Comments on: ‘Pro-Japanese’ professor resigns from Korea University

By: ST

ST — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 05:42:19 +0000

Tarion “where Japan has declared Dokdo as their territory ”

Japan has been claiming the islands since Lee Sung-Man took over it in 1952 which was against San Francisco treaty.

January 18, 1952
President Lee Seung-man of South Korea declares unilateral ocean rights and announces that Takeshima is included within the Lee Line
(the Lee Seung-man Line Declaration).

September 25, 1954
The Japanese Government proposes to South Korea that the Takeshima dispute be referred to the International Court of Justice.

S.Korea has refused to take the dispute to the court since then.

By: lirelou

lirelou — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 23:05:21 +0000

June. Although an old veteran, I agree with you completely. Churchill may be an idiot, but he should not be fired for stating an honestly held opinion. The university obviously found him fit enough to teach. I am unsure of his time or tenure there, but if the university has any cause to fire him, they should step forward and present a case related to his performance as an educator. The right likes to scream that academia is hostile to free expression, now is their chance to step forward and defend it. Free speech is not about views we agree with. It becomes an issue precisely when we do not agree with them.

By: june

june — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 19:57:48 +0000

If you are teaching or researching at universities or institutes, please circulate this open letter to your colleagues. The University of Colorado is trying to fire prof. Ward Churchill. Although Prof. Churchill’s case is very different from Hahn Sung-jo’s case, it makes me think what is the boundary of free speech. In Hahn’s case, whether he chose the wrong media or not, I don’t really care; however, in Churchill’s case, his speech was part of his academic discourse, so it must be defended and respected.

By: lirelou

lirelou — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 17:29:55 +0000

Good points all, but! The very idea of a university is that it is a forum for open discourse. Punishing free thought is supposed to be the hallmark of third-world colleges trying to pass themselves off as universities (as my Alma Mater, la Universidad de Puerto Rico). Korea is in many ways a first world nation, and in no small part to the bases that were laid during the Japanese era. I would expect to be able to argue that the English, for all their faults, actually made some positive contributions to Ireland within an Irish university. (The English did introduce potato agriculture to offset the devastation common to clan warfare in a cattle based society.) I would not stand up and make that argument at a Saint Paddy’s day parade. Taking adverse action against a professor within a university for free discourse published outside that school is simply evidence tht the university in question is subject to mob rule.

By: june

june — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 08:10:51 +0000

The hyperlink didn’t work. Please click june to see the open letter.

By: Tarion

Tarion — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 07:51:46 +0000

I agree with The Marmot, in that he did choose an inapproapriate medium. He also chose the wrong time, IMO, where Japan has declared Dokdo as their territory and published brand new controversial textbooks. If he had wrote it via a different medium, few months earlier (where Korea-Japan friendship year was hopeful), things woulda comeout differently.

I see good points made by Charles Tustison. You are right, but you must also understand that Koreans have a painful past of being unable to punish collaborators back in Lee Sung-Man’s time.

But I dont think this whole issue was about collaborators. It was about Japanese rule in Korea and his statement that Koreans should be thankful for that ‘blessing’.
If he was going collaborators with this, then totally wrong way to say it.

By: Charles Tustison

Charles Tustison — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 23:21:13 +0000

I haven’t made it through the whole article, however, he is very clear in the beginning of the article that he is writing in response to current efforts to label collaberators as anti-Korean criminals.

It was not the medium. He have faced the same condemnation no matter what forum through which wpi;d have communicated this alternative view. Korea has no room for independent thought.

The next step will be when collaberators with the US are likely to be declared criminals.

By: The Marmot

The Marmot — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 21:56:52 +0000

I think the biggest problem with Hanh’s argument was the medium through which he chose to express. It would have been one thing if he had run it in the Chosun Ilbo or OhMyNews. But instead, he sent the piece to a Japanese publication — the Sankei Shimbun’s magazine, no less! I mean, you can see how that looks. It would be like Bruce Cumings discussing the Korean War. If he does it in the NYT, fine. But if he goes on the KCNA and does it…

By: june

june — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 19:34:41 +0000

In the name of “minjok godae,” they used to destroy and ruin women college’s festival and harass women students there. I would be proud if Korea university could get rid of fucking “minjok” from their logo. I agree with lirerou. I don’t like what he said, but I don’t think that he should resign. There is no freedom in or outside the ivory tower in Korea.

By: lirelou

lirelou — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 17:52:29 +0000

A victory for politically correct group-think, and a setback for free intellectual discourse.