All signs point to yes…

PING:
TITLE: Chinese suzerainty over Korea in the late 19th century
BLOG NAME: Flying Yangban
I’m currently reading The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations Throughout History by Walter LaFeber. I’ve just gotten to the part which briefly goes over the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95. That combined with some history pieces at the Marmot’s Hole (on some K…

Hahahah…way to go, man. That guy’s blog is lame. I like your new layout by the way.

Ok, I take note of your grad. studies in Korea.
That explains how you have been left behind.

Your underlying assumptions speak of a bastardized Christianity that I call — Progressianity. Essentially, Christianity twisted into an Oprah Winfrey pantheism motivated by white guilt; and, mixed with white paternalism: the white-saviour complex.

You exude an optimism in the eventual enlightenment of others: all your “yellow-primitives” need is just a little more time and education: gently coached by Western values and the development of “correct institutions” — such as a legal-rational culture.

You, therefore, claim the Asian preference for “self-esteem” over “truth” is an historical post-traumatic stress syndrome: Post-liberation political abuse through bad institutions and misrule.

You are a believer in the primacy of the institution molding human nature; not the quality of the individual’s unique relation to his universe that takes place within the conscience.

In other words, the Korean doesn’t need to develop a “conscience” according to your bastardized Christianity– he just needs to live esconced within a correct institution. Are you a Catholic?

You are quite the totalitarian.

You are essentially a humanist confused that he is a Christian. Quit your hypocrisy and come out of the humanist closet — and embrace the truth openly: there is no truth, just self-esteem.

Silly Sally

BTW, if it means anything to you (and I doubt it does), while I did my undergrad work in the States, I did my grad work in Korea. I figured you might want to know that since you so pointedly refered to my education in the West.

May I educate you in the ways of the mysterious East? I think I must, since your naivite is embarassing.

Get honest with themselves? Are you sillier than I am?

Both Japanese and Koreans are governed by the Asian principle of “face”. This exotic and mysterious Eastern way is just another word for ethnic-narcissism.

Neither Korea nor Japan are interested in “getting honest with itself”. They are both shame societies, where self-esteem is a highly prized commodity and not to be easily squandered by “honesty” for the benefit of another race.

This is the guiding ethos of both societies: the survival and gratification the race above all other values.

Both Koreans and Japanese know “group self-esteem” is a psychological neccessity for healthy functioning as a society.

Loss of face for an Asian is literally physically debilitating: they experience loss of soul — and wither away becoming sick and listless. Like the Australian aborigines’ and American Indians’ loss of soul when they lost their culture, way of life, and thus — pride.

When they have a choice between “truth” or “self-esteem” — they will choose the virtue conferring the greatest survival and gratification value.

Japan simply cannot afford to “fess up” to its past “sins”. Why? Because they would lose their necessary pride. Furthermore, they know the Chinese and Korean “grudge factor” is an insatiable rage; this rage ( Koreans call it Han) will never be quenched with concessions, compensations, and humility. Koreans are a black hole of narcissistic rage.

Likewise, Koreans don’t need “self-esteem destroying truth”. They need to NOT be judged in their desperate attempts to maintain racial pride.

Haven’t you learned anything, when you were educated in the West?

We have learned in the United States that what “victims” need more than anything is –MORE SELF-ESTEEM — not, pride destroying facts.

Leave them alone. I suggest you adjust your intolerant attitude, and re-align your energies towards compassion, love, and peace. That way you will not contribute to another spiritual holocaust
perpetuated against non-whites.

Silly Sally

Second to head off the North Korean land claims that will come flooding in after re-unification. North Koreans are going to have a hard enough time adjusting to life in the real-world without a bunch of Southern carpet baggers coming North to reclaim “their land.” What a disaster that’s gonna be … after tong-il, 90% of North Korean men are going to become day laborers and 90% of North Korean women are going to end up working in the “entertainment” industry.

One last thing, and perhaps this is unfair because it deals with a hypothetical situation, is that I doubt very highly that the Hani and OhMyNews would support similar measures against those who collaborated with the Korean Workers Party - in both North and South Korea - following unification. Now, of couse, the Chosun and Dong-A are equally guilty of hypocracy here - they’d love nothing more than to fry Communist collaborators (like Song Du-yul) but avoid going after pro-Japanese collaborators like its the plague - but I’m just pointing out that it’s not a case of unilateral hypocracy on the part of the Korean right.

One will not hear the Chosun or the DongA mention this development in any big way, because the owning families of both didn’t hold back much when it came to collaboration with the Japanese.

Still, the cases of Yi Wan-yong and Song Byeong-jun are about as clear as can be. Both were as guilty of treason as anyone, anywhere.

Different countries at different times in modern history have seized property, frozen assets, etc, to correct similar wrongs. One of the reasons many Koreans are still appear oversensitive about these things is because these wrongs were never properly dealt with, and doing so is only recently becoming possible. Even if when all is said and done it is decided that no action can or will be taken, it is still right and reasonable to try.

Still, I imagine that in regards to this case as well, many a foreign observer will belittle any move to take action on this as typically childish nationalism, and do so in a manner no less predictable of that kind of foreigner than the cases in Korean society that truly are examples of that kind of nationalism.

I suppose one could argue that it speaks well of Japanese colonial administration that those two traitors were granted such positions, but even if it does, that is another matter.