Wanna buy a ‘Takeshima belongs to Japan’ stake?

by Robert Koehler on July 12, 2012

in Japan, Korean Diaspora, Korean History

Nobuyuki Suzuki, everybody’s favorite Japanese right-wing ASSHAT, is apparently selling “Takeshima belongs to Japan” stakes at his blog:

A Japanese right-wing extremist is selling stakes on the Internet similar to the one he tied to a memorial statue of a comfort woman in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul on June 18.

Nobuyuki Suzuki, 47, said on his blog that he is selling stakes with the slogan “Takeshima (Dokdo in Korean) belongs to Japan” for 3,000 yen each and 2,500 yen each when customers buy two or more. He is operating a podcast.

500 yen off if I buy two or more? That, readers, is the business acumen that made Japan the economic powerhouse it is today.

Anyway, the ASSHAT also mentioned the guy who recently attempted a short cut through the Japanese embassy’s security by driving his truck through the front gate:

He referred to the incident where a truck driver, 61, crashed into the Japanese embassy building in revenge for the stake as a “manifestation of the shameful behavior of the Korean government to the world.” He boasted, “This is what I intended.”

Go to an ex-colony, call women gang-raped by the Imperial Japanese Army whores, and then watch people get angry. Brilliant!

Meanwhile, in the United States, the Japanese continue to protest the Comfort Women memorials erected in New Jersey and Long Island:

The Japanese government has ordered its diplomats in the U.S. to step up efforts to block the erection of monuments here for Korean women forced to serve as sex slaves for Japan’s imperialist troops during World War II, a source said Tuesday.

Japan’s foreign ministry has “directed its Consul General in New York to actively protest monuments to comfort women being erected by Korean-American groups here,” said the Nelson Report, a private information service provider based in Washington.

Its claim has not been formally confirmed. Responding to Yonhap News Agency’s inquiry on the matter, the Japanese Embassy in Washington said it would take some time to provide a formal answer.

Maybe the consulate can send out the same guys they sent out last time—that was entertaining.. and oh, so effective.

Last week a reader sent me some photos of the monument in Nassau County; I haven’t gotten permission yet to post them, but here are some other photos at the website of the Korean American Public Affairs Committee, which helped erect the memorial. What I didn’t know before seeing the pictures is that Gwangju Metropolitan Government was apparently involved, too. In fact, Gwangju mayor Kang Un-tae flew all the way to Long Island to attend the dedication.

Tagged as: comfort women, comfort women memorial, Japanese right wingers, Nobuyuki Suzuki

{ 54 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Arghaeri July 12, 2012 at 3:28 pm: vv
2 CactusMcHarris July 12, 2012 at 3:32 pm: No, but I’d wear a T-shirt in front of the UN stating that both countries should turn it over to, say, Latvia.
3 bballi bballi July 12, 2012 at 3:35 pm: Concerning the truck driver, if he had happened to crash through the gates onto the embassy grounds, is that considered Japanese soil? And if so would he be subject to |Japanese law?

Concerning the ASSHAT, I would like to take one of his stakes and put it up his ………… well, you can use your imagination…….
4 WMunny July 12, 2012 at 6:09 pm: Who’s the bigger ASSHAT?
I say it’s the guy ramming his truck into the embassy.
5 Arghaeri July 12, 2012 at 6:53 pm: wow 38 USD for a stick!!!
6 Gerry Bevers July 12, 2012 at 7:34 pm: Robert Koeler wrote:

Anyway, the ASSHAT also mentioned the guy who recently attempted a short cut through the Japanese embassy’s security by driving his truck through the front gate:

Robert, you are again showing off your anti-Japanese bias.

A Japanese man videotapes himself next to the Comfort Women statue in front of the Japanese Embassy with a stick that reads, ”Takeshima is Japanese territory,” and you call him an “asshat.” A Korean man rams a 1-ton truck into the Japanese Embassy with a sign on it that reads, “Dokdo is Korean territory,” and you simply call him “the guy.”

You posted on the Japanese man who videotaped himself, but mentioned nothing about the Korean man who rammed his truck into the Japanese Embassy until now.

