Active rebelling in Korea against Japanese rule, fostered by the Russian Bolsheviki, and characterized as “the beginning of a tremendous affair,” is in progress, according to official dispatches received today in Washington.  A recent clash between 2,000 Koreans, armed mainly by the Bolsheviki, and a Japanese army post of 700 men in Northern Korea, the message said, had resulted in the defeat of the Japanese, 300 of whom were killed and the remainder routed.  Details of the fight were not reported.

Other clashes with the small Japanese garrisons have occurred, the Japanese having been outnumbered and overwhelmed in nearly every case.

According to official information, Bolshevist authorities are in close touch with the Korean leaders and are making every effort to provide their troops with adequate equipment.

12 Feb 1920 – Japanese Deny Moscow Reports of Japanese Evacuation

Military observers here were of the opinion that the insurgent movement, in all probability, would be confined to guerrilla warfare along the frontier of Korea and China, which is very mountainous and sparsely inhabited.

Several independence manifestations by Koreans occurred last night in Seoul.  It is rumored that a declaration of independence has been signed by prominent Koreans.

All the officers of the recently formed “Women’s Patriotic League” have been taken into custody. 

13 Jan 1920

A Korean National Army has crossed the Siberian frontiers into Korea and has captured En Chin from the Japanese Provisional Government forces, according to a cablegram from Shanghai to the Korean National Association here.

9 Feb 1920

Active rebellion in Korea against Japanese rule, fostered by the Russian Bolsheviki, and characterized as “the beginning of a tremendous affair,” is in progress, according to official dispatches received today in Washington.

A recent clash between 2,000 Koreans, armed mainly by the Bolsheviki, and a Japanese army post of 700 men in Northern Korea, the message said, had resulted in defeat of the Japanese, 300 of whom were killed and the remainder routed.

According to official information, Bolshevist authorities are in close touch with the Korean leaders and are making every effort to provide their troops with adequate equipment.

Reports received here recently said the entire length of the branch of the Siberian Railroad running from Vladivostok west through Northern Manchuria had come under Bolshevist influence and that a movement was on foot to organize the local Bolshevist forces in combination with the numerous bands of Chinese brigands to invade Korea.

Three full Japanese divisions are in Korea, but it is said in Japanese circles that these have been so scattered to maintain order that they probably could offer little immediate resistance to an invasion.

[Report from London] Northern Korea has been evacuated by the Japanese, it is claimed in a wireless dispatch from Moscow today, quoting an Omsk message.  The population rose to aid Korean forces from Chinese territory, it is declared.

Officials here have known for some time that many thousands of Koreans who fled into Manchuria were meditating hostile action against Japan.  While there is no real Bolshevist feeling among these people, according to the authorities, they are so stirred by hostility to the Japanese that they probably are willing to join with any other elements in attacking them.

"[Japanese official] In regard to the Korean situation, I must first mention the primary object of annexation.  At that time the Japanese felt that the existing Korean administration was inadequate to life up the condition of the Koreans, develop their latent industrial capacity, and give them better educations. 

In annexing Korea it was our purpose to better the condition of the people without any idea of discrimination.  To my thinking, it is wrong to use the word colony for Korea, since it is a country with its own special historical development.  The recent unfortunate disturbance in Korea, which was due to lack of understanding, will turn out to be a great blessing to us, because it has aroused in us a renewed purpose to do our best for the improvement of Korean affairs.  I assure you there will be a remarkable change in the administration of Korea.”

The Baron [recently named the new head of the Japanese government in Korea] stated that it was his purpose to accord equal treatment to the Koreans in all respects, that much liberality would be shown them with reference to their own language, that the endeavor would be made to prevent all harshness and unkindness toward the people on the part of both officials and non-officials, and that he was planning to inaugurate a measure of self-government through the establishment of local popular assemblies.  He hoped that in the course of some years Korean representatives would be allowed to sit in the Japanese National Diet.  Baron Saito expressed high appreciation of the work of the missionaries, and said that their labors would be exceedingly helpful toward working out the welfare of the Korean people.

