Photo 1
Photo 2
Japanese version of Korea JoongAng Daily introduced these photos as the evidence that Korean people were taken by force and made to work in Tawara island and Korean student mobilization. Are they kidding?
Photo 1: Soldiers does not look Japanese, because they are white people. See the arm band of the soldier on left side, you can find letters "M P". It means military police. If they are military of Japan, they should write it in Japanese language (憲兵). They must be US soldiers. Does Korea JoongAng Daily want to insist that Korean people were taken away by US military?
Photo 2: See the year of the photo at the bottom. It's 1940. It was 1941 that US and Japan started fighting. So, Japan had not joined WWII in 1940, so they did not need such student mobilization at all. What is this photo? This should be a photo of usual students at that time.
Actually, these photos themselves are not fakes, in the sense that they were intentionally editted by someone. However, stories which Korea JoongAng Daily says is totally a fake. Please take care of such fakes. Korea JonngAng Daily is not a reliable media.
Mar 2, 2013
Feb 26, 2013
Korea must apologize
South Korean media like to commend Germany's of their apology and compensation for the World War II in order to accuse Japan like "See Germany still apologizes for the war crime, but Japan doesn't!" Korean media often ask Japan to express more apoligy and pay more compensation as if Korea was a victim from Japan. But it's totally a wrong idea. Why? Because Korea was a part of Japan, and fought with Japan. Korea was involved in the war, took part in what Japan did during the war. So, Korea had same responsibility as Japan. Korea should apologize instead of accusing Japan.
To understand Korea's position during WWII, it helps to compare Korea with Belguim. Belguim was also merged to Germany during WWII and faught together with, very much just like Korea during WWII. What Belguim has done after the war? Let's read the following news article.
Belgium’s PM apologizes for state’s Holocaust-era complicity - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
Belguim apologized for what they did with Germany during WWII. See what Korea is doing now. Korea has not apologized at all. Korea has always asked Japan's apology and compensation. Even worse, they have faked stories of comfort women to exaggerate what Japan did during WWII.
What do you think?
To understand Korea's position during WWII, it helps to compare Korea with Belguim. Belguim was also merged to Germany during WWII and faught together with, very much just like Korea during WWII. What Belguim has done after the war? Let's read the following news article.
Belgium’s PM apologizes for state’s Holocaust-era complicity - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
Belguim apologized for what they did with Germany during WWII. See what Korea is doing now. Korea has not apologized at all. Korea has always asked Japan's apology and compensation. Even worse, they have faked stories of comfort women to exaggerate what Japan did during WWII.
What do you think?
Feb 24, 2013
Racism In Japan?
Washington Post reported an article: American teacher in Japan under fire for lessons on Japan’s history of discrimination
The video in question is here.
After watching the video, I started feeling like headaches, because the video is ugly. The message of the video comes across totally wrong images. I bet those people who are not familiar with Japan will believe his opinions and think that many Japanese people do such terrible discriminations day to day after watching this video.
In this video, Jame Elliott's lesson is cited and a teacher says "I mean that today the blue-eyed people are the better people in this room."
Don't you think that such bad discriminations exist in Japan after watching the video? It's a wrong misapprehension.
Teachers generally do not tell such things at their classes, because we've built a consensus on the fact that we should not side with racism and discrimination. If teachers do, students or their parents report to the school at least and such teachers are heavily accused. In Japan, left wings have strong influence in educations at schools. Left wings ever do not allow such statement at any cost.
In this video, Mr.Dezaki says that when he asked Japanese students "Please raise your hand if you think there is racism in Japan" only two or three students raised their hand. I think vast majority of students actually had not ever faced racism before. This is not surprising, because Japan is a homogeneous country. It's not a question here that why Japan is a homogeneous country or whether it's bad or good. It is the fact due to historical reason. If they do not face other races in person, it's difficult for them to be aware of racism near themselves.