Is the neutrality of The Marmot’s Hole really debatable? LINK
7 Cloud July 12, 2012 at 8:43 pm: Oh Gerry, you’re so funny because you don’t know how funny you are! Would you like me to buy you one of those Takeshima sticks? I wonder how much shipping to Texas costs.
8 que369 July 12, 2012 at 8:49 pm: General Headquarters Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers promulgated SCAPIN No. 677 (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/SCAPIN677):

Japan is defined to include the four main islands of Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku) and the approximately 1,000 smaller adjacent islands, including the Tsushima Islands and the Ryukyu (Nansei) Islands north of 30° North Latitude (excluding Kuchinoshima Island); and excluding (a) Utsuryo (Ullung) Island, Liancourt Rocks (Take Island) and Quelpart (Saishu or Cheju) Island (b) the Ryukyu (Nansei) Islands south of 30° North Latitude (including Kuchinoshima Island), the Izu, Nanpo, Bonin (Ogasawara) and Volcano (Kazan or Iwo) Island Groups, and all the other outlying Pacific Islands [including the Daito (Ohigashi or Oagari) Island Group, and Parece Vela (Okinotori), Marcus (Minami-tori) and Ganges (Nakano-tori) Islands], and (c) the Kurile (Chishima) Islands, the Habomai (Hapomaze) Island Group (including Suisho, Yuri, Akiyuri, Shibotsu and Taraku Islands) and Shikotan Island.

The SCAPIN has been revised twice: SCAPIN 841 issued on March 22, 1946 returning Izu and Nanpo Islands to Japan; the revised SCAPIN 677 dated December 5, 1951 returned the islands between 30-29 degree N. latitude and Kagoshima Ten Village Islands to Japanese sovereignty. However, no such directives, memoranda and/or orders were ever issued to change the separation of Dokdo. The territorial provisions in the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty merely conformed what had already become an accomplished fact. The separation of Dokdo by SCAPIN No. 677 — so far as it has not been changed specifically — should be acknowledged and respected as the accomplished facts which were actually carried into effect by the Peace Treaty. (Source: Professor Young K Kim, A Suggestion for an Impeccable logical integrity, Dec. 2011: http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=young_kim)

San Francisco Peace Treaty pronounced that:

Japan recognizes the validity of all acts and omissions done during the period of occupation under or in consequence of directives of the occupation authorities or authorized by Japanese law at that time, and will take no action subjecting Allied nationals to civil or criminal liability arising out of such acts or omissions.

SF Peace Treaty does not contain any definition of Japanese territory. In other words, without recognizing SCAPIN directives, Japan owns no territory, even four main islands of Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku). SCAPIN directives excluded Dokdo from Japanese territory, and SF Peace Treaty ordered Japan to recognize the directive. That decision has not changed, even though some islands were returned to Japan later with subsequent directives.
9 Byeonguk Yook July 12, 2012 at 9:41 pm: Based on this guys conduct I’d say he deserved to be called an ASSHAT. He pretty much was trying to provoke Koreans by trampling on Korean sensitivities in relation to the comfort women issue.
10 Byeonguk Yook July 12, 2012 at 9:46 pm: Well in a way they are both ASSHAT but the Japanese guy is a bigger ASSHAT doing things knowing he was going to offend Koreans.
11 hoju_saram July 12, 2012 at 10:15 pm: This, my friends, is what you call a successful troll.
12 Liz July 12, 2012 at 10:23 pm: That *is* business acumen! Especially if he outsourced the manufacturing to a hinterland province in China where they can stamp these vampire stakes out at 3 cents a piece.
13 hoju_saram July 12, 2012 at 10:23 pm: Is the neutrality of The Marmot’s Hole really debatable? LINK

What a goofball!
14 Gerry Bevers July 12, 2012 at 10:44 pm: What about the Koreans who set up the Comfort Woman monument in front of the Japanese Embassy? Are they the biggest “asshats” since they were the first to try to offend? And what about the Koreans setting up Comfort Women monuments in the US? Surely they knew they would be offending the Japanese with the factually inaccurate, inflammatory inscriptions on the monuments. If we are going to judge someone’s “asshattedness” based on his or her intention to offend, then the Koreans win the “Asshat Award” hands down.
15 bumfromkorea July 12, 2012 at 10:50 pm: Go to an ex-colony, call women gang-raped by the Imperial Japanese Army whores, and then watch people get angry. Brilliant!

