Posted on 10/05/2009 2:35:58 AM PDT by joey703
My claim is that Koreans are still unable to acknowledge that it was natural for some people to have benefitted under Japanese rule and that these people still loved Korea and the like (I'm thinking more along the lines of a Park Chung Hee than the founders of either Dong-a-Ilbo or Samsung), but the opportunities they had in life only existed if they accepted that Korea was for the time being a Japanese colony and that they realistically couldn't do a single thing about it. And, more so, and this is a claim purely along the lines of the early revisionists, such as Bruce Cumings, but it's really a matter of fact that when Korea became a Japanese colony, it opened up opportunities for Koreans that never existed before. It's this fact that these opportunities existed amidst the reality of a Japan trying to destroy Korean identity and alongsidethe widespread suffering of Koreans that makes this so difficult for Koreans to acknowledge. But, you have to understand that many during that period in time, including Koreans, believed Koreans were just incapable of self-rule (just think of how the Sino-Japanese War came about).
Anyways, I just found out that my grandfather served as one of the first senators before the National Assembly was built in Yeoido (when it was at the Blue House) when Rhee Syng Man came to power. And, I think his story or part of my story (as being the first son on my father's side) highlights #1) not all Koreans were hurt during the colonial period... #2)how this is still unable to be fully debated when Korea has not yet been unified.
(Excerpt) Read more at northxkorea.blogspot.com ...
I remember talking to an old Korean guy who cleaned the air traffic control tower.
He was on a work crew during the occupation. He told me a story of how the Japanese needed a new crew boss. They went to one guy and said you are the new boss. He refused so they shot him. The next guy they talked to accepted the position.
Of course being the crew boss carried with it a set of responsibilities. Like beating your fellow koreans.
I’m sure that there were some Koreans that liked Japanese rule. NOT!
at the link this is called “Part V”....if there is more, I can’t find it....I’d like to read it if there is more on this subject....I spent 74-75 in the western corridor and have some “remembrances” along these lines, including but not limited Mme Park and demonstrations at the gate of Camp Casey of which I have photos...
I agree with you. My Korean grandmother’s personal story/struggle/sacrifice during Japanese occupation is a fascinating one. I can’t imagine Koreans “liking” it.
Bullcrap, Han.
It’s not the case of Coreans being “unable to” acknowledge something; it’s the case of Coreans refusing to acknowledge false assumption like yours. JAPan is the only country that tried to destroy another nation’s people and its identity so COMPLETELY to a point that they forbade Coreans to speak their own language.
Were all the young Corean virgin girls - thousands of them - who leaped over a cliff into the ocean to avoid “serving” the japanese MISGUIDED and MISUNDERSTOOD the “opportunities” that were created for them by the invasion??
Ba Bo!!!
Korea-Japan relations should be about more than the issue of comfort women as was the colonial period. There'll be a podcast posted on the website of the recent discussion of the topic today.
The discussion is for people particularly like you.
That was just an example; I didn’t say that the issue was only about the japanese enslaving young Corean girls to serve as their slaves/whores. “Comfort women” indeed. It is this kind of sugar-coating and your line of thinking about the horrific event in history that makes me nauseated.
No thanks. Go peddle your website to someone else.
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