Can you imagine what students thought after watching the Elliott's lesson? The students had not seen racism close at hand. The teacher showed the anti racism video in US. Then, it's perfectly natural such student happened to think "Racism is an American problem." The teacher led the question.
So, this is a wrong question from the beginning.
He explains that "Chon" is a ridiculing term of Korean people. But this is a misconception.
Actually, there is another term with same pronounciation "Chon" which has same meaning as what he says. (This is just like Koreans call a Japanese person as Jjokbari.) However, the original meaning of "Chon" in "Baka Chon" is not "Korean people."
"Chon" is a term orignated from a sound of strike clapper after a theatrical show. The term means immature or half-baked. "Baka" means idiot, stupid or fool. So "Baka Chon" is a term which means "so easy to use that even idiots or inmatured (amature) people can use."
His misconception is a famous mistake that lots of Japanese people also do. However, "Baka Chon" is censored word in Japan, because the term had lacerated mistaken Korean people even if it was a misconception.
He might have not know, but "Chon" is not a term limited to ridicule Korean people, but used other contexts. For example, samurai's heair style was called "Chon Mage". This "Chon" doesn't mean Korean people at all.
I also mention that "Baka Chon" is an old term, which young people do not use recently. Young people do not know the term because the term has been censored for long time. I bet most of his students in Japan didn't know the term.
Burakumin is also an old problem. As he says in the video, it's difficult to distinguish Burakumin from others. It's not really a problem recently. I didn't know the hand sign.
I don't know why he brings on such old problem when he is talking about discrimination in the current Japanese society? Burakumin is not a fiction, but is not an on-going problem either. His opinion sounds as if the problem is still continuing and let us think Japan is a discriminative country.
While he introduces Hiromu Nonaka's case as an example, but it's not a common case, but a special case. A man who wants to be a prime minister should not be a usual case. It was really unfortunate that he decided not to be a prime minister, but it was his decision. He had another choice and was able to fight against discrimination aggressively. But he didn't. It was his decision and should be valued anyway.
The hand sign is not common in Japan.
By the way, when he explains about "caste system" which was made 300 years ago, whether it's intentionally or not, he misses an important point. The system actually defined four classes, samurai, farmer, craftsman and merchant. Samurai was the highest ranked, and farmer was second, craftman was thired and merchant was forth. You may wonder why merchant was the lowest ranked. This was because they were rich and they had power. (Farmers were the poorest people.) So, the system was not "caste system" actually, but a political strategy established by the government of the time (Edo bakufu). The system was aimed to reduce power of merchants. It was not a religious system.
There were yet other two classes which were not defined by the system; one is noble (the president of norbles was Emperor), the other is "Burakumin". In Edo age, Japan was dominated by samurai (the president of samurai was called Shogun), and nobles did not have sufficent power. Neither the emperor did.
If people hear "there was a caste system in old Japan" without explanation of its background, they might think that Japan is such a discriminative country. This is totally misleading. Do you understand why I think the video is so ugly?
He might have learned about Japanese historical discrimination, but doesn't know about the real situation.
It's not appropriate or fair to show a single example as if it is commonly done. If his friend experienced such discrimination, his friend should sue the apartment owner. People in Japan are sometimes face the rejection from apartment owners due to various reasons such as credit decisions, but it's not discrimination.
When we talk about this kind of topics, we should discuss based on statistics, not on individual cases.
I won't say that there is no discrimination in Japan. There actually is! By the way, do you know any country which is free from discriminations? I do not.
The problem is that points in this video are totally wrong.
Dear Mr. Dezaki, please note that you are spreading wrong messages. You should take responsibility for what you said. If the messages are wrong, you are blamed as a consequense.
The video in question is here.
After watching the video, I started feeling like headaches, because the video is ugly. The message of the video comes across totally wrong images. I bet those people who are not familiar with Japan will believe his opinions and think that many Japanese people do such terrible discriminations day to day after watching this video.
