Dr. Andrei Lankov writes on Stalin’s deportation of Koreans from the Russian Far East to the steppes of Central Asia:
In late 1937, cargo trains began arriving at railway stations in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with unusual frequency. They delivered people, not cargo: women and men, young and old, exhausted and sick. Each train was guarded by soldiers. After their arrival, people were escorted to places where they could dig out primitive shelters to survive the coming winter.
The train passengers were Soviet Koreans who became the first victims of ethnic persecution in Stalin’s Soviet Union. In autumn 1937 they were herded into the trains and sent across Siberia to Central Asia.
Be sure to read the rest on your own. One of the more interesting historical ironies is that while the Koreans were deported from their homes supposedly because Soviet authorities feared them to be Japanese spies, the NKVD official who oversaw the operation, Genrikh Samoilevich Liushkov, eventually did defect to Japan in 1938—see more about him here.
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Consistently great stuff from Dr. Lankov. I’ve learned more from this one article than any book or class on Korea and read it religiously. Anyone know if “Dawn of Modern Korea” is going to end up as a book??
Great story. Why is it so many Koreans seem to have so many grievances against the US, one of the few countries that ever really helped them (SK anyway) and yet are willing to forget or don’t even know about the horrific treatment that Koreans received at the hands of others (besides the Japanese)?
Oh, and for those who may have believed in the moral equivalence of Soviet Russia and the evil empire aka the US, a nice contrast in the ways each country treated those it was suspicious of during WWII.
Even more so considering that Japan and the U.S.S.R. were not at war with each other in 1937.
Well, wait a minute there, snow. The United States, in deporting its ethnic-Japanese citizens to bleak West Coast detention camps, pretty much did the same thing as Stalin did in moving his ethnic Koreans off to Central Asia. The difference was that our citizens got to return home when the emergency ended, and eventually they received some token compensation. And Stalin’s act was basically in keeping with the Russian tradition of brutally mistreating all those who live in Russia; shipping the Japanese off to camps was, however, un-American.
Brendon, I think Stalin’s deportations were much more brutal (I doubt the Japanese were transported in cattle cars and not all Japanese were sent) and the purges that accompanied it all made it far worse than what the US did. But you’re right that the treatement of Koreans was not necessarily much worse than how Stalin treated many in Russia, including other Russians. And as you say, deporting the Japanese was un-American whereas deporting the Koreans was totally typical of Soviet practices-no excuses or apologies ever given.
You and I don’t disagree except in this point: Regardless of degree of brutality, both the United States and Soviet Union treated ethnic Japanese and Koreans, respectively, horribly during the war. The United States was less horrible, but in general the United States was and is a nicer place than most in the world. That the forced evacuations of ethnic Japanese from the West Coast was un-American makes it more regrettable, not less regrettable.
In my opinion, one reason Koreans are so hard on the United States for every real or imagined transgression, despite the fact that in most identifiable instances, it is in fact Korean agents of the United States being horrible to other Koreans (think the line at the Embassy), is that Koreans know we Americans are better than that. America is a great and generous land and a beacon for what humanity can be, and when we permit wrongs to be committed in our name, or are wrong ourselves, we betray our American heritage and inheritance. The Russians? Fuck them. Everybody expects them to be horrible.
Well, I agree that the US should hold itself to a higher standard, as this is why the place is such a leader in the world (at the same time, I know there are many times in its history that the US has not lived up to higher standards), but there are many who hold the US to a higher standard while excusing other far worse transgressors.
I’m not sure I get what you mean here.
Do you mean that Koreans are hard on America simply because it is a “great and generous land and a beacon for what humanity can be,” (i.e. the jealousy theory), or;
Koreans are hard on America out of disappointment when it betrays its stated principles, as in the Japanese internment and numerous other lapses. (i.e. the fallen hero theory).
I personally don’t think it’s either, and really either one might be giving Korea too much credit. I don’t think Korea at this point is much interested in being a “great and generous land” or a “beacon for humanity,” it just wants to be richer. Likewise, I don’t think Korea cares very much about the adherence of other countries to human rights principles, certainly not the way many Dutch or Scandinavians, or liberal Americans seem to do.
My hunch is that some Koreans, after an education in anti-foreign propaganda, are hostile to America simply as a stand in to represent every other country in the world. America just happens to currently be the most visible and present foreign country in the average Korean’s daily life. If it wasn’t America it would be somebody else. America per se is almost incidental to anti-Americanism.
quote: “Anyone know if “Dawn of Modern Korea” is going to end up as a book?”
It has been negotiated for three years. This week there were some changes, but who knows? Long story, frankly, and quite confidential sometimes. In short: there will be a book(s?), the first MS is 100% ready, and sooner or later it will happen.
Why do the post stuff like this in the opinion section? Wouldn’t there be a section heading better suited to articles like this?
