I concur

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3000184.stm

comment 3….. same thing as not telling the children of your country as in Japan what really happened during and before world war 2…… “liberating east asia from the west” by colonizing it through brutality, rape and destruction.

Maybe former european colonzied countries like US, Canada and Australia should be handed back to their indigenous inhabitants like the american indians and Australian aborigines.

Both South Korea and Japan needs to get a better grip of reality. They need to serve the US better if they want to survive into the next century. If they don’t, they both will get their asses wooped by China.

Comment 4, made very little sense. Please try to write in complete sentences next time. Encouraging children to hate a whole nation is *****NOT**** the same as telling them nothing at all. And South Korea really DOES need to get a grip.

Korea – 1st world infrastructure, 3rd world mentality .. once they get over themselves, it will be a much better place to live and visit.

“South Korea spends over $16 billion (2004) on its military”

Much less than half of what Japan spends.

“Not to mention that nearly ALL Korean males must do about two years of usually grueling military service.”

Thanks for reminding me how much Korea simultaneously sucks and blows.

Why do you Japan-haters come here anyway? I don’t care about their whining for four reasons: Almost all Koreans alive today weren’t around when it happened thus it really didn’t affect them, it was 60 years ago, it’s not going to happen again, and Japan is superior to Korea in nearly every way.

Why do you Japan-haters come here anyway?

Did anyone here bash on Japan? (don’t know about #4- have no idea what he was talking about).

A lot of Japophiles assume that hating Korea is equivalent to loving Japan when probably many, if not most Japanese people seem to want to have friendly relations. Being critical of Korea’s media and behavior is one thing but taking an unjustified hard-line stance and making ignorant claims, ie. “at least Japan funds it’s own military instead of having the USA fund it for them” and “Japan is superior to Korea in nearly every way” does not help the problem.

the remark made in comment #4 “liberating east asia from the west” was one of the excuses that Japan used to invade & occupy China.

Hitlerjugend, Khmer Rouge, Cultural Revolution, DPRK.. ROK. Dastardly adults brainwashing kids and using them as mouthpieces for their evil agenda. Good company Korea’s keeping on this one you gotta admit.

“South Korea spends over $16 billion (2004) on its military”

Much less than half of what Japan spends.

Straight dollar values are a distorted picture, since the value of a 100 yen would go further in Korea than in Japan when you talk about mobilizing human resources.

Indeed per capita GDP is the more apt comparison: Japan spends merely 1 of every 100 dollars it earns; Korea spends 1 out of only every 35. At the very least it shreds your statement that South Korea doesn’t fund its own military.

“Not to mention that nearly ALL Korean males must do about two years of usually grueling military service.”

Thanks for reminding me how much Korea simultaneously sucks and blows.

And this is supposed to bolster your point or undermine my point how? Oh, wait, it’s just Korea-bashing; okay, as you were.

Yeah, I guess taking a shot at Korea and the miserable compulsory military service that almost every male has to do is the only thing you can come up with, since you really have no point anymore.

But I do: your idea that Korea doesn’t fund its own military is already absurd, but even more so in light of the fact that virtually all South Korean men do something that the vast majority of Japanese or American men don’t: they actually spend a good chunk of their lives working to preserve their country’s security.

Why do you Japan-haters come here anyway?

The fact that I am very cautious about the Japanese right-wing does not make me a Japan basher (I’m part Japanese for criminy sake!). Or do you suppose that bashing Japan’s right-wing is the same as bashing Japan, because their “peace-loving Japan was forced to invade Korea and China and their other neighbors and then go to war against the evil Americans” idea represents the true Japan?

I don’t care about their whining for four reasons: Almost all Koreans alive today weren’t around when it happened thus it really didn’t affect them, it was 60 years ago, it’s not going to happen again,

I’m not so sure of that. With the right wing in power, it could. That is precisely what is so frightening about the mindset of the right-wing: their thinking is a dangerous combintation of two things… they don’t accept Japan’s wrongdoing in the first half of the 20th century AND they think they were forced by others into going to war when their “interests” were threatened and thus none of it was there fault. NOTHING in their mindset makes it a mistake to do it again.

and Japan is superior to Korea in nearly every way.

In many aspects it is. In every aspect, no. I love both countries and I can see both countries have a lot of things wrong with them. The Koreans may be whipped up by the media and sometimes the government, but the Japanese are being lulled into becoming a passive mass so that they won’t notice what the right wing is doing until it’s too late.

BTW, why doesn’t Korea actively seek a formal apology and reparation from China when nearly one million of its people were killed in Korean War? If it weren’t for the Chinese involvement, the entire Korean Peninsula would not have been separated. Yet there is more hatred towards the US than there is towards China. And recently, Korean media reported that China deleted all Korean history prior to the foundation of the ROK.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200510/200510100018.html
Where are the protests against the Chinese government? Why the double standard?

#22, there actually is a lot of animosity toward China. The Koguryo-related stuff bears that out. Regarding not asking China for an apology, that might be because, technically, there is still a war going on.

But with China as opposed to the US and Japan, Korea does hold the latter to a higher standard because they are democracies and what-not, as well as allies. And Korea does practice what it preaches, to some degree at least, since Kim Daejung did offer something of a statement of regret to the Vietnamese.