Does that sound like anybody we know? Anyone?
16 HSchmidt July 12, 2012 at 10:50 pm: Gerry you should go suck more of that nuclear radiation tainted Japanese penis.
17 The_Korean July 12, 2012 at 11:01 pm: Just shut the fuck up, Gerry. Seriously. It’s Robert’s blog and he owes no duty to be neutral on any topic, least of which on this one.
18 Su July 12, 2012 at 11:04 pm: German Neo-Nazi : “Heil Hitler! The Jews are not victims, they are liars!”
Robert Koeler : ”Oh, a jewish guy just punched that asshat in the face!”
Gerry Bevers : “Robert, You are showing off your anti-German bias”

I see two ASSHAT here.
19 Byeonguk Yook July 12, 2012 at 11:09 pm: They certainly knew that certain Japanese were going to object to this. But they didn’t go to Tokyo and do it there right? This Japanese guy went to Seoul where the statue was placed and decided to do it there. It is like the guy was clearly out to provoke and do it in their faces. As to what the inaccuracies are that is a never ending debate but there were clearly people who were forced to become “comfort women” against there will. Whether it was 200K or so is not the main point.
20 Gerry Bevers July 12, 2012 at 11:15 pm: Just shut the fuck up, Gerry. It’s Robert’s blog and he owes no duty to be neutral on any topic, least of which on this one.

As long as you and others know that. Of course, I still have the right to point out his bias when I see it, don’t I? By the way, how are you doing in the neutrality department, Mr. The Korean?
21 WMunny July 12, 2012 at 11:52 pm: The monument in Nassau County reads:
“In remembrance of the more than 200,000 women and girls who were abducted for the use of sexual slavery…”

Simple question: Do people at the Marmot’s Hole agree with that line (that “more than 200,000″ were abducted)?
22 Byeonguk Yook July 13, 2012 at 12:15 am: I’d be curious to see where they get that number.
23 WMunny July 13, 2012 at 12:18 am: What does “VV” mean?
24 Zionmx July 13, 2012 at 4:52 am: v for victory? dunno
25 Zionmx July 13, 2012 at 4:55 am: Please go back to your pro-japan blog.

We know your true intentions in this site. I’ve read plenty of your posts.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you are also a holocaust denial.
26 Zionmx July 13, 2012 at 4:59 am: Because you are the one to comment regarding neutrality.

So how much are the jap right wing is paying you hourly?
27 DC Musicfreak July 13, 2012 at 5:36 am: There’s a huge disparity in the percentage of the populations of Japan and Korea who think about, let alone get exercised over, this islet dispute. By focusing on the Japanese fringe nutters, this blog — like the nationalist Korean media Robert seems to be working hard to become indistinguishable from — does everyone a disservice. I say this as someone who supports the status quo in the Sea of Japan and wishes that Dokdo/Takeshima become forbidden topics, a step which at the very least would bring a welcome reduction in the tedious appearances of Bevers, Q and Frogmouth.
28 Zionmx July 13, 2012 at 5:40 am: I say we do a poll to decide whether we should ban them or not.
29 Arghaeri July 13, 2012 at 8:15 am: It means, how do I get this stupid Disqus to work, Oh **** what what was that, wheres the delete button.

So muxh meaning in two small letters
30 Byeonguk Yook July 13, 2012 at 8:37 am: I am against restricting the subject that this blog can cover. If these people want to continue their views fine with them.
31 Robert Koehler July 13, 2012 at 9:16 am: By the way, how are you doing in the neutrality department, Mr. The Korean?

Or more to the point, how are you doing, Gerry?
32 Robert Koehler July 13, 2012 at 9:25 am: If we are going to judge someone’s “asshattedness” based on his or her intention to offend, then the Koreans win the “Asshat Award” hands down.

