On Sunday, Nov. 1, Japan, Korea, and China met in the South Korean capital of Seoul in what was their first trilateral meeting since 2012. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang were all present during the talks on Sunday. In a joint statement, the three leaders restored trilateral cooperation, meaning that high-ranking officials from all three East Asian powers will now resume regular meetings. It is unclear what will ultimately come of this slight warming of relations. The Associated Press has labeled the consensus “a step forward, but not a breakthrough.” Though all three nations agreed engagement is more conducive to peace, and that North Korea must be “denuclearized,” tensions rooted in complex history still persist.South Korea and Japan are allied closely with the United States, both militarily and economically, but relations between the two remain shaky, especially since the Japanese right took power upon the election of President Abe in 2012. South Korea is under the impression that the Japanese government has not taken enough responsibility for crimes committed against the Korean people during World War II, and specifically the Japanese Imperial Army’s use of “comfort women” as sex slaves during the occupation of China and Korea. Though the Japanese government has apologized—notably in the 1990s when the experiences of the Chinese and Korean women gained international attention—President Abe recently intended to “weaken” the government’s apology. He has since ended his attempts to do so, but many in South Korea still feel Japan’s compensations and apologies have not been sufficient, and that Japan’s far right is too dismissive of the evils perpetrated by the Japanese Empire more than 70 years ago.China and Japan also stand at odds over a strand of islands in the South China Sea. Known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands, and in China as the Diaoyu Islands, both countries claim the uninhabited territory. Like Korea, China too was a victim of Japanese aggression, a memory still present in the hearts and minds of Chinese citizens. In the Nanjing atrocities alone, an estimated 200,000 were killed and thousands more beaten, raped, and burned in Japan’s attempt to unify East Asia under one empire. The relations between the three nations are extremely complex—Japan and Korea are both democracies, strongly supported by the United States. South Korea and China share a history as victims of Japanese aggression, but at the same time China is North Korea’s only major ally, and opposed the U.S. and UN effort to defeat Kim Il-Sung during the Korean War. And finally, China and Japan dispute sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, where the U.S. has also had a military presence, much to the chagrin of the PRC. This is a lot to take in for any student at NYU Shanghai interested in international relations or global peace.However, despite differences in political systems, alliances, and national histories, the three nations do share a common culture, have influenced each other for centuries, and are now inextricably bound together by economic ties. NYU Shanghai’s own Professor Jin Jiang put it nicely in her History of Modern China class: in her reference to future relations between Japan and China she said, “China and Japan have so much in common. So many Chinese and Japanese have great respect for each other. They should be friends.” The same can be said of Korea and Japan, and Korea and China. At least on the surface, the leaders of China, Japan, and South Korea agree with Professor Jiang. President Park stated she thought the meetings were “very meaningful,” and could potentially open the door to future “in-depth discussions.” Premier Li expressed that China “hopes to invigorate the regional economy and peace.” And on his part, Prime Minister Abe said the three nations must “bolster cooperation.” It may be a minor step, but for those truly concerned with the atrocities of the past, the more communication East Asian countries engage in, the less likely old wars and military disputes will repeat themselves.This article was written by Anthony Comeau. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: futureatlas.com on Flickr