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Dokdo protests get bloody
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on March 14, 2005 at 3:22 pm, filed under South Korea. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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42 Comments
You know, the octopus thing…..I actually found that fascinating. Almost titillating.
Actually seeing this Halmoni hack off her own finger……did she really? Is that real? This freaks me out. With a cleaver, Sweet Jesus, a cleaver!
That is the closest I’ve ever come to seeing a real “3-minute hate”.
Wow. I just wanted to weigh in with that. I’m totally creeped out now.
I think I need to watch the octopus thing again.
Wow. That’s stupid. I wonder how much thought goes into doing something like that.
I wonder how much thought goes into doing something like that.
Not a whole lot, I’d image. But there is symbolic meaning to the act:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahn_Choong-Kun
In the midst of all this, we see another prevalent problem in South Korean society: 30-something-year old momma’s boys.
I didn’t think my prediction of Tokdo-related self-mutilation would come true so quickly - I said to some friends that the finger chopping would start later in the month, plus assumed - seemingly incorrectly - gangsters and/or former ROK special forces would be the likely culprits. Just imagine the reaction if the Japanese actually controlled the islets. If only people could get so passionate about women’s rights, education, health care, etc…
Is there any blood on that cleaver? Or did she managed to wrest it away from the four hands holding it back in the first picture and then cut her finger off?
Check me if I’m wrong — this is the year of Japan-Korea friendship, isn’t it?
That look of “WTF?” on the Po-lice’s faces is priceless.
“Check me if I??m wrong ?? this is the year of Japan-Korea friendship, isn??t it”
It was. It’s raining again.. sigh…
retareded….
My favorite comment from the Naver site:
“119kimho ( 61.85.xxx.227 ) 03-14 21:44:21
????? ???????? ??????????~! ?裨????????????? ???????? ??????~”
“nuts”. is the word.
Is there any wonder why Korea gets any sympathy from outside of Korea?
Hoping to see this country grow up in my life time.
I never thought I’d ever see middle aged ladies this passionate about anything. I have been rectified.
I wish I can see the same reaction and passion about North Koreans starving to death and being turned away in Korean embassies. I guess you have to be rational and calm dealing with North Korea and China, but all hell breaks loose dealing with Japan and United States.
Erm… Kimbob, not everybody in Korea is like that, extreme exists in every country.
but wow, those ppl are just really crazy. I look at my fingers, and think to cut them off…. I could never do that…
And yes, I agree that Korea should do something about China and North Korea about that issue. But then again, I wouldnt be surprised if china cuts their own ppl’s own finger off. Some of their torture method is just inhuman and gross
I wonder when Korea will begin to support Taiwan in its bid for compensation for comfort women from Japan. shit it will probably ride tha Hallyu wave in Taiwan to garner support.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi.....342797.stm
March has always been hate somebody month in Korea. It starts to warm up to let out all that pent-up protesting. Since protesting their own government or the USA (at the moment) the favourite scapegoat comes into the forefront.
What nonsense.
Wow… Talk about giving someone the finger…
There is a lot of pride and a ton of hate stemming from a Kor-Jap relationship that makes English colonization of America look like a walk through an amusement park.
It might not seem like a “grown-up” thing to a lot of you but Koreans standing up for themselves, no matter how senseless it may seem, is necessary and understandable.
Can someone please tell me why the Japanese always seem speak through the corners of their mouths?
Here in China, plenty of fingers are cut off everyday…in industrial accidents.
Unless her family is a fisherman or in the oil business, there is no way she will ever get any benefit from the islands being part of Korea.
Seriously, I see armless etc. beggars in the streets here in Shenzhen and looking at some of them, I just wonder. Was it birth defect? Was it an industrial accident? Was it other violence? And when I see the kids, I wonder if some adults did it on purpose, so the kids would be more profitable as beggars. Those kids would be so lucky to have a finger to cut off.
As a publicity stunt, I think its better to dress up as a cartoon superhero and climb parliamentary buildings, as the Superdads do in Britain.
When I read this story, my brother and I actually laughed. My brother and I are ????????? Koreans. I am not sure whether it is generation gap or not. Younger Koreans have a hard time understanding the older generation??s extreme patriotism. For younger Koreans like my brother, working hard, paying tax, having family and producing children is the best way to be a good citizen. For them, public display of self-mutilation is somewhat moronic.
