Japan-South Korea tension complicates Obama’s Asia strategy

SEOUL — As he hops around the Western Pacific this week, President Barack Obama hopes to unite much of Asia around a free-trade deal, updated alliances and a new power balance. But he first must persuade two of America’s closest allies to stop squabbling.

Jetting from Tokyo to Seoul on Friday morning, his second stop on the trip, Obama was between two nations mired in an old feud. South Koreans are furious over what they perceive as inadequate remorse from Japan over its brutal colonization of their nation from 1910 to 1945 and its use of Korean “comfort women” as sex slaves during World War II.