I’m not 100% comfortable putting up Comfort Women memorials, Gerry, but only somebody with an extremely screwed up moral compass would express greater outrage over putting up a monument recognized by both the UN and US Congress than over a rightwing ASSHAT coming over to call the victims of gang rape whores.
33 Gerry Bevers July 13, 2012 at 10:22 am: I notice that no one at The Marmot’s Hole has answered your simple question, WMunny, probably because it is too painful to admit for many on The Marmot’s Hole, especially in front of The Marmot and others on this blog. However, I have answered it, but the problem is that my answer has been “flagged for review.”
34 babotaengi July 13, 2012 at 10:59 am: No, no. Silencing dissenting opinions is the only reasonable thing to do.
35 RolyPoly July 13, 2012 at 11:04 am: These topics are so old. “Dokto/Takeshima”, “Comfort women”, “Japanese textbooks” and “Shinto shrine”.. Just forget it. The guy who rammed the truck probably got paid by the Chinese or NKs. These nuts want Koreans to get in the war between China and Japan. Just ignore. The Japanese right-wingers probably do not want Koreans to be angry at Japan either. They cannot be that stupid. At this time in history, the Japanese should be very close to Koreans. The Chinese are coming, the Chinese are coming.. in big hungry numbers.
36 Wedge July 13, 2012 at 11:08 am: I am with you on this one, DC Musicfreak. Every time the Liancourt Rocks issue comes up internationally the idea that the rocks are in dispute strengthens. Run an ad in the NYT or at Times Square? Americans who had never heard of the goddamned rocks now think there is some sort of a dispute, when in fact there really isn’t. All of this erodes Korea’s position, which is essentially possession is 9/10s of the law.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the only way this issue is going to reach the consciousness of the average Taro or Emiko is for an asshat to run his Bongo into the Japanese Embassy gate. Some clown selling stakes on the internet won’t go beyond the 0.1% of the Japanese population that actually gives a toss.
37 Yu Bum Suk July 13, 2012 at 11:50 am: Indeed. And this is the argument Korea should be pushing, not mediaeval claims that can be thrust very much into dispute.
38 Robert Koehler July 13, 2012 at 12:14 pm: As they say, Gerry, it’s all about the numbers:

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007272
39 Robert Koehler July 13, 2012 at 12:18 pm: Sure, Dokdo is probably not that important, but the Comfort Women issue is—or at least the Japanese consulate in New York seems to think so. To quote The Korean, unlike, say, a lot of the other issues we bitch about, this one actually involves people who got hurt. Badly.
40 Gerry Bevers July 13, 2012 at 12:39 pm: Robert, are you still reviewing my reply to WMunny?
41 Robert Koehler July 13, 2012 at 12:51 pm: Robert, are you still reviewing my reply to WMunny?

What are you talking about, Gerry?
42 Su July 13, 2012 at 1:03 pm: “Some Holocaust deniers claim that those “few” Jews who perished died from natural causes or were legitimately executed by the Nazi state for actual criminal offenses. They assert that Jews and the Allied powers deliberately inflated the numbers of Jews killed during the war. Holocaust historians have placed the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust between 5.1 and 6 million, based on legitimate available historical sources and demographic methods. Holocaust deniers cite uncertainty about the exact number of deaths within this accepted range as proof that the whole history of the Holocaust has been fabricated and that the number of Jewish deaths during World War II has been grossly exaggerated.”
It seems like exactly What Gerry is doing here to Korean victims of gang rape. He must have Holocaust denier’s DNA in his cells.
43 Gerry Bevers July 13, 2012 at 1:58 pm: Robert Kohler wrote:

Robert, are you still reviewing my reply to WMunny?
What are you talking about, Gerry?

My comments are being deleted. I just posted the same comment I had posted before, but it was deleted within a minute of my posting it. After it was deleted it continued to appear in the “Recent Comments” section, now even that has been deleted. Do you really not know what I am talking about, Robert?
44 Robert Koehler July 13, 2012 at 2:15 pm: No, Gerry, I don’t. I see nothing in my “Pending” or “Deleted” box.
45 WMunny July 13, 2012 at 3:06 pm: To: Su

HOW DARE YOU?

