Here is an article in the Korea Times that lists all the good things Korea is doing in the international community. I can’t argue that Korea is not doing good things internationally because they are, but I have to wonder about this passage here concerning refugees:
Our office, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN refugee agency mandated to lead and coordinate international actions to protect refugees and provide emergency assistance worldwide, will receive $1.5 million US in 2006 from the Korean government, an increase of 35 percent from 2005. The contribution is expected to be increased further. Although Korea, as the 11th largest economy in the world, has belatedly taken long delayed action to increase its fair contribution, the actions themselves deserve much credit.
He must mean all refugees that are not North Korean because it is well known how little South Korea does to protect North Korean refugees in China and the Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has actually spoken out against the North Korean refugees. So that passage rings very hollow to me. Here is another statement that got me thinking:
Now is time for Koreans to do more for the world and to be proud as Koreans.
Should Korea do more in the world just so people can feel proud to be Koreans? How about just doing more to simply help people even North Korean refugees?
Why isn’t good news like this played repeatedly over the airwaves instead of car bombings?:
Four years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghans express both vast support for the changes that have shaken their country and remarkable optimism for the future, despite the deep challenges they face in economic opportunity, security and basic services alike.
Yet despite these and other deprivations, 77 percent of Afghans say their country is headed in the right direction — compared with 30 percent in the vastly better-off United States. Ninety-one percent prefer the current Afghan government to the Taliban regime, and 87 percent call the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban good for their country. Osama bin Laden, for his part, is as unpopular as the Taliban; nine in 10 view him unfavorably.
Progress fuels these views: Despite the country’s continued problems, 85 percent of Afghans say living conditions there are better now than they were under the Taliban. Eighty percent cite improved freedom to express political views. And 75 percent say their security from crime and violence has improved as well. After decades of oppression and war, many Afghans see a better life.
This is amazing progress in Afghanistan yet no one knows about it. Yet everyone knows about secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. Has it ever occurred to anyone that maybe the fact that these Al Qaida terrorists are sitting in these secret CIA prisons is the reason why the people of Afghanistan have such a positive outlook of their own future and the United States effort to give them this future?
Here is another Japan Finder for you. I promise next week I will have a real Korea Finder for you. For this week, however you will just have to make do with determining where this famous Japanese bridge is located.
About 4,500 demonstrators, according to police estimates, rallied outside the Pyeongtaek train station to protest the American plan to move forces to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek. A group called The Pan-Korean National Task Force Against Expansion of U.S. Bases in Pyeongtaek organized the protest.
The Korean National Police and Camp Humphreys officials had braced for possible large-scale violence Sunday, but the task force stuck with its previously stated plan of holding a peaceful protest outside the train station and the Pyeongtaek city hall.
Anti-American protests in Korea are nothing new because it is always the same people protesting; the pro-North Koreans, leftists, progressives, anti-anything-American, the communists, etc. Whatever term you want to define them with it is still the same usual suspects who come into town and cause problems for the local citizens with anti-American antics. However, something different has happened once again to counter these protesters; the pro-American forces have mobilized to counter them:
In a show of support for the U.S. military Sunday, the Korean Veterans Association and Songtan Chamber of Commerce held a rally that drew a crowd police estimated at about 4,000 outside the main gate of Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek’s Songtan section.
The veterans urged support for the U.S. military’s presence on the peninsula and its planned relocation of forces to Humphreys. They also denounced the anti-American activist movement in South Korea, which they said imperiled their country’s security.
4,000 pro-American protesters outside of the Osan gate is even more pro-American activists than what showed up at the September MacArthur Statue protest in Inchon. I think a case can be made that the pro-American activists are getting better organized and picking up speed to retaliate against the anti-American protesters. Some of the quotes from the activists are words I have heard before from Korean citizens:
“Most of Korean people are with you,†said Sung Ho-kyoung, 70, a resident of Anyang City who said he witnessed North Korean atrocities as a teenager during the Korean War of 1950-53.
