An English teacher at a [pro-Pyongyang] Chongryun-affiliated school in Japan would like us to know that such schools play a valuable role in Japanese society. [Japan Times, HT to reader]
Chongryun schools just like any other: English teacher
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The teacher says there’s no pro-Pyongyang propaganda, evidently looking only for blatant Stalinism or Kim-worship. But isn’t the new Nork strategy to play up nationalism and xenophobia, with Norks being the true defenders and Southerners being sellouts to The (Western) Man? If so, schools focused on “older generations helping younger generations learn their traditional culture and appreciate their ethnic identity” could still represent a serious threat.
What a sweet article (gag).
This teacher sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil. He didn’t mention the concentration camps / gulags / death camps.
There have been other tools before this teacher, and there will be more to come. Nothing new.
I think you guys are off base on this. I think I mentioned this on another blog, but the idea that communist teachings could gain traction in a place as capitalistic as Hello Kitty-land nowadays is ludicrous.
I was at the Osaka International Beer Festival (burp) a couple of years ago and met a couple of 20ish zainichi chicas at the Korean booth (where they had Yon-sama prominently displyed and were serving Exfeel–arghhh). They admitted to attending chongryun schools, but shook their heads sideways with a frown when I asked if Little Elvis was a good guy.
On a side note, I asked if they liked Yonsama. Same reaction of disgust, with the addition that maybe their mothers liked him.
Yea, North Korean schools in Japan are just like normal schools, except for the worshiping of the Kim father and son like Gods — nothing to be concerned about, a happy place really.
But in all honest, some North Korean schools are starting to get rid of the pictures of the two Kims from the classrooms, but the majority still are no different from a North Korean school in North Korea.
I’m sure we are all able to find children in Japan such as those you met in Osaka who are able to realize that truth once they leave the classroom and venture into the real world on the streets of regular Japan, but that does not change what is going inside the fantasy world of North Korean schools in Japan.
I have no idea what schools are like in North Korea, but the “North Korean” school I’ve worked in for the past two years, as well as the several other I’ve done short-term work in, aren’t any different from the other national schools in Japan.
Basically, if you’ve never set foot in a “North Korean” school in Japan, know nothing about zainichi issues & history, and your reaction is nothing more than a Pavlovian response to the words “North Korea,” you end up looking pretty pathetic. So if I were a charitable man, I’d suggest looking into the history of these schools & the zainichi experience; you can feel smug in knowing that you’ll be able to issue an effortless smackdown to the next person you hear talking bullocks on this issue.
With the Korean Federation of Teachers teaching North Korean propoganda in the classrooms in South Korea and teaching students to hate Japan and the US, I wonder how much different that might be from anything students might learn in a zainichi school.
These North Korean funded schools, whose primarily objective is to preserve the Korean culture and identity amongst the zainichi, is no different in spirit from the National Jewish Outreach Program and the thousands of JCCs all over North America.
“That’s not what the other lawyer said.”
I found the article to be highly informative. It’s always enlightening to get the point of view of someone who’s been inside, albeit as a foreigner, whose Korean language skills are likely less than bi-lingual. Snow brings up the suggested possibility that anti-Japanese curricula may be more evident in the ROK schools than in these Zainichi schools. For Netizen Kim, I’d suggest that Korean culture and identity may be the primary vehicle by which KWP cadre within the schools identify students who can be recruited for purposes other than education. It’s good to hear from some commenters that not everyone who goes through these schools comes out a Kim worshiper, and that confirms reports that have surfaced over the past several years that Chosen Soren membership is dropping off.
Thanks for publishing it.
“Basically, if you’ve never set foot in a “North Korean” school in Japan, know nothing about zainichi issues & history, and your reaction is nothing more than a Pavlovian response to the words “North Korea,” you end up looking pretty pathetic.”
Someone looks pathetic . . .
I was thinking ‘like a tool’ instead of ‘pathetic’, but I can go with that.
Really bingobangoboy, I think you’re the one who needs to get a clue. I think perhaps you’ve spent too much time in these North Korean schools and they’ve brainwashed you too
Bingobangoboy is closer to the truth than some of you reactionaries apparently want to admit. But let’s not lose sight of a few facts. For most of their history, the schools were hardly distinguishable from Pyongyang in their curricula. Major reforms have taken place and it has been a long time now since Kim Il Sung Revolutionary Thought was a required subject for 4th graders. But there are still Young Pioneer groups in the junior highs, etc. Yes, portraits were removed from all alementary and junior high classrooms, thank goodness, but remain in the high schools and university. (An important change, but hardly a defection). The curricula changes a few years ago did make the schools very close to Japanese schools in content, with widesweeping depoliticization. However, Korea University still trains ideologues and cadres. One can still major in Kim Il Sung Thought. The teachers are mostly grads of the university. To say that Juche has disappeared is a stretch, but indoctrination has been toned down. The reason is that parents were voting with their feet and KJI personally allowed this relaxation. Chongryun is still clearly toting the Party line and promote it where they can. Which is not to say that rank and file are true believers. Chosing Korean language education in Japan is not automatically a vote for the Kims, though that is where the faithful will send their kids. THe guy who wrote this article may come across as a useful idiot, but hey, so do most gaijin English teachers in Japan.
Uri, thanks for #12. Well put.
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