SEOUL, South Korea — President Moon Jae-in of South Korea on Thursday struck a conciliatory note toward Japan after weeks of bitter feuding between Washington’s two key Asian allies, expressing hope that the two economies could cooperate to mend a worsening trade dispute.

“Only when we work together will we be able to achieve joint growth that is sustainable,” Mr. Moon said in a nationally televised speech on the 74th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II, which ended Korea’s colonial subjugation. “If Japan chooses the path of dialogue and cooperation, we will gladly join hands,” he added.

Mr. Moon used Thursday’s anniversary — a national holiday in South Korea — to nevertheless urge Tokyo to stop using trade as a weapon to address historical grievances that have poisoned ties between the allies for decades and recently increasingly alarmed Washington.

In the last two months, Japan has removed South Korea from its list of preferential trading partners and tightened controls on the export of three chemicals essential to making the semiconductors and flat-panel displays that South Korean companies sell around the world, including for Apple iPhones.