Posted on 05/18/2010 6:03:36 AM PDT by Willie Green
I was seated on a bench waiting for the subway train at Yangjae Station. Sitting next to me were two well-dressed men in their 40s. An electronic signboard kept showing '``Yangjae Station" in Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese one after the other.
One man mentioned, ``I think Chinese doesn't matter. But why Japanese?'' I felt hit hard by his myopic view of Japan. Of course, I understand why he asked so irritably.
As you well know, Korea was under Japanese colonization for 36 years, during which Japan's brutal imperialists committed atrocities against the Korean people. Since the end of World War Ⅱ Japan has never tried to compensate Korean victims at the government level and has claimed that the easternmost islets of Dokdo is under its jurisdiction.
In reality, encouraged by the Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Japan deprived the Korean government of the right of diplomatic relations, seized Dokdo and incorporated it into a Japanese prefecture by issuing the Shimane Prefecture Public Notice No. 40.
To make the Korean people more enraged, Japan tries to indoctrinate its school children with its textbooks that describe Dokdo within its territorial waters. I was at a loss for words when on March 27 Minister Edano Yukio made the absurd remark, ``The Japanese invasion of the Korean Peninsula was historical necessity.'' Last year the Japanese government decided to give the wage of 99 yen (about 1,277 won or $1) to each of the seven Korean women who demanded compensation for their labor. These old ladies were mobilized in 1944 when they were young girls to work at a jet-fighter plant in Nagoya.
However, it is one thing to help Japanese tourists or businesspersons know where they are for their convenience in downtown Seoul, and completely another to harbor animosity toward the Japanese government's nonsensical claims to Korean territory and its lack of repentance on historical wrongdoing. The aforesaid Korean was refusing to differentiate these two facts.
Current international politics demands Korea, along with the U.S., keep a close relationship with Japan in terms of economy, security and diplomacy, as demonstrated by the sunken warship Cheonan in the West Sea and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's visit to Beijing.
At the same time, we must make an all-out effort to straighten out the distorted history between Korea and Japan and to build up a more powerful military alliance. All this is possible if our economic basis is sound. As of the end of February when we were engrossed in the brilliant results by the Korean athletes in Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, the monthly bilateral trade balance was in favor of Japan by about $3 billion.
But it is quite hospitable to provide a variety of information for Japanese tourists and businesspeople as most other countries in the world do the same for Korean tourists and executives. Instead of making a childish response, we must be mature enough to judge which strategy is more beneficial to national interests and the welfare of the citizens.
To be honest, there are lots of good things that we need to learn from the Japanese people. As a Korean, I also feel some emotional distance from Japan as a country but I love the Japanese people at the same time. They are kind, polite, and honest and have good, orderly manners. They try to never inconvenience anyone. Compared to their behavior, it seems to me that the Korean people appear rather rough and rustic.
Being mired in a hostage mentality of a tragic history should not hinder our courage to face facts as they are. We must outgrow an immature way of thinking.
Point well taken.
I think Japan had their own copy of the Me-262 as well.
I guess its your myopia that prevents you from seeing the greater picture. To better comprehend your questions, you have to look back hundreds, if not thousands of years in East Asian history.
This Japanese hatred that is the cornerstone of many East Asian and South-East Asian countries doesnt date back 60 years (Post-WWII), it dates back hundreds of more years.
For hundreds of years, this small island, being Japan has tried to take over Asia many times in history because it yearns greater stature.
Take for example the Asian Seven Year War AKA The Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592 (There was also the Seven Year War between France and England).
It was thanks to the military intervention of Ming Dynasty China that Japan lost the war.
Under the Chinese Tributary System, Chinese Vassal States were afforded protection, and you have to understand that alot of Chinese blood was shed in the defence of Korea at that time.
What your doing here is whitewashing history with a bias. While its true that the Chinese are propping up the North Korean regime and have fought the South Korean regime in the 1950s, it doesnt compare to what the Japanese did.
The Chinese play an indirect role in Korea, never have they invaded Korea (unless you count the Korean War in the 1950s), however they never occupy and plundered Korea the way the Japanese has.
During the Seven Year War, Japan plundered Korea of its resources and its skilled individuals resulting in an technology transfer (oddly enough, its always been their MO through history).
Never have they experimented on Koreans as the Japanese have nor have they ever rape the women.
What the Chinese have done is simply enable a regime.
Imperial Japan’s social structure made it entirely unfit for running an empire.
The Japanese because industrialized while their society was still that of a Feudal Caste System. So when they took over Korea, they had none of the institutions necessary to effectively govern and ASSIMILATE a subjugated people. The standard Japanese solution was either enslavement or extermination. So of course the most outrageous episodes of genocide, mass rape, biological experiments were perpetrated on the Koreans and others.
The Chinese fought at least 2 Wars
I certainly understand the history of what Japan has done in Korea.
For present purposes though - your view is false. Yes, Japan invade Korea 500 years ago (or even 100+ years ago). No one should forget that. But what is happening TODAY? I don’t live in 1500’s - I live in 2010.
How many Koreans died in the last 10 years from man-made starvation? Execution? Forced Labor? How many will die TODAY in the North? And who is responsible for that? Who could end that situation immediately if they wanted? CHINA.
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