Korean electioneering in Honolulu

I won't say these folks are living in the past, but I'm not exactly sure if they're living in the present.

I spotted this truck at the Keeaumoku supermarket, where I've seen a daily parade of people running for the local Korean residents association or some such thing (in Korean it is 한인회).

This part of town called Keeaumoku Street, near where many tourists come to shop, is full of Korean restaurants and shops, earning it the nickname "Korea Moku."

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National Assembly election post mortem

Over at The Marmot's Hole, The Korean has put together a nice overview of Tuesday's vote for the National Assembly seats, a national poll in which the ruling party did surprisingly well, thanks to Park Geunhye.

The Korean credits Ms Park successfully incorporating bread-and-butter rice-and-kimchi issues that are normally the purview of the parties on the left. And despite President Lee Myungbak's abysmal ratings (you're not a lame-duck ROK president unless you're popularity is less than one in three), it turns out not to have been much a referendum on the Marilyn Manson impersonator.

One wonders how this bodes for the presidential election coming in December. Does this make a Park Geunhye candidacy more likely, and will her success in April be enough to carry her (back) to the Blue House, occupied for nearly two decades by her father.

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In Korea, March 1 is Groundhog Day

As in the Bill Murray movie. Or so it would seem.

Every Independence Day (삼일절) in South Korea, the country and its political leaders look back on the colonial past with a sense of victory, owing to the nation's progress since liberation, along with a feeling of unresolved resentment and even bitterness (han, if you will) over the less than full-throated contrition by the brutal colonizing power itself (i.e., Japan).

You can go to Wikipedia and see a "list of Japanese war apology statementss," but that politically motivated entry doesn't include the, "but, but, but..." remarks that so often come with the actual apologies, or the statements of the right-wing parliamentarians falling over themselves to insist that PM Murayama's or PM Hosokawa's truly heartfelt and sincere apologies are just their own, or the later declarations by people in the ruling elite that the Comfort Women sex slaves were mostly prostitutes or that colonization was actually good for Korea. (The aforementioned list also lumps mealymouthed "statements of regret" in with actual apologies.)

No, from that self-serving litany, one wouldn't get the sense that any official Japanese apology, thus far, comes with an asterisk.

Anyway, on his last Independence Day as president of the Republic of Korea, Japan-born President Lee Myungbak decided to take on the issue. In a Marmot's Hole post well worth the read, President Lee is quoted as having said this:

For the two countries [Korea and Japan] to intimately cooperate as true companions, the true courage and wisdom not to avoid the historical truth is necessary above all. In particular, among many current issues, the Comfort Women issue is a humanitarian issue that needs to be concluded quickly. The grandmothers, who carried their pain in their hearts, are well past their late 80s. If they pass away without resolving the burden of their hearts while they were alive, it is not the case that all problems will disappear; rather, Japan will forever lose the opportunity to resolve this issue. This is why I urge the Japanese government to take a more active posture.

There is nothing I can find there with which I disagree. To many in the commentariat, however, their knee-jerk position is to do whatever is the antithesis of what most Koreans believe in, which prompted The Korean to write this:

The commentariat response on this issue, time and time again, never ceases to amaze me. It is as if they have no moral compass. This is one of the most heinous war crimes in World War II, and they think Korea is the bad guy.

Indeed, taking the Korean view and going the opposite way is, at best, an amoral compass. Sure, there are their oft-repeated justifications for taking the contrarian view — "They signed a treaty!", "Korea's post-war prosperity was built with Japanese money!", "This issue is nothing more than a cynical ploy to marshall support by corrupt politicians!", "South Koreans have sex slaves today!" — but the fact is that there are women living today who experienced the hell of brutal, unending, and often deadly sex slavery at the hands of the Japanese Imperial military and government.

I'm sure for those women and those close to them, it's a bit difficult to "get over it and move on." But thinking about this stuff in human terms is just so bothersome. Wouldn't it be easier if they just died and stopped protesting? Then we'd have the convenience of this truly being "all in the past," to which many have already relegated it because, essentially, the plaintiffs are Korean.

I'm not 100.0% in agreement with The Korean, though. As I've noted in past posts (like here and especially here), I do think the South Korean government owes money to those women as well, even if I don't think that lets Japan off the hook. In 1965, Tokyo was trying to do an end-run on its victims by working with a pro-Japan former officer of the Imperial Japanese Army, Park Chunghee, an iron-fisted ruler of South Korea who used the grants and loans (see, it wasn't all a gift, as some have made it out to be) and used them for regional and national development instead of compensation for Japan's direct victims.

