As described in Japan’s postwar constitution, the Japanese emperor is the “symbol of the state and of the unity of the people.” To many Japanese, however, he is more than an earthly symbol. He has the aura of a deity, given that he is called the “tenno” in Japanese, or “heavenly sovereign.”

At the center of the current diplomatic dispute between Korea and Japan are the Japanese emperor and the Korean leader’s call for him to apologize. President Lee Myung-bak said recently that Emperor Akihito would not be welcome to Korea before he offered a sincere apology for Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea. Japan has since been threatening to take revenge against Korea for what it regards as Lee’s ill-mannered remarks.

The status of the monarch in Japan, be he an emperor or tenno, would be of little concern to Koreans if colonial atrocities had not been committed against them in the name of Tenno/Emperor Hirohito. Regrettably, however, imperialist Japan did all types of cruelty to Koreans in their attempt to turn them into subjects of the emperor.

Now, quite a few Koreans prefer to call the Japanese monarch a king, the title commonly used by constitutional monarchies in the modern world. They do so to express displeasure with Japan, which they believe have never offered a heartfelt apology to Korea for its colonization.

Against this backdrop, Lee recently expressed his hope that the Japanese emperor, if he wished to visit Korea, would offer a genuine apology to the Korean independence fighters who had been killed in their struggle against Japan’s colonial rule. He added that Emperor Akihito would not be welcome to Korea if he were to express an arcane regret, as he did in Japan in May 1990 when he concluded he had one “after months of agony.”

The term Akihito used, which went by as something like the “thought of painful regret,” was averse to an easy English translation, although it was rendered the “deepest regret” in Japan’s official English translation. At a state banquet for a visiting Korean head of state, President Roh Tae-woo, Akihito said, “I think of the suffering your people underwent during the unfortunate period, which was brought about by my country, cannot but feel the deepest regret.”

By these carefully worded remarks, the Japanese government meant to allay the Korean people’s wounded sensibility over Japan’s 1910-45 colonial occupation of Korea and, at the same time, allow itself and the emperor to save face. But the remarks fell far short of the outright apology that the Korean people had long believed they were due.

To the Korean people, Akihito’s remarks failed to make it clear who did what and answer many other questions: Who caused the suffering? Did the suffering include torture, sexual slavery and forced labor? Which did Japan bring about, the suffering or the unfortunate period? What was the unfortunate period? If Japan meant it to be the colonial period, why didn’t it say it?

It is not clear why Lee has reopened old wounds. But he may have decided he could not tolerate what he regarded as Japan’s provocations.

Ahead of Liberation Day on Aug. 15, he paid a visit to Korea’s easternmost isles of Dokdo, which Korea has under its “effective control” and to which, to the chagrin of the Korean people, Japan lays territorial claim. As the Japanese government and some right-wing politicians began to take issue with his visit to the islets, President Lee referred to Emperor Akihito’s half-hearted apology and the conditions under which he would be welcome to Korea.

In doing so, he may have made off-the-cuff remarks, without taking into consideration the repercussions they could bring about, as his detractors suspect. Even so, his critics as well as other Korean people would undoubtedly believe he told Japan what they had long wanted to say.

The measures Japan has taken and is considering additionally taking in retaliation will undoubtedly be painful to Korea, but not unbearably so. If they are the price Korea has to pay for its territorial integrity and self-esteem, so be it. Moreover, it should be a measure of solace to Korea that it also has much more room for maneuver than in the past.