Using the too wrong video image
In this video, Jame Elliott's lesson is cited and a teacher says "I mean that today the blue-eyed people are the better people in this room."
Don't you think that such bad discriminations exist in Japan after watching the video? It's a wrong misapprehension.
Teachers generally do not tell such things at their classes, because we've built a consensus on the fact that we should not side with racism and discrimination. If teachers do, students or their parents report to the school at least and such teachers are heavily accused. In Japan, left wings have strong influence in educations at schools. Left wings ever do not allow such statement at any cost.
In this video, Mr.Dezaki says that when he asked Japanese students "Please raise your hand if you think there is racism in Japan" only two or three students raised their hand. I think vast majority of students actually had not ever faced racism before. This is not surprising, because Japan is a homogeneous country. It's not a question here that why Japan is a homogeneous country or whether it's bad or good. It is the fact due to historical reason. If they do not face other races in person, it's difficult for them to be aware of racism near themselves.
Can you imagine what students thought after watching the Elliott's lesson? The students had not seen racism close at hand. The teacher showed the anti racism video in US. Then, it's perfectly natural such student happened to think "Racism is an American problem." The teacher led the question.
So, this is a wrong question from the beginning.
Misconception of "Baka Chon"
He explains that "Chon" is a ridiculing term of Korean people. But this is a misconception.
Actually, there is another term with same pronounciation "Chon" which has same meaning as what he says. (This is just like Koreans call a Japanese person as Jjokbari.) However, the original meaning of "Chon" in "Baka Chon" is not "Korean people."
"Chon" is a term orignated from a sound of strike clapper after a theatrical show. The term means immature or half-baked. "Baka" means idiot, stupid or fool. So "Baka Chon" is a term which means "so easy to use that even idiots or inmatured (amature) people can use."
His misconception is a famous mistake that lots of Japanese people also do. However, "Baka Chon" is censored word in Japan, because the term had lacerated mistaken Korean people even if it was a misconception.
He might have not know, but "Chon" is not a term limited to ridicule Korean people, but used other contexts. For example, samurai's heair style was called "Chon Mage". This "Chon" doesn't mean Korean people at all.
I also mention that "Baka Chon" is an old term, which young people do not use recently. Young people do not know the term because the term has been censored for long time. I bet most of his students in Japan didn't know the term.
Burakumin
Burakumin is also an old problem. As he says in the video, it's difficult to distinguish Burakumin from others. It's not really a problem recently. I didn't know the hand sign.
I don't know why he brings on such old problem when he is talking about discrimination in the current Japanese society? Burakumin is not a fiction, but is not an on-going problem either. His opinion sounds as if the problem is still continuing and let us think Japan is a discriminative country.
While he introduces Hiromu Nonaka's case as an example, but it's not a common case, but a special case. A man who wants to be a prime minister should not be a usual case. It was really unfortunate that he decided not to be a prime minister, but it was his decision. He had another choice and was able to fight against discrimination aggressively. But he didn't. It was his decision and should be valued anyway.
The hand sign is not common in Japan.
By the way, when he explains about "caste system" which was made 300 years ago, whether it's intentionally or not, he misses an important point. The system actually defined four classes, samurai, farmer, craftsman and merchant. Samurai was the highest ranked, and farmer was second, craftman was thired and merchant was forth. You may wonder why merchant was the lowest ranked. This was because they were rich and they had power. (Farmers were the poorest people.) So, the system was not "caste system" actually, but a political strategy established by the government of the time (Edo bakufu). The system was aimed to reduce power of merchants. It was not a religious system.
There were yet other two classes which were not defined by the system; one is noble (the president of norbles was Emperor), the other is "Burakumin". In Edo age, Japan was dominated by samurai (the president of samurai was called Shogun), and nobles did not have sufficent power. Neither the emperor did.
If people hear "there was a caste system in old Japan" without explanation of its background, they might think that Japan is such a discriminative country. This is totally misleading. Do you understand why I think the video is so ugly?
