Civilians Killed During Korean War to be Execavated
From Yonhap:
The South Korean government said Tuesday it will soon begin excavating the remains of civilians killed by their own security forces for alleged espionage or collaboration with communist North Koreans during the 1950-53 Korean War.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission said it plans to ask a team of experts to partner with an excavation company to dig at the four different locations where mass killings are believed to have taken place.
The government-affiliated commission said it wants to continue the excavation until May to find the remains of about 5,000 civilians allegedly killed by the South Korean police and military during the war.
So when is anyone going to start excavating remains from North Korean and Chinese atrocities during the Korean War?Â
And when is anyone going to start excavating remains from Japanese atrocities during the Japan's colonial period?
Koreans insist often that many Koreans were massacred by Japanese. But when and where and who?
I've never read of a mass Japanese execution of Korean civilians. They tended to imprison people and give death sentences to some in prison while others died of disease in prison.
Well the Buddist committed executions of christians and this explains the extream hatred of one another. Lets dig these dead up
GI Korea
You are right.
But many Koreans mix up the death in prison with the genocide of Nazi concentration camps and believe Korean were massacred by Japanese like Jewish people.
http://foreigndispatches.typepad.com/dispatches/2…
That is the reason why most of them never admit that Korea was modernized by Japan during the colonial period.
Koreans were victims!!! And it is more convenient to be victims for them.
That's why Yoko Kawashima who writes Koreans raped Japanese women after WW2 must be a liar.
Koreans during the colonization were victims of the Japanese. The colonization of Korea by Japan was not an enlightened occupation to improve the lives of Koreans. Much infrastructure improvements were made in Korea but for self serving purposes of the Japanese. For example dams were built to stop the flooding of the country side to improve rice production. Rice production went up which farmers at first thought was great until the Japanese came by and told them 70% of their rice had to be sent to Japan. Additionally bridges, trains, and roads were built in order to move commodities such as rice more easily to Japan and to move soldiers into Manchuria, which was the real prize for the Japanese, more quickly.
I have never had a Korean ever tell me that Koreans were killed by the Japanese like the Nazis killed Jews. Additionally at Soedaemun prison in Seoul they say about 400 people were executed by the Japanese there, a far cry from any Jewish genocide claims. Your claim that many Koreans equate the colonial period with the Jewish genocide I believe to be wrong.
GI Korea
“Koreans during the colonization were victims of the Japanese.â€
I think history and world are no so simple.
Do you believe Cubans, Hawaiians, Filipinos, and Vietnamese were victims of US because US invaded their countries?
Do you believe all of Asian and Africans were victims of Westerners?
If Korea had not been colonized by Japan, she would have been colonized by Russia.
During the era of imperialism, all of Asian countries were colonized except Japan and Thai.
And it is not Japanese who started imperialism. Japan was forced to open by US, either.
I am not criticizing western countries.
In the world history, it is meaningless to classify victims and perpetrators.
GI Korea
"Your claim that many Koreans equate the colonial period with the Jewish genocide I believe to be wrong."
I am not sure whose claim shows the idea of all of Koreans correctly.
Personally, I have one Korean friend. He invited me to his house, and recommended me a good movie to watch.
It was "Schindler's List".
After watching that movie, he started to criticize Japanese fanatically and tried to make me apologize.
He has a good personality if he does not talk about Japan-Korea relationship.
GI Korea
As for the Rice controversy you mentioned, I have so many data and evidences about that.
But I don't talk about that topic because it is not relevant to your post.
Furthermore, it would take long hours to talk about Rice controversy, and you need to read many evidences written in old Japanese.
I just like to mention the conclusion only. Rice controversy is one of the famous propagandas Korean government has created to brainwash Korean people to hate Japanese.
I said Koreans during the colonization were victims of the Japanese, not Koreans today. That is one of the problems I see with Korea today is that many people still think they are victims when they are not.
I have heard every arguement out there about Japan having a enlightened colonization of Korea and all of them I found to be rubbish. Japan colonized Korea for its own purposes not for the welfare of Koreans.
You can read more of my thoughts here:
http://rokdrop.com/2007/01/08/the-taft-katsura-ag…
GI korea
Thank you very much for the above IRL.
“That is one of the problems I see with Korea today is that many people still think they are victims when they are not.â€
I agree with your idea. In Korea, if your father was guilty, you have to take the burden of father’s guilt. If your farther was “Chinirupaâ€, you must be criticized either.
That is the reason why Korean never stops to criticize Japanese and ask for apology again and again.
The point is the idea to judge whether guilty or not guilty is very biased.
“I have heard every argument out there about Japan having a enlightened colonization of Korea and all of them I found to be rubbish.â€
Of course. In the long history of the world, there is no country which invaded neighboring countries for the welfare and affection for the neighbors.
Japan invaded Korea for the national interest of Japan, like the other western countries.
The point is western countries’ colonization of Asia was effective for the civilization and development of Asian countries in spite of many brutal wars and governing.
When west met east, the exchange of two worlds was started as invasion and colonization. But it was a must. It is a reality of history.
We learned a lot from foreign civilizations through invasions and wars
If Portuguese had not invaded South America and brought red pepper there to Asia, Korean would not have enjoyed eating Kimchi.
Koreans believe the invasion Korea is absolutely evil.
That is why they criticize Japanese and even American because of Taft-Katsura Agreement.
Because it was evil unconditionally, they like to believe all of Japanese policies in Korea must be evil.
It is not the matter of a history or a research. It is a religion.
A very insightfull give and take above. Very interesting.
jion,
I highly recommend you read the book, "Under the Black Umbrella" which you can see on my sidebar. This book is compiled witness testimony from Koreans who lived under the Japanese occupation of Korea. By reading this book you will see that your sweeping generalizations of all Koreans think the Japanese are evil is wrong.
It is much more complex than that and reading this book will give you a better idea of what Koreans really think about the Japanese colonization.
GIK
Thank you for recommending the nice book.
I like to read it if I have a chance.
I know some people criticize me of my generalizations of all Koreans.
I have Korean friends and understand there are more complex feelings of Koreans about Japanese.
But if we talk about one country and its people, we can not avoid some kind of generalizations.
When I criticize Koreans, of course I understand there are many exceptions.
However, the people of Taiwan are generally much less antagonistic towards Japan today. We can see this dichotomy clearly in Koreans' nationalistic, vituperative demonstrations against Japan that continued for more that 60 years and will continue in the future even if they don’t have any memory about Japanese rule.
Anyway, I enjoyed the discussion with you very much.
Thanks.