I have two points to make about Korean-Japanese relations. First, it seems to me that these harsh legacies are largely a societal phenomenon, while at the elite levels cooperation is getting better. In some discussions with high-level military planners in Seoul recently, they noted that the Japanese military has been extremely open to Korean visits and port calls, and appears to be doing much to assuage Korean fears of a Japanese military buildup. In particular these people mentioned the new Japanese "aegis" destroyers, and how open the Japanese were to letting Koreans look around.

Second, Victor Cha of Georgetown has written an extremely interesting dissertation on this topic, and has almost completed his book manuscript, I think.