Found this picture over at the Park Chung-hee Internet Memorial — excellent site, BTW, with some great (and surprising, given the nature of the site) photographs of the late president. That’s Park — done up in his Imperial Japanese best — taken while he was an elementary school teacher in Mun-gyeong, North Gyeongsang Province. Now, the only reason I find this interesting is because I lived in lovely Mun-gyeong for my first three years in Korea (I kind of think of it as my second hometown), and the house in which Park lived is still there in front of the school, with a recently added shrine (and an explanation that Park really didn’t like the Japanese, just in case someone like me dredges up photos like the one above).
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Park Chung-Hee aka Lt. Okamoto Minoru, graduate of the Japanese Imerial Military Academy in Manchukuo. Mansae or Banzai?!
Probably both.
Yes, Rhesus, two souls were dwelling in his chest.
But I want to add, that he was waaaaaaaay better than the mass-murderers (mostly former independence guerrillas in Manchuria) in North Korea.
Well, irony is great. But “pro-Japanese traitor” Park made his of Korean modern and affluent, while “great patriot” Kim Il Sung destroyed his part completly. And what’s bad about being pro-Japanese?! You, AMericans, do not dislike people who loves YOUR empire.
passerby,
Park was not only “pro-Japanese”, he was their obedient, diligent blood dog. You see the difference?
But I agree with your point about Kim Il-Sung.
I’m Korean, dear countryman. Surprised?