“Let your people know that,†he told the reporter. “And don’t let your government … push to withdraw your troops from Korea. Let your people know that. Please!â€
“We need the American troops … because we must keep the peace and freedom [on the] Korean Peninsula,†said Lee Seung-ro, 55, of Seoul.
K.C. Lee, president of the Songtan Chamber of Commerce, said during remarks from a speaker’s platform that the community welcomes the U.S. military’s move to Pyeongtaek.
“My dear American friends, we want you to be here,†Lee said in Korean and in English.
It may seem like a small thing, but it does feel good to hear that at least some people appreciate what we are doing in Korea.
Park Kuk-wha felt good on Saturday, despite being tired from studying for a recent final exam at school.
The 15-year-old was upbeat because he got to see some old friends at an annual Christmas party given by Pearl S. Buck International Korea and U.S. soldiers from the 524th Military Intelligence Battalion.
(…)
Yi had reason to celebrate Saturday as well. Last year, his charity was struggling to provide monthly stipends to the families, who depend on a few extra dollars each month to pay the utility bill or the child’s school costs. Donations had dwindled to about $3,000 a month, which spread thin across the 150 or so children Yi was trying to help.
So Yi set out this time last year to renew his relationships with chaplains and soldiers with U.S. Forces Korea. Soldiers from the 524th have been helping for three years with rice drives and holiday parties, but Yi began soliciting extra help from church congregations and private donations.
The plan worked. The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea recently sponsored job training for eight mothers, who now have full-time jobs as hair stylists and masseuses. At random times during the year, soldiers or contractors with USFK came forward to donate money and clothes to the children. And on one Sunday during a church service on Yongsan Garrison, a special collection was held for the Pearl S. Buck children.
The good these soldiers and also contractors are doing for these children discarded by Korean society is really significant. The Amerasian children are shunned by Korean society which causes them to have limited ability to attend good universities and well paying jobs. This in turn often causes them to stay and find work in ville areas like Itaewon where they can fit in and find employment.
The positive reinforcement and financial aid will go a long ways to improving the lives for these children and hopefully giving them a better future.
The total votes for Xiaxue have been reduced by 5048 votes for cheating committed from the following the 220.255 subnet. Nine individual IP addresses have been banned.
The total votes for Mr. Brown have been reduced by 9944 votes for cheating committed from the following the 218.186 subnet. Three individual IP addresses have been banned.
Kevin at Wizbang has banned the IP addresses of the cheaters. Unfortunately, based on comments at mr brown, this may have shut out all users of Starhub cable broadband ISP Maxonline, one of the city state’s main providers. AP hopes that this is not the case or, if so, that it can be rectified quickly.
If not, tens of thousands of Singaporeans will be effectively disenfranchised.
Of course, given that the People’s Action Party has effectively intimidated the opposition to such a degree that many ridings are uncontested in parliamentary elections, as well as the presidential ‘vote’, being disenfranchised is something that Singaporeans are pretty used to.
I think it is kind of childish to spray paint graffiti like this in a prominent location in a foreign country because the Dokto issue is a regional political issue between Korea and Japan that has nothing to do with the Czech Republic. It would similarly be childish of me if I went to Cheongyecheon Stream in Seoul and painted one of the walls there with graffiti against illegal Mexican immigration into America. This issue has absolutely nothing to do with Korea because it is a regional political issue between the US and Mexico. It is the same thing with the Dokto controversy. It is one thing to fill a subway station in Korea with anti-Japanese pictures drawn by school children; but quite another to do something similar to this in a foreign country.
I tend to agree with Curzon’s comment on the whole Dokto controversy:
Korea occupied the rocks; Japan disputes their ownership. Russia occupies southern Sakhalin and the Kurils; Japan disputes their ownership. Somehow, the stoic and steely nature of the Russian personality to resist worldwide lobbying, cutting off pinkies, and making themselves look absurd in the eyes of the world. How ever do they contain themselves?
I feel that Korea does have the strongest case for ownership of Dokto; plus they physically occupy the islets. Short of war nothing is going to move Korea off those two rocks and Japan is not going to start a war over Dokto and both governments know this. Yet Dokto remains a great source for Korean governmental leaders in political trouble at home, to stoke Korean nationalism in order to skew their own short comings. The same phenomenon but on a much smaller scale is why the Japanese government doesn’t let the Takeshima issue fade either because politicians in power want to appease the Japanese fishing industry. In the end it is a wash and both governments look as stupid as this graffiti in Prague.
