Hamel has been urging me to post this since he emailed it to me a week ago.
Don’t blame me—blame him.
Anyway, it can be fun sometimes to peak into a wacky world where the real villains in colonial Korea were American missionaries and Comintern, Koreans owe the Japanese for all the money spent colonizing them (“We must be mindful that the inhabitants of the Korean peninsula will never understand our good intentions”), the comfort women were well-paid prostitutes and Japan brought “civilization” to Korea.
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
ampotan posted similar crap about two weeks ago. aint nothing new here.
#1
Well, it’s definitely not new since it’s generally the kind of argument (excuse) you hear from people who try to justify colonialism in general. “We didn’t do it for ourselves, we did it for them!”.
Right.
Sounds very similar to the “white man’s burden” argument/justification that was very prevalent during the years of colonialism.
The sushi man’s burden.
“You didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
I always liked Japan, recently imho it’s entering pathetic territory.
They should concentrate on the monumental task of trying to fix their bound for annhilation economy rather than pursuing this sad nationalistic crap
#5
You have it other way around, generally that’s usually the reason why (trouble back at home) countries pursue the nationalistic route. That said, I wouldn’t really categorize this as “Japan” pursuing a nationalistic route. That’s a pretty big generalization I’d rather avoid.
How can such a cuddly nation have been up to such nasty biz?
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/08/30/fukuoka-girls-dont-you-wish-you-were-cute-like-me/
On the verge of bankruptscy – I am sure China would have stepped in and taken over Korea – if China itself wasn’t going through a massive famine in the early 1900′s.
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Do take the time to have a look at the “A New Look at the Annexation of Korea” (full version). It is VERY professionally put together with photos and stuff, and appears to have been proofread by a native speaker. 140 pages long, folks, but yesterday being the 102th anniversary of the coming into force of the Treaty of Annexation, I thought it was worth posting.
Also, that document has been available on the website of the SDH-Fact since the 100th anniversary in 2010, but appears to have garnered no attention in the internet whatsoever.
The document is proof (as if we needed it again) that somewhere out there, everything humanly possible can be defended by someone.
There is a (a href=”http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/89_S2.pdf”>summary here.
There is a summary here.</a
On Aug. 25, a Japanese ultra-right wing mob of 300 descended upon Tokyo’s Korea-Town and caused trouble, verbally and physically harrassing Koreans, smashing store signs, etc.
The young Japanese men, apparently ultra-right wing, entered Korean stores and harrassed store employees and started fights.
Some store employees were terrorized and unable to come back to work the following day.
The Federation of Korean Associations in Japan is currently working with the Korean embassy to seek redress for the situation, and urged Koreans in Japan to avoid getting caught up in Japanese ultra-right wing protests and to stay safe.
“harass”, not “harrass”
Japan’s annexation of Korea was illegal that lacked Gojong’s ratification:
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Totsuka-Etsuro/3493
It was published a decade ago, but still makes sense. BATTLE FOR HISTORY / Nationalist Voices / Growing trend in Japan: no apology for WWII / Neo-conservative fringe gains ground by denying or rationalizing war crimes:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/BATTLE-FOR-HISTORY-Nationalist-Voices-Growing-2845239.php#ixzz252ZM8N3Z
hamel, you seem duped by Japanese right-wingers’ propaganda.
The Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact (SDHF) denies the history of:
1) Nanking Massacre: http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/88_S4.pdf
2) Sexual Slavery (‘comfort women’): http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/84_S4.pdf
SDHF blames the US for the World War II: http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/82_S4.pdf
SDHF also claims that Dokdo is Japanese territory: http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_3/26_S1.pdf
Read the title of the ridiculous SDHF article: “The US, not Japan, was the Aggressor”. hamel, do you agree with their propaganda?
Good lord. I wanna throw-up.
jk6411, sounds like 1948 all over again.
Another distortions and revisionism on part of Japanese. They can’t really comprehend the truth, it seems. The Japan “brought” civilization to Korea made me laugh and chuckle.
Q wrote: “hamel, you seem duped by Japanese right-wingers’ propaganda.”
Q, I suggest that you re-read Hamel’s words:
“The document is proof (as if we needed it again) that somewhere out there, everything humanly possible can be defended by someone.”
Hamel here expresses his skepticism in strong, if indirect terms. Hamel is anything but duped.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
I appreciate you for the clarification for Hamel, Prof. Hodge!
Prof. Hodges… How could a person be plural?
“I am large, I contain multitudes.”
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
I notice that Gerry Bevers is conspicuous by his absence. But I am sure he has downloaded the PDF and is combing through it.
Heck, maybe he proofread the thing voluntarily.
This is an ominous thing of badukian proportions that bodes ill.
It’s actually quite convenient that they blow away any semblance or possibility of truth in this report. There is a case one can make that the occupation wasn’t as bad and certainly not as harmful in the long term as most Koreans would tend to believe. However this report is so over the top in its attempt to exonerate Japan that only people who want to believe lies will believe it.
WangKon,
What happened in 1948?
The Japanese Government seems to suffer from a long-term credibility problem despite repeated apologies through time. Perhaps the government needs to severely clamp down upon these sort of revisionist efforts or else be undermined by them.
Their insistence upon Dokdo being Japanese is really pig-headed stubbornness as well that only causes them harm over time. A more diplomatic negotiation for mineral rights in exchange for ceding any interest in the area might suit them better but apparently Japan is suffering from a lack of political wisdom as well as self-induced nuclear catastrophe.
Also a big part of Japan’s credibility problem:
from here.
Tamogami was commission to write his little bit of revisionism by a contest sponsored by the Apa Group, a Japanese developer run by Toshio Motoya, a real piece of revisionist work that supposedly has alleged Fukushima nuclear accident was an American plot.
If the Japanese Government did nothing more than to retire Tamogami, then it has no one to blame for its lack of credibility other than itself and its feckless leadership.
#29
Well, I don’t really see what else the Japanese government could have done other than to fire Tamogami and state that the government did not share his views. but you seem to have something better in mind.
On a somewhat related note, I tried reading his “essay” and it was absolute drivel. He seems to believe that comintern had a firm grip on every bloody country in the world and that’s the reason why Japan and the U.S. went to war. Typical conspiracy-theory crap – I’m surprised he made it to Chief of Staff of JSADF, although I suppose he could have been a good administrator.
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