 

Today’s ceremony commemorating the 65th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima had something new: the presence of the U.S. ambassador to Japan. Never before had America sent an official participant in the annual memorial to those killed in the world’s first atomic attack. That this should occur during the administration of Barack Obama is no surprise. No previous American president has been at such pains to apologize for what he thinks are America’s sins. So while, thankfully, Ambassador John Roos did not speak at the Hiroshima event, the import of his presence there was undeniable.

In theory, there ought to be nothing wrong with an American representative appearing in Hiroshima. Mourning the loss of so many lives in the bombing is both understandable and appropriate. But the problem lies in the way Japan remembers World War II. One of the reasons why it would have been appropriate for the United States to avoid its official presence at this ceremony is that the Japanese have never taken full responsibility for their own conduct during the war that the Hiroshima bombing helped end. Indeed, to listen to the Japanese, their involvement in the war sounds limited to the incineration of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the fire bombings of many other urban centers in the country, followed by a humiliating American occupation. The horror of the two nuclear bombs didn’t just wipe out two cities and force Japan’s government to finally bow to the inevitable and surrender. For 65 years it has served as a magic event that has erased from the collective memory of the Japanese people the vicious aggression and countless war crimes committed against not only the Allied powers but also the peoples of Asia who fell under their cruel rule in the 1930s and 1940s. The bombing of Hiroshima was horrible, but it ought not, as it has for all these years, to serve as an excuse for the Japanese people to forget the crimes their government and armed forces committed throughout their empire during the years that preceded the dropping of the first nuclear bomb.  [Commentary Magazine]

You can read the rest at the link, but I recommend everyone read my prior posting about the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.  I also recommend checking out pictures from my visit to the Trinity Site where the first atomic bomb was tested.  I also recommend checking out my posting on my visit to the Yasukuni Shrine where the whitewashing of Japan’s Imperial past is quite evident.

So, how many of you who voted “unfair”, but support Affirmative Action and other race-based quota systems?

I suppose we could congratulate the Koreans on actually linking people by name to possible cases of people gaining wealth through collaborating, younger generations who might actually still possess the fruits of those deeds. (But what’s the statute of limitations on this insanity, 100 years isn’t enough? Can the descendants buy their way off the list?)

Now I just wonder, if you find THAT unfair, then how the hell is it fair that I, a descendant of Europeans who went to the USA after slavery ended, should have a worse shot at a job than a wealthier person whose family immigrated from Africa 20 years ago, all in an increasingly unjustifiable scheme to make up for past injustices. Follow the Korean example and track down descendants of slave owners and punish them. Not me.

OK, now give me thumbs down and call me a racist.
But before you do so, please explain yourself.
How is the Korean law unfair but racial quotas are fair?  [Japan Probe]

Civic group rallies against Japanese history textbook April 10, SEOUL, South Korea -- Members of the Asian Peace and History Education Network, a Seoul-based civic group, rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on April 10 to demand that Tokyo reverse its authorization of a junior high history textbook. The book paints Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula as aimed at modernizing Korea, and glosses over much of its imperialist past. (Yonhap)

A lot of things need to line up for something to come full circle after 60 years.

A Japanese family here now has in its possession a reminder of that.

During a ceremony Wednesday at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, members of the Kosakadani family were presented a Japanese flag that belonged to Cpl. Masayuki Kosakadani, who died during World War II.

The flag was brought to Japan by Air Force Col. Charles Eastman, who is in Japan with members of the Air War College in Alabama, where he is an instructor. Eastman got the flag from Casey Breslin, a friend who says the colonel is the only servicemember she knows, Eastman said after the ceremony..

Breslin is the granddaughter of Army Maj. Hugh Breslin Jr., who had possession of the flag for a short time until his death last year. Hugh Breslin had received it from Army Col. John H. Blair, who served with Breslin and who had kept the flag for more than 60 years. According to a fact sheet released by the U.S. Embassy, the exact circumstances relating to how Blair obtained the flag are unknown.

The Breslin family wanted the flag to go to the Kosakadani family, so Eastman sought the help of a Japan Air Self-Defense Force member at the college, who worked with the Japanese government to find them.