I’m Jewish, and I take GREAT offence to people relating the Comfort Women history to The Holocaust.

1. Jews did not answer newspaper ads to travel to Germany to hop into an oven.
2. Jews do not continue to hop into ovens in countries all over the world.

As you can see, your comparision doesn’t work!

You’re as bad as the Koreans that claim the burning of Namdaemun was “Korea’s 9-11″.

There is no doubt that there were Korean women and girls that were abducted and enslaved. I hope that those specific people can be respectfully remembered.

And I’m not Jewish.
46 Andrew Barbour July 13, 2012 at 3:27 pm: WMunny, WHY ARE THE KOREAN PROSTITUTES JUMPING INTO THE OVENS?
47 WMunny July 13, 2012 at 3:38 pm: Andrew Barbour,
Yes, I think an edit is in order.
48 Tony_Chan July 13, 2012 at 3:43 pm: Do foreigners living in Korea have to sign a declaration of pro-Korean/anti-Japanese-ness? Just wondering.
49 Su July 13, 2012 at 4:06 pm: WMunny,Oh, really? Jews take offence when people relate the Comfort Women history to The Holocaust?Man, the world doesn’t work as you imagine.Just watch this
“Holocaust & Comfort Women Survivors Calling for Justice Together”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFlTinpWF7o&feature=player_detailpage

Now, you made my day.
50 Byeonguk Yook July 13, 2012 at 9:56 pm: Nope. But it would like being a holocaust denier in Israel if you are tactless to mouth of about it if you alternative views even if you are sincere about denying the holocaust.
51 frogmouth July 13, 2012 at 10:41 pm: Yeah, Gerry is right, You shouldn’t call others an ASSHAT.

If you disagree with someone’s opinion you should refer to them as (I quote)

“A dumbshit goofball, a Korean ass-kissing goofball, or a dumbshit, Korean-ass-kissing goofball. And anyone who knows the truth, but fails to expose the ridiculous lies of Korea’s goofball historians is chicken-shit goofball…

Sound familiar Gare Bear?

http://www.rjkoehler.com/2006/04/15/tora-tora-tora/#comment-97284386
52 WMunny July 13, 2012 at 11:33 pm: To Su,
That particular Jewish group isn’t representative of all of us
I get your point, though. And I watched the first hour of the link you posted.
You’re right; no one could take offense to the groups sharing the same goals of ensuring that the victims are never forgotten.
53 que369 July 14, 2012 at 5:35 am: It is difficult to obtain exact number of victims of enforced sex slaves due to Japanese government’s “restriction on relevant documentation.” Toshiyuki Tanaka’s research “Japan’s Comfort Women (Asia’s Transformations)” says:

At this time, however, it is quite difficult to conduct thorough reasearch on this issue, mainly due to restrictions on access to relevant documentstion:

* Firstly, many official military documents are still classified and not open for public inspection — for example, several thousand volumes of Gyomu Nisshi (Records of Military Plans and Operations) and Jagun Nisshi (Field Diaries) housed in the Research Library of the Japanese Defence Agency.

* Secondly, all documents prepared by the Japanese Police during the Asia-Pacific War are still closed.

* Thirdly, it is believed that many relevant documents were prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs adn the Ministry of Colonial Affairs, both of which had major responsibilities for colonial Korea and Taiwan. (From 1942, the Ministry of Home Affairs replaced the Ministry of Colonial Affairs in charge of administration of Taiwanese affairs.) However, none of these official records has so far been released.

* Finally, it is also believed that Japanese government ministries — the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Public Welfare and the Ministry of Justice — still retain considerable numbers of relevant documents, but these are not accessible to researchers. The fact that there is no Freedom of Information Act in Japan makes it difficult to change the present research condition.
In addition, many people whe were directly involved in setting up and implementing the comfort women system are still alive, but they remain silent on this issue.

More reading on here.
here.

