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S Korea regains old embassy in Washington; snipes at Japan
Japan Today ^ | Sep. 16, 2012 - 05:16AM JST

Posted on 09/15/2012 3:37:52 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin

A grand, aging red-brick house in Washington concealed by a pair of towering magnolia trees has become an unlikely setting for South Korea’s festering grievances against Japan and a sign of growing tensions between two staunch U.S. allies.

More than a century ago, the building housed the first Korean diplomatic mission in the U.S. But shortly before annexing Korea in 1910, imperial Japan bought it for a nominal $5 fee then sold it off. Now South Korea has reacquired it for $3.5 million and plans to use the building to showcase its history—a jab at modern-day Japan.

South Korean Embassy spokesman Byung-Goo Choi said the sale of the legation building 102 years ago was forced and “symbolically demonstrates imperial Japan’s plunder.”

The Japanese Embassy said it would refrain from commenting on the purchase, as South Korea has not conveyed its position or raised the issue with Japan.

The Japanese occupation of Korea ended with the fascist defeat in World War II, and nowadays the two nations have many reasons to get along. Both are well-established and prosperous democracies that share U.S.-supported interests in countering the nuclear threat of North Korea and managing China’s rise as the region’s superpower. The U.S., which has tens of thousands of troops in both countries, is keen to promote Japan-South Korea ties, to help sustain American influence in the region.

But the tensions have set back nascent military and intelligence cooperation. Beyond the history of the annexation, Korean anger remains over imperial Japan’s use of Korean sex slaves during the war. Also, Japan claims tiny islands that are occupied by South Korea.

That dispute escalated last month when South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak made an unprecedented visit to the rocky Dokdo islands—called Takeshima by Japan. That drew unusually stern criticism from Japan, whose Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda sent a letter of protest, only for South Korea to reject it and send it back _ by registered post.

A semblance of diplomatic normality returned when the two leaders met briefly on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Russia last weekend. But nationalist sentiments could be further inflamed with South Korea set for presidential elections in December and Noda’s unpopularity at home growing. South Korea has rejected a Japanese proposal for the dispute to be settled in the International Court of Justice.

The purchase of the Korean legation in Washington is the culmination of years of South Korean interest, albeit low-key, in getting the building back. Kiwon Yoon, a Korea-born travel agent based in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, said he began campaigning for it after a South Korean academic in 1999 discovered archive documents revealing the legation’s existence.

The documents show that in November 1891, Emperor Gojong, one of the last monarchs of a then-unified Korea, bought the four-story building in Washington’s upscale Logan Circle for $25,000. It was part of a diplomatic push to consolidate ties with the emerging Pacific power of the United States, as Korea found itself surrounded by larger nations competing for influence: China, Japan and Russia.

For centuries, Korea had been a tributary state of China that lies to its west, but by the late 19th century China’s influence was waning as Japan’s power rose, leading to its annexation of Korea in August 1910.

According to the South Korean Embassy, Japan had been in effective control of the legation by 1905, but it formally bought the building five years later, two months before the annexation. The seven-bedroom property, which lies about a mile (almost two kilometers) from the White House, was quickly sold by Japan to an American buyer in the same year.

In the mid-2000s, some Korean-Americans raised about $80,000 as they campaigned to buy the property, but it was far short of the amount needed. The South Korean embassy began negotiating with the owner in 2007, and the government in 2009 budgeted money to buy and renovate it, but only this year met the asking price. The deal was completed in mid-August.

South Korean officials are still deliberating exactly how to use the building but expect to reopen it within months. They say the building’s structure remains much the same as it was 100 years ago.

Amy Lee, an 82-year old granddaughter of Gojong and one of the last survivors of the Korean royal court, said it was important for Korean pride. This year also marks the 130th anniversary of U.S.-Korean relations.

“I’m glad we have become strong enough and have enough money to buy it back,” said Lee, who had campaigned with Yoon to return the building to Korean control.

Lee, who migrated to the United States in 1956 and worked as a Korean specialist librarian at Columbia University in New York for 27 years, wants to elevate the legacy of her grandfather and his efforts to adopt a more open foreign policy for Korea and maintain independence. But she also sees the purchase of the old legation as a riposte to Japan.

She expresses anger at Japan’s attitude toward its historical legacy - particularly on the issue of the tens of thousands “comfort women” that were recruited as sex slaves for Japanese forces.

Japan issued a formal apology in 1993, but has failed to convince South Korea it is truly contrite about its wartime record. Suggestions that Japan might review the 1993 statement on the grounds that no direct descriptions of forcible recruitment of “comfort women” have been found in Japanese official records have provoked Korean anger.

“They probably don’t know what their fathers and grandfathers did, or understand completely. Or it could be political. Whatever the reason is, how dare they think that way?” said Lee.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; japan; korea

1 posted on 09/15/2012 3:37:56 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
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To: DeaconBenjamin

Japan won’t apologize. An island nation-they are ethnocentric-too proud. I think we showed them when we dropped the big one on them. That was for everything they did and stood for. Hapan still thinks of themselves as a victim of the war.


2 posted on 09/15/2012 3:55:53 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: DeaconBenjamin
A scion of the Korean royal family wants to get into the business of thought control:

Amy Lee, an 82-year old granddaughter of Gojong and one of the last survivors of the Korean royal court, said it was important for Korean pride. This year also marks the 130th anniversary of U.S.-Korean relations.

“I’m glad we have become strong enough and have enough money to buy it back,” said Lee, who had campaigned with Yoon to return the building to Korean control.