If I had to pick out one thing that sticks out overwhelmingly between Japan and Korea it would be the controversy surrounding the Yasukuni-jinja Shrine in Tokyo. Being in Japan has given me the opportunity to examine what all the fuss over the shrine is about. What is it about this place that causes so much hostility between Japan and it’s neighbors? Would I see hordes of brainwashed Japanese chanting anti-Korea slogans and preparing for the invasion of Dokto? I would soon find out.
Here is the impressive gate designating the entrance to the Yasukuni Shrine.One last tori before reaching the shrine. Still no sign of the brainwashed Japanese nationalists drawing up war plans for Dokto.
When I reached the actual shrine I did not find any big banners of General Tojo and other war criminals that the media would lead you to believe that this shrine is all about. In fact the shrine was actually pretty simplistic and underwhelming. It is mostly just a place for old Japanese men to hang out, bow at the shrine, and then sit down on a bench under a tree and smoke a pipe.
Here I am at the Yasukuni shrine. No sign of the brainwashed nationalists. Just old people smoking pipes.Japanese couple in front of the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan.
Finding this place pretty boring I started walking down a path to the right of the shrine towards a large building. As I approached the large building, I discovered a statue honoring kamikaze pilots during World War II.
A kamikaze statue; I must be close to uncovering the evil hordes waiting here.
From the statue I headed inside the large building which ended up being a museum chronicling Japanese military history. The museum chronicled Japanese military history from feudal times all the way to the present SDF mission in Iraq.
The museum also had a gift store that sold loads of books, gifts, and accessories related to the SDF and the Japanese Imperial Army. You could even buy the old Japanese Army hats that appeared to be popular with the old folks that mostly populated the place.
The museum interestingly enough does not allow photographs, but I was able to take a few quick pictures of a few items in the museum during my tour.
A Japanese World War II Era Mitsubishi Zero Airplane.
The museum was actually quite interesting to read about the early feudal samurai history of Japan. Additionally the special exhibit they had honoring the Japanese victory over Russia during the Russo-Japanese War was also interesting to see.
However, the interpretation of Japanese history that has longed plagued relations between Korea and Japan began to jump out at me. The exhibit for the Russo-Japanese War claimed that the Japanese Army liberated the Korean peninsula from foreign rule and were greeted by an enthusiastic Korean populace as liberators. The exhibit also maintained that the Japanese brought much industry and modernization to the peninsula. This is true to an extent, but there was no mention of the brutal occupation and the anti-Japanese resistance by the Koreans against it.
Next was the World War II exhibit which I figured would also be quite provocative to see; I wasn’t disappointed. According to the Japanese history presented here, World War II is known as the Asia Co-prosperity War where the Japanese single handedly liberated one Asian country after another from foreign colonial occupation and the Asian people were all happy to be liberated. No mention of the atrocities committed by the invading Japanese troops.
This is a Steam Engine that Actually Operated on the Infamous Thai-Burma Railway Made Famous by the Movie, A Bridge On the River Kwai.
Additionally the museum blames the US for Pearl Harbor. Since the US implemented a trade embargo on the Japanese, the militarists felt that an attack by the Americans against Japan would only naturally come next. The museum even alleges that the United States had a plan to attack Japan in the works and would have been executed if Japan hadn’t pre-empted the American attack by conducting the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
One theme I have picked up on at the museum is that every attack the Japanese conducted was only executed because of foreign colonizers threatening Japan and it’s neighbors. Japan never wanted to colonize any country, they just wanted to liberate Asians from foreigners.
The museum continued on with many more outrageous claims and made it seem like the Japanese won every battle of World War II, but some how the Americans continued to move closer and closer to Japan without winning a battle if you are to believe the museum’s history. The Japanese interpretation of history is extremely ridiculous and completely devoid of reality.