The Korean describes Park Chunghee and the 1965 Basic Treaty thus:

You mean, the contract that flatly contravenes jus cogens, negotiated and entered into by an illegitimate dictator who was formerly an officer of the Imperial Japanese Army, who did not even know the existence of the Comfort Women issue, without the consent of the people whose rights he signed away for less than a penny on a dollar?

The Korean, by the way, writes his own post on his own blog regarding the Comfort Women issue, also worth a read.

We'll have to see if President Lee gets anywhere with this. Expect it to be played out again in August, around Liberation Day.

In the meantime, another commenter, Yuna, pointed to what the Comfort Women survivors themselves are looking for, lest one think, as the nattering nabobs of uri nara naysaying say, that no apology will ever be good enough:

1. Acknowlege the war crime
2. Reveal the truth in its entirety about the crimes of military sexual slavery
3. Make an official apology
4. Make legal reparations
5. Punish those responsible for the war crime
6. Accuraely record the crime in history textbooks
7. Erect a memorial for the victims of the military sexual salvery and establish a historical museum

All told, doesn't sound terribly unreasonable (though guidance should be given for what constitutes an "official apology" and by whom under what authority). But if your counterpart's goal is to whitewash history and deal with a painful past by rationalizing it or just ignoring it, it might be a tall order. There are a lot of good people in Japan who recognize this as wrong (or would if they knew better about the issue), but there are those in power who are beholden to a sanitized view of the past where Japan was the victim of World War II, not the instigator.

Some day in the near future, it would be wonderful if we could stop replaying this issue as if March 1 really were Groundhog Day. That would take an effort on both sides, but the ball is clearly in Japan's (imperial) court.

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A picture of Park: Time archives provides a contemporary Western view of a controversial historic figure

Korea's Mute Press (August 4, 1961)
"Are you aware, General Pak, that the newspapers are afraid to criticize you?" asks a journalist. "This is the first time I have heard of it. If this allegation is true, it is because you journalists are chicken-hearted," the gimlet-eyed boss of the junta that seized power answered.

Gimlet-eyed is Time's description. I wonder if they could get away with that today. Anyway, I thought that was a fitting start for this series of links to Time archives, with descriptions of some that I've had a chance to more thoroughly read. A tidbit:

Last week South Korea's press, which serves a nation of 24.5 million people, readily conceded the point to Pak. "He was asking for a martyr's courage," said Editor Pu Wan Hyuk of the Chosun Ilbo. "We cannot expect reporters to be revolutionaries." Asked a reporter: "How can you tell the precise dividing line between constructive criticism and anti-revolutionary slander? It's better to stay on the safe side."

The fact is that South Korea's newspapers, after a year of heady freedom under ousted Premier John M. Chang, are thoroughly cowed. Hard put to scrape up news that will not offend the tough, jaunty officers who run the country, they dutifully print government handouts verbatim, sometimes run ads two or three times, at no extra charge, simply to fill space. Fortnight ago, when the respected Hankook Ilbo indiscreetly printed a telegram criticizing retired U.S. General James A. Van Fleet's visit at the junta's invitation (TIME, July 28), it was ordered to run off the rest of the edition with the story blacked out.

The New Life (November 3, 1961)

Death for Doubters (January 19, 1962)

Against Wanton Desires (March 9, 1962)

A Dying Business (May 4, 1962)

Well-Timed Clemency (May 11, 1962)

New Life (May 25, 1962)

Back to Normal (August 31, 1962)

Democracy of a Sort (December 28, 1962)

Over to You, Gentlemen (March 8, 1963)

The Heat's Off (March 22, 1963)

Squeeze in Seoul (March 29, 1963)

Silent Sam, the Pressure Man (April 19, 1963)

Slim Mandate (October 25, 1963)

Back to the Barracks (November 16, 1962)
Back to Normal (December 6, 1963)
Fatigues to Flannels (December 27, 1963)

The Simple Life (February 7, 1964)
Early in his rule of South Korea, President Park closes five of his six presidential villas as an example to other leaders. An austerity plan long forgotten:

So, said Park, government officials must stop driving cars and learn to commute by bus or bicycle, reduce their liquor intake and cut restaurant side dishes to a maximum of three. In keeping with his austere mood, Park advised women to wear their skirts shorter and demanded crew cuts for men. Above all, civil servants must stay out of kisaeng (geisha) houses. That, declared the proprietress of a big kiseng house in Seoul, was carrying things too far. Said she: "Where else can government officials transact their business?"

