Okinawan politicians are upset about the attempts to “make changes to several textbooks” for the purpose of de-emphasizing the Japanese military’s role in encouraging Okinawans to commit suicide during WWII.
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26 Comments
deleted (off-topic)
I was really confused by that article (Korean textbook revision)… what are they trying to change?
Telling that the textbook revision piece has neither examples nor quotes whilst the Chosun’sfluff piece about make up is full of them.
I reckon it’s one of things those foreigners can’t understand.
I was asking about which aspects of history that they are trying to revise, but ok…
Anyway, didn’t really understand the article. How are they planning to change the history textbooks?
The “Korean-version” revisionists tried to include the MORE names of the “collaborators” of Japan during the colonization in the new text book. The names include the “Chosun Ilbo” and the Dong-A Ilbo. They also wanted civilian killings by the South Korean Army and the U.S. Army during the Korean War included in the new book. As a right-wing newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo has fiercely protested it by accusing the revisionists having communist or socialist ideas. Unlike in Japan, since the end of 1990s, the South Korean government has admitted their responsibilities for all past misconducts that the public has ever brought up, while those the right wings have denied it, even by accusing the DJ and the Roh administrations as socialists.
Oh, let’s not forget the thousands of communists that were ended up buried in the hills after tips from neighbors who wanted to settle grudges. I remember reading a column written by a well-known Korean author on this topic. He wrote that his cousin, a man who couldn’t walk without crutches, was dragged out of his shop in Namdeamun by cops. They beat him to death in the street, in front of his shop. One of his neighbors had called the cops and told them he was a communist because he was jealous that the cousin was earning more money because he kept his shop open on Sunday.
“that ended up”
Wow, “in front in the street in front”. I really messed up the editing on that one. Bah, you get the picture.
It’s cool someguy, I fixed it.
Though this is off-topic and potentially baiting some, I can find other articles about how Korean textbooks are manipulated in ways that are just as bad as what the Okinawans are angry about:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com.....id=2876964
Quote
How are these contemporary attempts to revise history in South Korea any different than what is done in Japan?
(this post is revised for the sake of clarity and in consideration of other commenter concerns about off-topic posting in this thread)
the article was about japan and yet you talk about korea. didn’t you crticize ponta the other day for changing the subject? you folks seem to be doing the same thing.
about the article itself, it’s just another example of japan’s whitewashing their history. this seems to be a trend and my suspicion is that we ain’t seen nothing yet. the japanese are simply going to wash their history clean. they didn’t force women to become prostitutes. they didn’t rape nanjing. they didn’t brutalize koreans.
quotes from the japanese:
we are remorseful for our actions but…there is no proof. we only killed this many. korea does it too. they were well paid. it was legal. we apologize too much. korea had kisaeng. they’re lying whores. did we mention we are remorseful?
I believe it was Ut videam, and he was accusing ponta of deflecting the issue from Japanese comfort women to Korean sex offenses.
I can at least understand the understatement of ROK/US Army atrocities during Korean War in the 50s~late 80s textbooks (raging anti-communism tend to blind even the wisest), but why would these be pushed to be covered?
No “pawikirogi”, I am using the two events as an example of how similar events are occurring in different countries; how political elements in both countries want to “revise” history to their liking. These events are quite similar and should cause one to ask questions about how are these actions different and why.
Personally, I think all nations should be honest about the ugly aspects of their past instead of romanticizing and/or downplaying it all.
I mean, those who refuse to learn from the past will happily keep doing the same things, but maybe someone out there will eventually remember this stuff and work to prevent it.
“No “pawikirogi”, I am using the two events as an example of how similar events are occurring in different countries; how political elements in both countries want to “revise” history to their liking.”
Exactly.
“the article was about japan and yet you talk about korea. didn’t you crticize ponta the other day for changing the subject? you folks seem to be doing the same thing.
about the article itself, it’s just another example of japan’s whitewashing their history. ”
And what were you really trying to do? Prevent us from airing the dirty laundry?
Heaven help me, but I have to defend Pawikirogi on this one. There are certain folks on this blog who will absolve Japan of all responsibility for—and/or deny—stuff that happened in the past involving Korea and Japan. Ditto for China and Japan. In all cases, the kerfuffle written up to kooky Korean and Chinese nationalists and/or Japanese leftists making issues out of these things, or just making stuff up.
Now, I’m not going to get into the merits of any particular dispute on any of the hot-button topics, but we all know which topics they are.
So here’s an incident of something involving Okinawa—as an example that historical disputes involving Japan and other ethnic groups are not restricted only to Koreans and Chinese, and what do we see? Not even writing it off as “kooky Okinawans” (which is what I was half expecting), but a diversionary mention of Korean revisionism—in a story that had nothing to do with Korea.
Pawi’s often a troll, but he actually does have a point.