When I was in college, a few young college students burned themselves in public. They did it to send a message to the military government. It was hard to believe that those young people died that way, but I??ve learned a lesson that extremism would never work. Who remember those college kids today?
I’ll bet anyone here a manner that 90% of the Japanese outside of Shimane Prefecture haven’t heard of Takeshima/Liancourt/Tokdo et al. They’ve got more important things to worry about, like their boys getting busted busting nut in 588.
wedge, they do know about it, about as much as americans might know about puerto rico and vieques (which means alot know, but a lot don’t). go to kyodo and do a word search for takeshima and see.
what you will notice, though, is that kyodo will go a long, long time without the issue coming up. it’s the right-wing nut jobs in japan that keep forcing this issue to the top. koizumi would probably like it to just go away, but with his supporters who they are, there’s no way he could work out a settlement.
maybe it will take a leftist government to actually do something. like hosokawa or murayama. i know that doesn’t sound very republican of me, but entrenched powers tend to be ossified when it comes to issues like this.
Nora. Good simile with Puerto Rico and Vieques. THe great majority of Americans aren’t even aware that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, and over half of all Puerto Ricans view themselves as either not Americans, or Puerto Ricans first. The emotion in this act is also very reminiscint of Vieques, where emotion always trumped reason. Well, at least Korea pays its own way in the world.
Hmmm, why don’t Korea and Japan share those little seagull crap-covered rocks? Better yet, donate them to the U.N. But that would spoil the fun, no?
It’s really a poor simile with Puerto Rico, because the seagulls aren’t asking for independence from Korea.
Give it a year of two………she’ll recieve a bravery medal from the government for her “loss” during the “great dokdo battle of 2005″ against those evil imperialists.
Well at least the season of hate mongering is starting off with someone other than the U.S. and anyone who looks like an American. Purely out of self interest it is nice the radical Korean groups will paint Japan as the “main enemy” this hate mongering season and not the U.S.
“Hmmm, why don??t Korea and Japan share those little seagull crap-covered rocks?”
Truthfully, I don’t think there will ever be peace over this issue, for the same reason there will never be peace between the Palestinians and Israelis: it’s not about peace and sharing. It’s about winning. They don’t want peace; they want to WIN! Unfortunately, the other guy has the same attitude.
I wonder if those missing digits are going to be quick-serviced over to Kozuimi? He could add them to the ear nose mound in Kyoto left over from Hideyoshi’s invasion.
Finger chopping thing has a quite a long history in Korea. As far as I know, An Choong-Kun, a leader of Korean resistance group against Japanese colonization, cut his one of ring fingers (Marmot’s link says he cut several) to write “Korean Independance” with the blood on a Korean flag. Part of his resistance, he assassinated Japanese Korean resident general in China which was a big blow to Japanese occupation. He was arrested and executed shortly after the assassination. He has been regarded as a hero in Korea ever since.
When I was a kid in Korea, Korean history text book had a picture of his hand print in boold, with his ring finger about an inch short on a Korean flag (during japanese colony, Korean flag was banned). The picture represented determination of the resistance and our ancestor’s struggle for independence . It was a quite powerful picture and left an memorable impression on me. Almost mystical. So, Korea finger chopping history had a pretty cool start, in a strange way.
Fastforward to 2005. Finger chopping in 2005 is definitely missing a lot of the old coolness. The grossness of the picture of a woman with a bloody finger, a meat cleaver in the air, and the riot police pushing and shoving took away the point they are trying to make. Not very effective. Doesn’t work anymore.
It is just too bad. I am sure even An choong-Kun is cringing in his grave.
Hey all Japanese and govorners liste
don’t be timid such as trying to steal someone’s.
wasnt that enough in 1900’s?
Lol… this is really freaky.. I am a Korean myself and I live in the States now, but I think that’s just moronic. I think many Koreans just get swept away by emotions a little too easily. And they seem to lack a lot when it comes to being “reasonable.” Perhaps that explains why so many Koreans just blindly hate US… (or the government at least, but I am horrified that people don’t care to make these distinctions sometimes!) If they really understood the politics of US and the people of US, then they would regret their over generalizations… Same with Japan. It’s only Koizumi bastard and his cronies that squabble over this issue. I’ve heard that more than half of Japanese parliament actually agrees with Korea and so do an overwhelming number of Japanese citizens. Anyhow, back to the finger cutting, it’s stupid and it led nowhere this time. Swimmin to Japan to kill Koizumi with a pistol clenched between her teeth would’ve garnered much more public attention and support.
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