#23, yes it’s true that the US might have double-standards and self-interest, as any country does, and that it can do more damage in this regard because of it’s power. But, at the same time, the US is also driven to push values that are beneficial to the rest of the world. That is a far more powerful legacy than the occasional bout of self-interest. The US has been a far better friend to Korea and to Japan than any other country.

You guys are missing the point. Yeah yeah, we all know it: two wrongs don’t make a right, the truth is somewhere in the middle, nobody’s perfect, ye who is without guilt.. yadda yadda.

JP’s post was about children being exploited for propaganda. And in this case the guilty party happens to be: Koreans.

Mika wrote:
WHO in the present Japan say that they were forced to invade other countries?

That’s exactly the message at Yushukan Museum at the Yasukuni Shrine:

The only option open to Roosevelt, who had been moving forward with his
“Plan Victory,” was to use embargoes to force resource-poor Japan into
war. The U.S. economy made a complete recovery once the Americans
entered the war.

“The U.S. plan to force Japan into war was set into motion.”

When Chiang Kai-shek joined the communists in fighting Japan, the
Japanese government abandoned its efforts to prevent incidents from
escalating. The result was full-scale war between Japan and China.

You sound like those paranoid Koreans who accuse anyone who questions the validity of “Japan = evil” stories of being the Japanese right-wing.

No, I sound like someone who has been to Yasukuni and finds some stuff there alarming. I actually think that some people in Korea go overboard with Japan-bashing, though this is not as overblown as the media makes it out to be.

In Korea, people like Lee Yong Hun who do research into the events and return with summaries saying that what people want to believe is true simply isn’t, they get generally ignored or persecuted.

I completely agree that it is absolutely wrong for someone like the Korea University professor to have to resign for expressing an alternative opinion about the Japanese occupation.

They just don’t understand that people have the right to present a dissenting viewpoint of history and that intellectual freedom is a very important part of any advanced society.

I agree with you. And the Roh administration has legitimized that kind of intolerance.

At the same time, though, I think that systematically downplaying the war-mongering and murderous actions in a country’s past is just as much of a failure in an advanced society.

“When Chiang Kai-shek joined the communists in fighting Japan, the
Japanese government abandoned its efforts to prevent incidents from
escalating. The result was full-scale war between Japan and China.”

I’ve known a lot of Japanese exchange students who claim to know little to nothing about Japan’s invasion of China. It seems as if the person who made the comment above (Mika), has been taught something about the subject. However, her knowledge of it appears to be based on lies. My suggestion to you, Mika, is to learn more about the subject from sources other than from Japan. I don’t blame you for your ignorance (a lot of it is your government’s fault).

Mr. #27, the point might’ve been made, but I think it’s an interesting phenomenon and needs exploring a just a bit more here instead of reigniting the ongoing Yasukuni debate in yet another thread. I was trying to steer the discussion more toward what the problem is with kids in South K now – remember the whole circus with the school entrance exam reforms last year with kids getting hysterical and staging demonstrations in the streets even though the changes would have been actually beneficial to them? Something’s definitely weird here and I’m pretty sure it’s not the kiddies’ fault. When adults behave like children, interesting things begin to happen.

#33, that “some other source” was Yasukuni itself.

On the other hand, Mika was suggesting she didn’t think anyone big in present-day Japan actually believed that Japan was forced to invade other countries.

I’m Japanese and I am really shameful of my own heritage. If I was Korean I would always protest against my own country. Why wouldn’t I?? My country murdered and raped korean citizens for imperialistic goals during the time of World War 2. Also, Japan has no real culture.. Most asian countries know that Japan was a colony of barbarians that reproduced into the present country of Japan.. We stole other asian country’s culture and claimed it is ours..For example, Samurais were truly barbarians that wore wood as armor. All that shiny armor and swords people see on t.v. were all items stolen from the chinese.. And you know why we insist on killing ourselves.. .. it’s not because of Sepekku, but rather because we were so shameful of ourselves that we didn’t want someone else to waste energy on killing us.. Also all of our pottery was really stolen from techniques of korean sculptors we kidnapped and killed. We act like we are sophisticated but all that bullshit is just our bad attempt to cover up our true heritage as barbarians. The only reason we have been known as an economic powerhouse is because we know how to make things alot smaller than they need to be..I also have to admit that Japan is one of the most immoralistic and disgusting countries in the world. We accept pornography and sex into our culture like bread and water. We broadcast porn like America broadcasts cartoons. Also we have one of the highest suicide rates which indicates a lack of direction from our future generation. We have no moral values and we possess nationalistic thoughts passed down by our ignorant fathers. Speaking of our fathers, i am shameful to say that they committed many war crimes in War World 2. My ancestors killed and raped many asian countries numerously. Also they attacked America on a Sunday morning thinking it was a smart thing to do when it was just cheap. This can be recalled as Pearl Harbor. All my family eats is raw fish and we still considers themselves as a “sophisticated” culture. I really hate my own country and i apologize to all other countries we have offended for our disgusting and heinous acts. We also apologize for our disgusting pornography and anime porn that has corrupted the minds of children of different countries. I also ask white people to not talk like you know something about asian culture cause you really don’t. Thank you and again i apologize

[...] He mentions it here too – The fact that I am very cautious about the Japanese right-wing does not make me a Japan basher (I’m part Japanese for criminy sake!). [...]