South Korea: Japan aims to rewrite history'

[TomSea]

Japan aims to rewrite history'


Kim Hyun-chong, deputy presidential National Security Office, answers questions during a press briefing in announcing South Korea's position after Japan's decision to exclude South Korea from its list of most trusted trading partners took effect, at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday afternoon. Yonhap

By Kim Yoo-chul, Park Ji-won

A senior presidential aide reaffirmed Wednesday that South Korea will not reconsider renewing a military intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan. He also accused Tokyo of attempting to rewrite history to hide its past wrongdoings before and after World War II.

"The removal of South Korea from a Japanese whitelist of preferred trading partners finally took effect, Wednesday. This is very regrettable. Japan is seriously damaging mutual trust. South Korea clearly has no plans to disregard the 1965 treaty normalizing diplomatic relations between the two countries," Kim Hyun-chong, deputy head of the presidential National Security Office (NSO), told reporters in a briefing at Cheong Wa Dae.

"Japan is asking us to do something about last year's South Korean Supreme Court rulings that ordered Japanese companies to compensate South Koreans conscripted as forced laborers. But that was the decision by our country's highest court. Our sovereign rights and jurisdiction should be respected as the government isn't in a position to intervene in such rulings," he said.

Read more at: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/08/356_274721.html?utm_source=push&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=japan

Too bad this little tussle is going on but it's hard to begrudge the SK people on this matter. But why now?

[Absalom]

Horse manure!
Japan occupied Korea, a barren peninsula, from the turn of the
century till 1945, to prevent China, their chronic foe from doing so.

[PeteS in CA]

Horse manure!
Japan occupied Korea, a barren peninsula, from the turn of the
century till 1945, to prevent China, their chronic foe from doing so.

1. The Korean Peninsula was not barren, but had been an independent kingdom/empire for centuries.

2. Chinese influence in Korea largely ended as a consequence of the 1895 treaty that ended the First Sino-Japanese War.

3. The cause of the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War was Russia and Japan trying to increase their influence/power in Korea.

4. Japanese occupation of Korea was a consequence of the Russo-Japanese War.

But whether your version of events is correct or mine, above, is correct, the Japanese were brutal conquerors and exploiter-enslavers. Their occupation of Korea had nothing to do with defending their interests against anything, and everything to do with building an empire in which Japan would be the exploiter and enslaver of those they ruled.

There's a very ugly but historically correct reason Japan is hated intensely in Korea and the eastern third or so of China, areas Japan conquered.

[skeeter]

Japan is a reliable and necessary ally today - it would behoove them to simply acknowledge the truth concerning a certain ugly period in their history. No need to provoke these kinds of hard feelings.

[catfish1957]

Japan is a reliable and necessary ally today - it would behoove them to simply acknowledge the truth concerning a certain ugly period in their history. No need to provoke these kinds of hard feelings.

Both are allies.  Let's stay out of this tiff.

Got to wonder if there is some Chicom provocation involved here.

[Absalom]

1. The Korean Peninsula was not barren, but had been an independent kingdom/empire for centuries.
2. Chinese influence in Korea largely ended as a consequence of the 1895 treaty that ended the First Sino-Japanese War.
3. The cause of the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War was Russia and Japan trying to increase their influence/power in Korea.
4. Japanese occupation of Korea was a consequence of the Russo-Japanese War.
But whether your version of events is correct or mine, above, is correct, the Japanese were brutal conquerors and exploiter-enslavers. Their occupation of Korea had nothing to do with defending their interests against anything, and everything to do with building an empire in which Japan would be the exploiter and enslaver of those they ruled.
There's a very ugly but historically correct reason Japan is hated intensely in Korea and the eastern third or so of China, areas Japan conquered.

----------------------------
Permit me to correct my generalization.
North Korea is a barren rock-pile while the South has some agriculture.
As for Korea, it was never an Empire any more than Ganymede, a Moon of Jupiter.
As well, China and Japan have been adversaries since the Shang of 1500 BC.
Further, the notion of Korean autonomy/independence is mythology as it has
been an eternal pawn between China, Japan and Russia, literally forever.
Agree their occupation was harsh yet the Japanese did establish an education
system permitting the children of the vast peasant class to better themselves
over time which led to the economic development of South Korea after WW 2.

[PeteS in CA]

Further, the notion of Korean autonomy/independence is mythology as it has
been an eternal pawn between China, Japan and Russia, literally forever.

From the brief history I've seen, other than a bit over a century in the 13th and 14th Centuries, Korea has been one or more independent kingdoms from at least the 1st Century AD through well into the 19th Century. Japan tried to eradicate the Korean language, enslaved millions during their war effort (China and WW2), and forced a couple hundred thousand Korean women into sexual slavery to serve the IJA and IJN.

The Korean alphabet, created in the 15th Century, is phonetic, unlike Japanese Kanji and the traditional Chinese character set from which Kanji is derived. So education was not unknown in Korea before Japan's occupation.