The Japan-South Korea history issue: The emotional outcome of trusting acts and met/unmet alignment security expectations

Expectations and emotions matter in international relations. In this dissertation I argue Japan's and South Korea's respective alignment security expectations play a critical role in exacerbating and ameliorating the "history issue" marring their bilateral relationship. More specifically, Japan and the ROK each expect that the Other will uphold the security interests of the Self when it comes to establishing North Korea policy. During moments in which their North Korea policies are aligned, the quasi-allies tend to enjoy warm ideological relations. When their Pyongyang policies diverge, however, ideological affairs within the Japan-Korea alignment suffer.;The goal of my research is two-fold. First, I aim to quantify the influence on the history issue of various phenomena such as North Korea policy, elections, trade dependence, and the strength of the US commitment to East Asia. Of the nine independent variables I analyze in various theoretically informed configurations, only two return statistically significant results: ROK National Assembly elections and North Korea policy convergence/divergence. Each substantially influences the level of historical animosity.;My second objective is to explain how Seoul's and Tokyo's North Korea policies lead to historical animosity. While I deduce several theoretical models to explain causality, I find only the third one---the collective self-esteem model---adequately explains all facets of the relationship between alignment security expectations and ideological cooperation and friction. Specifically, prior ideological divide means Japan and South Korea must undertake a considerable trusting act in order to successfully coordinate alignment security policy. Warm ideological relations emerge through the ceremonies and promulgations associated with the trusting act.;Regrettably, the security expectations fostered via the trusting act are unrealistic, and with seeming inevitability Japan's and South Korea's Pyongyang policies diverge. Ideological relations invariably deteriorate, because of the humiliation suffered by those vested materially and emotionally in the trusting act. In order to diminish the humiliation and preserve their individual and collective self-esteems, these men and women disparage and denigrate the Other. While disparagement and denigration preserve the moral superiority and trustworthiness of the Self over the Other, these acts also directly cause bilateral ideological friction and a deterioration of the history issue.