The museum tour concludes into an area that houses pictures and names of the Japanese war dead over the centuries. I actually tried to find General Tojo among the faces but I couldn’t spot him. All the pictures were of the same size and no one stood out more than the other.
All in all Yasukuni is definitely over hyped by nationalist causes in each Northeast Asian country involved in the shrine controversy. Am I offended by the ridiculously false lies taught as history at the shrine? Yes, I am but not enough to set myself on fire or chop my fingers off.
Despite the underwhelming nature of the shrine; I recommend it to anyone with a few days to spend in Tokyo. The history and artifacts in the shrine are interesting to see despite the skewed history. Japan is not the first country to skew history in the region. Korea and China are not innocent themselves of reinterpreting history.
I never did find the Japanese nationalists worshiping the banner of General Tojo and plotting the invasion of Dokto at the Yasukuni Shrine. What I did find was also troubling and that is skewed history, but fortunately it appears that mostly only grandpas nostalgic for the old days are the only ones reading it.
I have always thought the Korea had the world’s ugliest hotels with it’s variety of medieval and Arabian themed lodgings spread across the country. However, I was wrong because there can’t quite possibly be any hotel uglier than this one in Beijing.
That’s right this is not some kind of tacky tourist trap statue similar to something you would see off a highway in the American Southwest. It is in fact a fully functional hotel located in the suburbs of Beijing. This hotel got me thinking if Korea would ever construct a hotel of the likeness of Yi Sun-shin in the heart of Seoul? I don’t know about you but that would be one cultural transfer I hope the Koreans choose to ignore.
There has been some excellent blogging over the past few days over at One Free Korea which has this week featured Andy Jackson of Flying Yangban fame guest blogging from the three day North Korean Human Rights Summit in Seoul. Here is a compilation of links of his excellent posts regarding the summit:
Not to be undone Joshua of One Free Korea has also contributed the below link that offers an interesting suggestion for (anti-)Unification Minister Chung Dong-young concerning South Korea’s unconcern about North Korean counterfeiting of US dollars:
My modest proposal is this: Chung should drive a U-Haul over to the Bank of Korea and load it up with proof plates, paper, and green ink. Then, he should drive the whole load up, across the DMZ, to Kaesong. Naturally, Chung should be prepared to make a few more small compromises:
All he need bring back in exchange is the proof plates for the Benjamins.
What follows is a win-win for all. North Korea keeps on (literally) making money, the United States goes back to being to the sole producer of high-quality U.S. federal reserve notes, and South Korea gets one more chance to appease the North. This, in some circles, is known as putting your money where your mouth is.
Tell us, Minister Chung: are you willing to let them print your country’s currency instead? Won’t you at least hold a few rounds of bilateral talks about that?
Lefkowitz reportedly requested a meeting with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Thursday. But Chung dodged it, saying that he is “not in the same league,” a source in the government said.
(…)
It was thought that Chun would be the highest-ranking official whom Lefkowitz could meet in Seoul, but the foreign ministry arranged another meeting the next day between the American envoy and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan.
What might have raised Lefkowitz’s eyebrows was the time and place of the meeting: a teashop outside the ministry at 7:30 a.m. What they discussed was not released to the media.
In a nutshell, Seoul gave Lefkowitz a frosty reception to deliver a strong message that, even though it did not thwart the Seoul Summit hosted by human rights groups, it did not want to irritate North Korea by giving a warm welcome to the special envoy.
I have to agree with Nomad that this unconcern for human rights will come back to haunt South Korea. It is already affecting their moral authority in the UN in regards to votes on human rights abuses in other countries. More the world becomes educated on the human rights abuses in North Korea the more difficult it will be for the South Korean government to maintain this facade of indifference towards what is happening in the North.
Here is another Japan Finder for you. I promise next week I will have a real Korea Finder for you. For this week, however you will just have to make do with determining where this famous Japanese bridge is located.
Some Yongsan soldiers 
I have always thought the Korea had the world’s ugliest hotels with it’s variety of medieval and Arabian themed lodgings spread across the country. However, I was wrong because there can’t quite possibly be any hotel uglier than this one in Beijing.