Power Grab (October 30, 1972)

Protests Against Park (December 3, 1973)
Net of Repression (January 21, 1974)

Trials and Errors (June 24, 1974)
A look at how President Park used an iron fist to crush the political opposition, including how he dealt with future President Kim Daejung, whom he "defeated" in the 1971 presidential election.

No Harmony or Peace (August 5, 1974)

Another look at the same topic.

The Accidental Assassination (August 26, 1974)
A detailed look at the 1974 assassination attempt on President Park that left his wife dead.

Fingers of Fate (September 23, 1974)
Finger-chopping whackiness (with literal whacking) in Chonan as protesters cut off their left pinky out of anger that Park's would-be assassin (and his wife's actual assassin) was from Japan. They demanded that Japan ban the pro-North Chosoren residents association.

Ford Makes His First Foray Overseas (November 25, 1974)
President Ford's Far Eastern Road Show (December 2, 1974)

Eastern Modifications (April 28, 1975)

Twisting a phrase by Park (and other East Asian leaders, notably one from Singapore) about East Asia's capacity for democracy, this article takes another close look at then-recent crackdowns on dissidents, including the execution of accused communists who "conspired to overthrow the government by encouraging anti-Park demonstrations."

After Viet Nam: What Next in Asia? (May 12, 1975)

Getting Nervous (June 9, 1975)

Survival is at Stake (June 30, 1975)

In this sweeping interview conducted in the wake of America's exit from Vietnam, a somewhat anxious President Park makes the case for why the US military's continued presence in South Korea is essential to ROK and Japanese security. I would consider this one a must-read.

The North: Unceasing Repression (June 30, 1975)

The one takes a break from Park-bashing to note that the South Korean leader "seems positively Jeffersonian compared with his counterpart north of the Demilitarized Zone." A must-read for a contemporary view of Kim Il-sung

The Long, Long Siege (June 30, 1975)

More Dissent, More Repression (March 22, 1976)
A Matter of Conscience (September 13, 1976)

The Seoul Brother (November 8, 1976)
Not about Park Chunghee per se, but about a scandal involving some possible attempts by Park regime players to gain influence in Washington. See also Koreagate on Capitol Hill? (November 29, 1976), Seoul's School For Scandal (December 13, 1976), The Swindler From Seoul (July 4, 1977), Still Waiting for Harvest Time (September 19, 1977).

Spooking Capitol Hill (November 15, 1976)
G.I.s at the DMZ: Time to Come Home? (June 6, 1977)
Memories of Ice Mountain (October 31, 1977)

Park Returns (March 6, 1978)

Park Goes Public (April 10, 1978)

Park Talks (a Little) (April 17, 1978)

Talks with a Troubled Ally (July 9, 1979)

Riots and Rights (October 29, 1979)

Milestones (November 5, 1979)

Assassination in Seoul (November 5, 1979)
Questions about "one of the most bizarre killings of a head of state in history." I put this up as a post in its own right back in November 2005, which may have been an inspiration for matt's (of Popular Gusts) own forays into the Time archives.

A Very Tough Peasant (November 5, 1979)
A look back at the personal history and political life of President Park in the wake of his assassination. This also became a post in its own right in November 2005. I would consider this one a must-read, too.

Mouring and Post-Mortems (November 12, 1979)
Further examination of the who's, what's, and why's of Park's assassination.

Normality (November 19, 1979)
"Business as usual" returns to Seoul as the panic, chaos, runs on banks, and scrambles to hoard food that were feared in the wake of Park's assassination did not materialize.

Park's Man Takes Power (December 17, 1979)

Acting Like Big Brother (December 31, 1979)
President Choi Kyuhah is formally inaugurated to replace President Park.

The Army Rears Up (December 24, 1979)
Chun: A Shadowy Strongman (May 26, 1980)
Legacy of Righteous Tumult (June 2, 1980)
Season of Spleen (June 2, 1980)
Kim's Sum (June 30, 1980)

Ten Days That Shook Kwangju (June 9, 1980)
This one is obviously more Chun-related than Park-related, but it comes in the wake of Park's assassination.

Park Chung Hee (August 23, 1999)
Donald Gregg talks about Park as one of the hundred most influential people in Asia, before Rain came to dominate the list.