Korea. But with cultural relations between Japan and South Korea warming, experts are hoping the dispute can finally be resolved.

Japan is hardly unique in having made off with treasures from a former colony. The best European museums would be empty without looted art. But the size of the haul is astounding. Eighty percent of all Korean Buddhist paintings are believed to be in Japan. And, says Seoul art historian Kwon Cheeyun, "35,000 Korean art objects and 30,000 rare books have been confirmed to be there, too." That's only the tip of the iceberg: much more is believed to be hidden away in private collections.

Historians believe Japan carried away the bulk of its Korean cultural assets during two aggressions: the 16th-century invasion of the Korean peninsula and its 20th-century occupation. Determining legal ownership is far more difficult than with the art looted by the Nazis, for instance. "It's almost impossible to trace the provenance" of centuries-old artifacts, says Toshiyuki Kono, a law professor at Kyushu University. Besides, the Japanese annexation was internationally recognized in 1910; relocating Korean artifacts within "Japanese territory" was lawful at the time. Furthermore, Japan didn't sign the 30-year-old UNESCO convention to prevent trafficking of stolen artifacts until 2003.

--To Korea's annoyance, Japan holds many items of particular value. More than 1,000 bronze, gold and celadon pieces owned by the late businessman Takenosuke Ogura now make up the core of the Tokyo National Museum's Korean section. Another precious item is a two-meter-tall stone tablet, originally ...