He might have learned about Japanese historical discrimination, but doesn't know about the real situation.
Apartment In Tokyo
It's not appropriate or fair to show a single example as if it is commonly done. If his friend experienced such discrimination, his friend should sue the apartment owner. People in Japan are sometimes face the rejection from apartment owners due to various reasons such as credit decisions, but it's not discrimination.
When we talk about this kind of topics, we should discuss based on statistics, not on individual cases.
Conclusion
I won't say that there is no discrimination in Japan. There actually is! By the way, do you know any country which is free from discriminations? I do not.
The problem is that points in this video are totally wrong.
Dear Mr. Dezaki, please note that you are spreading wrong messages. You should take responsibility for what you said. If the messages are wrong, you are blamed as a consequense.
Reaction against Takeshima Day ceremony
On Feb 22, Takeshima Day ceremony was held in Shimane Prefecture, where Japanese government regards that Takeshima belongs to. As an reaction against the ceremony, an outraged South Korean man threw his crap into Japanese Embassy in South Korea. (News article: '다케시마의 날'에 분노한 40대 日대사관에 오물투척)
I'd say only one word... Don't do such thing again!
I'd say only one word... Don't do such thing again!
Feb 20, 2013
Endangered Japan (Book 2): Sex, Lies, and Comfort Women
If you are a citizen of US and happened to see any Korean political advertisement about "comfort women", then turned out to consider as old Japanese people as such cruel people, watch this video before blaming Japan. At least you have to understand what was really happening first. Since letters in the video are small, I recommend you to visit YouTube and watch it in large size.
The following text is cite from this video around 16:23.
Yes, I agree with this statement. If you are a Korean citizen or US citizen and you think "comfort women" system is inhumane, please blame the government in your country first.
By the way, army of China, German and ex-Soviet had the same system as "comfort women" too. In my personal opinion, they were the same system but some of them seemed much worse than Japanese one in humanistic point of view. None of these countries compensate comfort women later. (While you may be surprised, but Japan did.)
If you are not native to English, please find the best one from the following translated versions:
Hungarian
Spanish
French
Korean
Japanese
The following text is cite from this video around 16:23.
It was not only Japan which introduced the same system. The South Korean Army and US Forces introduced the same system during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Sex-trafficked women can be seen in prostitution establishment for the U.S. troops in South korea still now. Accusing others of some problems when they have the same problem is called "hypocrisy" normally.
Yes, I agree with this statement. If you are a Korean citizen or US citizen and you think "comfort women" system is inhumane, please blame the government in your country first.
By the way, army of China, German and ex-Soviet had the same system as "comfort women" too. In my personal opinion, they were the same system but some of them seemed much worse than Japanese one in humanistic point of view. None of these countries compensate comfort women later. (While you may be surprised, but Japan did.)
If you are not native to English, please find the best one from the following translated versions:
Hungarian
Spanish
French
Korean
Japanese
Feb 19, 2013
Story of Japanese refugees raped in Korea
While Korean people blame Japan as if Koreans didn't do anything wrong in the past, however, reality was not just what they say. You can find what they had done to Japanese people in the following Youtube video.
Feel sad? No matter how much Koreans cry out against Japan, it's not possible to sweep the whole thing under the carpet. We will never forget!
Feel sad? No matter how much Koreans cry out against Japan, it's not possible to sweep the whole thing under the carpet. We will never forget!
Feb 16, 2013
Olympic Is Defiled
It is really disappointing that International Orympic Committee issued a bronze medal to Park Jong-Woo. Park's demonstration regarding to Dokto thing is clearly a political act, because Takeshima, the Japanese territory, is under conflict. Doing any political act is of course incompatible with core principles of the Olympic Charter. The committee should ban Park from Olympic games forever!! Otherwise, people will start demonstrating political act aggressively upon Olympic games for the sake of small penalty, then Olympic games shall lose trust in the future, and will be less popular than it is now.
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