Lee, who migrated to the United States in 1956 and worked as a Korean specialist librarian at Columbia University in New York for 27 years, wants to elevate the legacy of her grandfather and his efforts to adopt a more open foreign policy for Korea and maintain independence*. But she also sees the purchase of the old legation as a riposte to Japan.

She expresses anger at Japan’s attitude toward its historical legacy - particularly on the issue of the tens of thousands “comfort women” that were recruited as sex slaves for Japanese forces.

Japan issued a formal apology in 1993, but has failed to convince South Korea it is truly contrite about its wartime record. Suggestions that Japan might review the 1993 statement on the grounds that no direct descriptions of forcible recruitment of “comfort women” have been found in Japanese official records have provoked Korean anger. “They probably don’t know what their fathers and grandfathers did, or understand completely. Or it could be political. Whatever the reason is, how dare they think that way?” said Lee.

American citizen or not, her way of thinking is fundamentally un-American. And the amusing thing is that she wants Korea to end its alliance with the US. I suspect the only way people like her will be satisfied is if the Japanese nation commits seppuku and its lands are annexed to Korea.

* Code for distance itself from the US.
3 posted on 09/15/2012 4:05:02 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: DIRTYSECRET
Japan won’t apologize. An island nation-they are ethnocentric-too proud. I think we showed them when we dropped the big one on them. That was for everything they did and stood for. Hapan still thinks of themselves as a victim of the war.

Japan has repeatedly apologized. The problem is that short of agreeing to be enslaved, I don't think there's anything the Japanese can do that will appease the unappeasable.

4 posted on 09/15/2012 4:10:11 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei

It’s a tough situation. The facts are clear that under the military government, Japan brutalized several countries, but they have changed their ways since their defeat in WWII. South Korea and Japan should see each other as allies in the face of the Chicoms and the Norks.


5 posted on 09/15/2012 5:42:44 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: Zhang Fei

I think the Koreans and Chinese want Japan to acknowledge their misdeeds and reinforce it in their school books. Germans do not have this problem because they acknowledge what they did in WW2 including the holocaust. Their gov outlaw the Nazi party and icons, and German school children are taught about it. Japan has whitewashed their deeds and many young Japanese do not even know about it until some foreign person reminds them about it. Why is such detail important? The Germans thru their own history books and education teach their young about it are less likely to repeat the mistake. Japan on the other hand keep their kids ignorant and many extreme militarist political parties still are legal in Japan. Under the right circumstances, Japan may repeat their mistake again in the future. The US only drop two A bombs, China and Korea may not stop.


6 posted on 09/15/2012 6:14:42 PM PDT by Fee
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To: Fee
The US only drop two A bombs, China and Korea may not stop.

Precisely. Korean and Chinese revanchism are why Japan will eventually need its own nuclear deterrent. The amusing thing is that what Japan did in Northeast Asia is neither unique nor uniquely brutal. The massacre at Nanking was only the third large-scale massacre* in that city alone. If the Japanese hadn't attacked the US at Pearl Harbor, and merely consolidated their Northeast Asian holdings, historians around the world would today be describing that era as merely the latter stage of the unification of Japan. The reason nobody brings up China's much larger scale atrocities during its unification is simple - victory means never having to say you're sorry.

* I am only referring to the large-scale massacres. There were smaller-scale massacres that resulted from civil wars and battles fought between kingdoms before and after the formation of the unitary Chinese state 2000 years ago. The big ones occurred at the conclusion of the 15th Century Ming Emperor Yongle's usurpation of his nephew's throne and 19th Century Qing General Zeng Guoquan's (brother of the illustrious Zeng Guofan) military campaign against the Taiping rebels.

7 posted on 09/15/2012 7:39:28 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei

Japan can do what ever she wants. Germany chose a path, and her neighbors accepted her. Japan insist on denying what she had done, preserve the political parties if in power capable of repeating it and when confronted have people who will try to justify it or change subject as you are doing.
Japan again has a choice and she will have to live with it again. I do agree with you on one thing. If Japan had remain neutral in WW2, Manchuria plus Korea and Taiwan gave her ample resources. She would emerge with the US with intact manufacturing while most of the world’s would be destroyed. Japan would be in position to be the dominant power in Asia without firing a shot and power broker in the Cold War between the US and USSR.


8 posted on 09/16/2012 7:52:38 AM PDT by Fee
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To: Fee
If Japan had remain neutral in WW2, Manchuria plus Korea and Taiwan gave her ample resources.

By the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan controlled the entire Chinese coast and a big chunk of the interior, close to a third of China's land mass, and most of its developed areas. If they had merely been patient, what is now China would be a bunch of large Japanese provinces. They got greedy and paid a heavy price.

There's this myth about East Asians being cautious and risk-averse. My impression is that they are degenerate gamblers.

When Japan expanded into China, it was merely emulating what China had done for thousands of years, adding to its territory in times of military strength, which is why China is today the size of a continent. Unfortunately for us (given our alliances with Japan, Korea and the Philippines), China's about to resume its old habit of playing weiqi (Go) off the chessboard, with real men and weaponry in place of stones. When Japan struck at Pearl Harbor, it had 1/9 the GDP of the US. China has 1/2 the GDP and is closing on parity. I think we need to slowly disengage from the area, giving these countries enough time to re-arm so they can build nuclear deterrents and improved conventional capabilities. We lost 100K men during WWII, 40K men in Korea and 60K men in Vietnam. We've donated quite enough blood to the patient. It's time for them to defend themselves.

9 posted on 09/16/2012 2:03:59 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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