“He told me very early on that the outcome could be questionable,” Eastman said. “Even if they found the family, they might decide that it was too hurtful to them and, actually, that it might bring back pain rather than honor.”

Eastman said after the ceremony that he couldn’t have pictured a better ending. “It’s just absolutely perfect. I was honored to be part of it,” he said.

“I’ve been in very close contact with the family by e-mail, and they’re just absolutely thrilled that it has culminated with the return home of the flag here to Japan and the family.”

The family members were visibly appreciative.

“I am deeply moved that it was kept well and warmly for a long time and returned the way it is,” said Yoshio Kosakadani, 67, son of Masayuki Kosakadani’s older brother, Kousa. “It was returned by the efforts of many warm people. I’d like to thank everyone.”

The family hopes to write letters to the Americans who helped return the flag, which is destined for a place at the family altar in their Toyama prefecture home. [Stars & Stripes]

When  you think abouty it, it is incredible to see the reconciliation between the two countries that has taken place in the last 60 years to make such a thing possible in the first place. 

It would be nice to see such reconciliation take place between Japan and Korea one day as well.

Shin Jin-tae says he lives in the unluckiest town on Earth.

During World War II, when the Japanese occupied Korea, thousands of residents of this small farming community were shipped to Japan to work in munitions factories.

Their destination: Hiroshima.Shin and his family were there on the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, when the U.S. military dropped the atomic bomb, leveling the city center and vaporizing many of those within a mile of the blast.

Along with Japanese civilians, thousands of people from Hapcheon died instantly. Others lived, only to face poverty, prejudice and loneliness, some of them marrying other survivors because no one else wanted them.

“Sometimes I ask God, ‘Why Hapcheon?’ ” said Shin, now 65 and a rice farmer. “And why did we have to go there? There were so many other Japanese cities. Why did it have to be Hiroshima?”

Monday, Shin and about 300 other Hapcheon residents will join atomic bomb survivors in South Korea and other countries in filing suit against the Japanese government for wartime reparations.

The survivors, represented by a team of Japanese lawyers, were spurred on by a Japanese Supreme Court ruling that recognized their right to receive reparations for mental anguish.

Shin Jin-tae, leader of a group of South Korean survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, poses before a memorial to the victims. He and other residents of the South Korean town of Hapcheon are suing the Japanese government for mental trauma.

Although lawsuits seeking medical benefits have been filed over the years, suits seeking compensation for emotional suffering are a new element in the legal battles between bomb survivors and the Japanese government.

“We’re poor farmers and we are dying off,” said Shin, director of a local chapter of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Assn. “For Japan to really repay us, the amount is uncountable.”

An estimated 40,000 Koreans died and 30,000 were injured in the atomic blasts over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For years, survivors lobbied for medical care.

Progress has been slow. Although Japan has paid for medical treatment for its own victims — known as hibakusha, or “explosion-affected people” — foreign survivors were ignored until November 2007, when the Supreme Court voided a 1974 government declaration that atomic bomb survivors living outside Japan could not receive benefits.

The ruling prompted the government to offer $10,000 in compensation to each overseas survivor recognized as an atomic bomb victim in lawsuits already lodged against the state.

Japanese officials say they have been responsive to the survivors.

“Let me emphasize that we take various health and medical measures for survivors living in and out of Japan,” said Masato Kumaki, an official with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. “And we will continue to pursue measures to support atomic bomb survivors under the law.”  [LA Times]

Read the whole the whole article because it is a good read, but approximately 2,665 atomic bomb survivors plan on suing the Japanese government for reparations. I found it pretty incredible that Japan denied these people medical care for their injuries until a 2007 court ruling so I can easily understand their frustration with the Japanese government.

Anyway, the big question I am wondering is if these survivors plan on suing the US government as well?  In the article the leader of the survivor group planning on suing the Japanese government was critical of the United States as well.  He doesn’t think the United States should have dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima because it would kill civilians.

Well I disagree and this topic is one that has been discussed quite a bit before here on the ROK Drop.

This picture from Japan Probe shows what wheel chairs were like in 19th century Japan.  It makes me wonder if Chosun dynasy Koreans used the same thing?