Comments on: Well, I know my family didn’t collaborate

By: dogbert

dogbert — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:31:11 +0000

Then again, almost all (if not all) of the Japanese living in Korea were expelled from the peninsula in 1945. In contrast, many Russians living in the Baltic nations stayed put following those nations’ independence and many agitate for their civil rights there.

By: Antti

Antti — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 23:31:03 +0000

The Russians and the Baltics might be a better example. I don??t think even the Russians and the non-USSR states of Eastern Europe would come close to Japan and Korea.
It’s nice that you bring this up. I’ve been thinking for some time now that this is the best comparison if there needs to be one. But about that, Koreans don’t know and perhaps wouldn’t want to know either, because the comparison to France and (in some circles) the often-mentioned purges of Nazi collaborators are more suitable.

There are many similarities, like the appearance of legality of the annexion (”the Baltic states wanted to join the Soviet Union” etc) and the in some cases clear Russification policy. In Estonia there was even an equivalent to the ??iby?ng (rigghteous armies) fighting against the occupation, Forest Brothers (Tartu City Museum; Wikipedia)

This question would require much more consideration than I have time for at the moment…

By: Kushibo

Kushibo — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 22:31:47 +0000

Don’t forget also that occupation by Japan was much, much longer than France’s occupation by Germany. Probably much farther reaching, too.

The Russians and the Baltics might be a better example. I don’t think even the Russians and the non-USSR states of Eastern Europe would come close to Japan and Korea.

By: James

James — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 21:39:52 +0000

I suspect too that with Japan and Korea there is a very real love-hate relationship: Japan is admired for so much, its economic growth model, (for good or bad) education model, management styles, animae, wealth, power, etc but there was never much closure that was brought to the relationships between Japan, Korea and other Asian countries like there was with Germany and most of Europe. Germany so far has proven willing to agressively address the wrongs of its past while Japan seems hell-bent to sterilize the presentation of its past. In Europe, particularly in France, colaborators were publicly punished while in Korea, the collaborators have by and large only benefited from their disgraceful activities. I would argue that as a result of France dealing with its colaborators, the nation was able to bring some closure to the experience but I do not see that as being possible in Korea, in part because too much time has elapsed and in part because many of the colaborators or their families still have too much power making it a personal attack on an innocent citizen just becuase they are rich/powerful. The people that should be publicly discraced and their ill gotten gains are for the most part not long for this world.

By: Kushibo

Kushibo — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:49:37 +0000

Maybe (#44), but probably not soon (and I’m not familiar with the movie you mention).

The Korean War along with the continuing North-South conflict that ensued, and the military rule that came afterward area all direct offshoots of Japanese rule. Since things are still going on, there is nowhere near the type of closure France had twenty-five or thirty years after WWII ended.

By: Paul H.

Paul H. — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:39:01 +0000

So muruneko, Kushibo, others:

is there/will there be a Korean equivalent of the filmmaker who made “The Sorrow and the Pity” (early 1970’s film documentary about Vichy France?)

By: june

june — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 10:33:04 +0000

I think that the Korean word Han is somewhat misunderstood. Han is not about to blame or punish others. But I have to admit that the Koreans themselves misuse or abuse this word (as the controversy of pro-Japanese collaboration shows). Anyway, I will elaborate Han sometime soon.

By: usinkorea

usinkorea — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 09:26:37 +0000

I also don’t think South Korean society as a whole is ready to rip down the elements that created the Miracle on the Han. Once they start down the path of hounding out the pro-Japanese bastards, it is going to take on a life of its own, and it will pop up some skeletons in the closets of the biggest supporters of the hunt, and it will reach its dirty hands into the backgrounds of many of the orgs SK prides itself in for making it such a rich, prosperous, advanced industrial nation.

And when these skeletons hit the light of day, I do expect they will be reburied fairly quickly….

By: Kushibo

Kushibo — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 17:46:47 +0000

Paul H. asked: Or was this even an issue in the ROK of that period? If not, then perhaps the current ??interest?? in this subject says more about current ROK politics than about a genuine historical concern for justice.Oh, it definitely was.

This topic has always been around. The difference is now that there was finally a pseudo-intellectual activist government willing to get the ball rolling on it.

The only good thing I can see coming of this is for some people to finally get it out of their system. Throw up that nasty little bit of acid and your stomach will finally feel better.

This bout of watered-down McCarthyism will eventually stop when the true believers doing this start realizing they’re decimating their own ranks (like when they realize Grandpa or Dad was doing something other than what he said he was doing).

By: muruneko

muruneko — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 17:04:55 +0000

Paul H, in 31.

Can I insert a phrase and two sentences into your paragraph?
Considering what the Japanese Army did in China after the 1937 invasion, especially most cruel soldiers to Manchurians were Korean applicants to the Japanese Imperial Army by calling them ??second rank Japanese??, I don??t think anybody in the world (to include current citizens of the ROK) has the right to judge Koreans of the 1905-1945 era for serving in the Japanese administration. Please note that it was officially said the legal status of the Koreans was same with the Japanese after the Annexation of the peninsula, though it was not rare to see discrimination from the Japanese. Many Korean soldiers and civilians brandished their legal status against natives in all the countries that Japan occupied, and changed their sir name voluntarily to strengthen the effect.