However, Professor Tanaka does suggest some numbers in his book:

The comfort women were treated as “military supplies,” but relevant document were either hidden or destroyed at the end of the war. It is impossible to know, therefore, how many women were exploited. The best estimates range from 80,000 to 100,000. According to the Japanese military plan devised in July 1941, 20,000 comfort women were required for every 800,000 Japanese soldiers, or one woman for every 40 soldiers (This estimate is based upon a report that the Kuwantung Army of 800,000 men planned to mobilize 20,000 Korean comfort women during the so-called “Kuwantung Army Special Maneuvres” in July 1941). There were 3.5 million Japanese soldiers sent to China and Southeast Asia during the war, and therefore, by this calculation, an estimated 90,000 women were mobilized. Of these women 80 percent are believed to have been Koreans, but many also came from Taiwan, China, the Philppines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Why were comfort women almost invariably from Taiwan, China, or various places in Southeast Asia, and above all Korea? This might seem odd at first, given that the Japanese were notorious for their racism towards the people of other Asian countries. However, racial prejudice provides part of the answer to the question – that very racism helped make these women suitable for the role of comfort women. Japanese prostitutes did serve the military abroad during the war, but most were in a different position from the comfort women. The Japanese prostitutes mainly worked in comfort stations that served high-ranking officers, and they experienced better conditions than the Asian comfort women. Apart from the difficulty in recruiting Japanese women into comfort stations, Japanese military leaders did not believe Japanese women should be in that role. Their mission was to bear and bring up good Japanese children, who would grow up to be loyal subjects of the Emperor rather than being the means for men to satisfy their sexual urges. The Japanese wartime government took its lead from Nazi eugenic ideology and policy in these matters. In 1940 the National Eugenic Law was proclaimed. The purposes of the law were to prevent miscegenation and the reproduction of the “unfit,” such as those with mental illness that was believed to be inherited.

More reading here
here

Professor Tanak’s research also provided other numbers:

Mobilization of the Korean labor force into war-related industries was greatly strengthened from 1943. In 1943 alone, nearly 140,000 people were mobilized by the Government-General (Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Jugun Ianfu, p.100). In September 1943, the “Women’s Voluntary Labor Service Corps” was organized throughout Korea. Through the corps many young, unmarried women were forced to “volunteer” for various types of work in wartime industries. In August 1944, a new law – the “Women’s Voluntary Labor Service Law” – was enacted. This allowed the Governor-General of Korea to force any unmarried woman between 12 and 40 years to engage in war-related labor for 12 months. Under this law a vast number of young girls were mobilized and many were sent to Japan to work at large industrial factories. This policy probably created the situation in which procurement of young Korea women for military comfort stations became difficult. As a result, it seems that the power of the police force was abused by the military authorities for the purpose of securing comfort women. According to testimonies of former comfort women, it appears that some representatives of the local Neighborhood Association, an organization that the Government-General required local civilians to establish, were also forced to act on behalf of owners/managers of comfort stations or their sub-contractors.

Some girls accepted offers of “employment” by labor brokers, or through the mediation of leaders of the local Neighborhood Association, in order to avoid being drafted into the Women’s Voluntary Labor Service Corps. Ch’oe Myungsun was one of them. In January 1945, when she was 19 years old, she accepted an introduction by a representative of the Neighborhood Association to a “good job” in Japan. She was sent to Hiroshima to become a mistress of Japanese military officer for a couple of months. Then she was taken into a comfort station in Osaka, where she was forced to serve the Japanese soldiers until shortly before the end of the war.
It was shortly after August 1944, when the Women’s Voluntary Labor Service Law was enacted, that a rumor spread in Korea that all unmarried girls over 14 years old would be forced to become comfort women. Many middle- and upper-class Korean families withdrew their daughters from women’s colleges and hurriedly arranged marriages for them to avoid their being drafted. However, some families in lower social strata felt trapped.

More reading here
here
54 Avaast July 16, 2012 at 11:09 pm: Here is a piece of, erm, interesting news regarding the comfort women issue. They might want to rethink the naming of that street in the US now…

외교부 “위안부 영문표현 ‘성노예’로 변경 검토”http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/politics/2012/07/16/0503000000AKR20120716095900043.HTML?template=2087