“Why is it so many Koreans seem to have so many grievances against the US”
It just appears that way, because the commie-sympoathizers and students who hold naive views about world affairs are far more likely to go out and scream in the streets and make news, even though they’re a minority in the population.
That’s why the government party of commie-sympathizers is polling poorly in the coming national local elections.
“Why is it so many Koreans seem to have so many grievances against the US”
They are more concern about the present that the past. If Russians are deporting Koreans TODAY, you can be sure that they will harbor the same grivances.
The Korean war is a relic of the past. There is no longer any realistic opportunity for war in the Korean peninsular. What the young wants is to put a closure to this relic, by formally ending the war so that life can move on for the millions of Koreans both on the North and the South.
Unfortunately, on the US side, it appears that certain circles do not want to put an end to the situation if it means the survival of Kim Jong Il. They are determined to see the downfall of North Korea to the end. They are very patient. They have waited 50 years to see the regime fall, and they can wait another 100 years if they have to. Time is actually on their side. It is this group of people who harbors no intentions of resolution to the conflict, but a determined goal to see the downfall of North Korea however long it takes at the expense of the thousands of Koreans who have since been separated from their families, many who have now passed away never to see their loved ones who lived on the other side of the border.
The resolution to the Korean War is actually very easy. On a piece of paper, the undersigned North Korea and the UN agrees to formally end the war. North Korea agrees to recognize the sovereignty of South Korea and the present border and vice versa. Full stop. Sign.
But we all know this will not happen. There will be all sorts of “deliberation tricks” pulled out of the bag to link the condition of signing to “human rights”, etc. etc.. to buy time until the collapse of the North Korean government. Also, any US official that even dares proposes the US to end the war will be the laughing stock of the hardliners within the US government.
Why would the US government want to formally end the Korean War? The answer is there is no reason why they would be compelled to do so. For North Korea, they do have a “selfish” reason. An end to the war will free up military expense to develop the rest of its economy. But for the US, what “Selfish” or “self serving” interest does the US have to end the Korean War? The answer is there is none. This is why time is on the side of the US. Unless the situation in Korea is draining the US, the status quo works just great for the US allowing it to flex its muscle and to stage a show of its force in the region. And this is why they “hate” the US.
It is like a crook that entered your house. You called the sheriff. The sheriff came and scared that crook away. Then the sheriff say to you that he will stay in your house for a few hours just in case the crook returns. Of course, you are okay with that. But those few hours turned into days. Those days turned into weeks. Then whose weeks turned in months - and the sheriff is still staying in your house telling you that if the crook returns he’ll be there. But wake up! The crook is gone already. GONE! Its time for the sheriff to go back to doing his job and return the house back to you so that you can move on with your life and do what you like and get back your privacy. The Korean war is a thign of the past. Kim Il Sung is dead already. A new generation has taken over. Its over. The end. Finished. We are living in a new chapter. But the sheriff is still there. And its getting damn annoying.
One problem with your analogy. The crook lives in the house next door and is still a crook.
The “crook” is dead already. He is Kim Il Sung. He died in 1994. The war ended before my mother was even born. But the sheriff is still around.
Using your failed brand of reasoning, the sheriff is dead too. There is a statue of him in Incheon.
The other thing I like about this brain-dead analogy is the fact that a sheriff is a public servant, obligated by his position to come to the aid of the homeowner.
Can you really take seriously anyone who says “peninsular” where “peninsula” is the proper usage? Why is that such a common error?
Poor M_Fan… No matter how much he works his previous posts have doomed him to an eternity of scrutiny, jibes, puns, hints, allegations, and things unsaid (and well deserved I might add). I have no idea what he’s saying really, from one post to another. Try using a different name and take out the emotion, maybe?
That’s the way the US has ordained itself as the sheriff - and Australia as its deputy. You haven’t heard?
http://www.neac.gov.my/index.p.....amp;ac=466
On Friday, reacting to a statement by US President George W. Bush who hailed Australia as America’s “sheriff” in Asia, Mahathir warned Australia against taking on that role with Malaysia.
“I can assure Australia that if it acts as a sheriff in this country, it will be treated as a terrorist and dealt with as a terrorist,” he said in a news conference at the end of a meeting of Islamic nations here.
Why don’t you just send blank postings signed by mahatir_fan and we can just mentally fill any inane thing that comes to mind, no matter how relevant — just like you do?
mad_hatter_fan
Notice that he/she/it never responds directly to anyone else and repeats the same low-IQ equations (”people in China vote, therefore China is a democracy”) over and over?
Marmot said M-F has a San Diego IP address, so my theory is he is a UCSD sociologist using us for research on responses to incredibly inane comments…or a dishwasher in a Mexican restaurant, same-same.
We only need one village idiot and we’ve got the ever willing nuljipawi dude.
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great blog…
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