Comments 1 through 9—all of the comments preceding Pawi’s comment—were totally off topic, dealing with Korean textbook revisions. Yes, Korean revisions—especially the pro-Nork kind—are reprehensible, and should be dealt with. But not in an article about Japanese textbook revisions regarding Okinawa.
Sewing,
Exactly! I don’t mind discussing that issue about Korean textbooks….but what the heck did that have to do with Okinawa?? And why did Pawi get nailed for addressing this?
I, also, have to side with Pawi. I kept thinking I had linked to the wrong thread. I’m interested in finding the rationale behind the Japanese decision. I see none except in conjunction with the other denials of comfort women and Nanjing, Japan is slowly trying to erase all involvement in WWII.
What was Japan doing in the early to mid twentieth century? Oooohhh….nothing.
Maybe an open thread is in order here?
Upon reconsideration, my first comment is off-topic.
As I entered the initial posting on the Okinawans concerns, I was immediately struck by the question “how is what the Japanese Government is attempting to do there any different from what has been done by ideologues here, in Korea?”, thus my follow up comment (after-thought). I apologize for doing such a naughty thing. (Beat me with a wet sock please.)
I should have asked the question from the beginning, but, I was hoping others might discuss the growing incidents of historical revisionism in China, Korea and Japan and the context of these revisions. How are these occurrences different and how are they similar?
[The fun part is that responding to off topic is considered as inappropriate as off topic comments. If something's off topic, just ignore! It takes two to derail a thread.]
What I find telling about the attempt to revise what the overwhelming majority of Japanese youth would be taught is that it happens to be about Okinawa. I wonder if it isn’t unintended revelation by ultra-rightists that they acknowledge Okinawa is occupied, or at least exploited, territory. It’s a colony, and so you can get away with violating it all over again in the history books, like Ainu lands, Korea, China. Guilt about colonial past requires that you deny and glorify, and it’s hard to do that with your majority constituents.
‘Heaven help me, Pawi’s often a troll, but he actually does have a point.’
you may find yourself saying that more often than you might like.
Not a bit surprising. Okinawans only became citizens of the Empire for what, 200 or 300 some years? Getting the snub by Honshu, Kyushu, and Sapporo isn’t something jaw dropping considering how Ainus also try to hide their origins in this “beautiful nation” proud of its history.
Make no mistake about it, Ponta, Japan, Japanophile in Australia,
There is nothing beautiful about what Japan did in World War I and II. I AND II. Japan got away in I, because they allied right. In sheer stupidity, they aligned wrong in II, and thus got its due judgment.
Let’s review.
1. Japan protected East Asia by its military and colonial presence over its neighbors.
2. Colonial girls tried to thank Japan by putting out for Japanese men.
3. Suicide was promoted as part of Japanese culture and a code of honour? Stop watching movies like Letters from Iwo Jima.
4. Japanese historians are scientific and infallible in their conclusions. Believe everything they say.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20.....0623190008
i think I’ll truly barf if I ever, ever hear of some dipshit argument about how Japan was forced to attack Pearl Harbor because the US was pushing Japan to its limits diplomaticly and economically.
I mean, wasn’t that all pretty much self inflicted and well deserved?
I truly don’t understand people who write or believe that shit that Japan was so pressed by the US that it had to bomb the US.
All the while with the Japanese rep in DC, serving as a distraction.
sorry if I offended any Ainus.
Sapporo might actually be Ainu land in its entirety.
It might be a case of the Japanese having succesfully taken it off Ainu hands quite permanently.
Now, the world associates Sapporo = Japan.
Sapporo Ichicban. Sapporo beer. = = = Japan ramen. Japan beer.
This could have happenned to Korea. Certainly could have.
But thank heavens it didn’t.
This isn’t really an issue of revisionism, but of correction. As far as I know (and I don’t know a lot about this) the text books said that people that committed suicide were forced to do so by the army. What I have heard is that even more so than a few instances of pressure by army men was the hysterical atmosphere inspired by the controlled media, which made death seem preferable to life under occupation.
Either way, the war time Japanese government does not get let off the hook. If some people here were hoping for an issue where they can say the Japanese are trying to avoid responsibility, this is not the issue.
For people that are interested, there are interviews on Youtube (in Japanese) with Okinawa residents that actually lived during those times, and they tell of their experiences.
R. Elgin: It didn’t occur to me that you were the OP. That changes things; but then, it would have been better to have worked your thoughts about Korean textbook revision into the original post. As it is, what I saw was a comment that was 180 degrees divergent from the original post, then 8 comments riffing on the first comment. I’ll admit that I couldn’t be bothered to comment—I figured someone would come along and get things back on topic—but beating up on Pawi just because he’s Pawi when he was right to point out the whole thread had gone off the rails was uncalled for, hence my response.