Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

This is an editorial from the Chosun Ilbo. I found it today, but I think it was printed a few days ago. Anyway, it points at some of the weird thinking of the governing party. It's too bad there isn't more of it--criticizing, that is.


Damned If They Did, Damned If They Didn't


A ruling-party lawmaker, Kim Won-wung, last week asserted that all the nation's misfortune was planted in a secret 1905 agreement between the U.S. and Japan, the so-called Taft-Katsura Agreement, in which Washington acknowledged Japan's colonial control of Korea. "We have to protest to the U.S. against this secret agreement, which was a serious criminal act under international law, and demand an apology for it," the lawmaker demanded during a parliamentary audit of our embassy in Washington. "We must seek a redress of past wrongs in Korea-U.S. relations."
In the secret accord, signed in Tokyo in 1905, the U.S. and Japan acknowledged the latter's control of the Korean Peninsula and the former's control of the Philippines. Korea was at the time already in Japanese hands as a result of Japanese victories in wars with both Russia and China. Calling for the U.S. to be held to account for the agreement is tantamount to asserting that it should have intervened on the Korean Peninsula even if that meant risking a war with Japan. By the same token, one might contend that any colonies should demand a redress of injustices not merely from their former colonial master but from any country that acknowledged their control. That logic is not going to wash in the international community.

It is not difficult to find voices in and around the ruling camp that will portray the Taft-Katsura agreement as the source of all our ills. Some even argue that the nation's division into North and South can be traced back to the accord. A group of legislators from both the ruling and opposition parties that included Kim in July submitted a draft resolution to the National Assembly calling for a formal repeal of the Taft-Katsura Agreement and for apologies from Washington and Tokyo.

But the purveyors of this historical view also grumble about the U.S. intervention in the Korean War and want to topple a statue of U.S. general Douglas MacArthur in Incheon. It must be based on such views that Rep. Kim alone did not go along with the other lawmakers when they paid their respects at the Korean War memorial after the audit in Washington.

[desultude]

The Chosun Ilbo is a conservative newspaper that oft takes on the ruling party.

Instead of saying the view cited is strange, how about a substantive criticism of the content. Do you know this to not be true? What are your sources? I am not arguing either way, I am simple saying that to call an opinion strange requires some evidence. I don't see any.

[On the other hand]

A few points:

1. It's debatable how much influence this editorial will have among people not already commited to the viewpoint. The Chosun Ilbo is regarded in nationalist circles as having been a pro-Japanese collaborationist newspaper, so most of those people will probably just say: "well what do you expect from guys like that?"

2. It's also debatable how much influence Kim Won-wung's comments will have on actual policy. Like, Noh Moo Hyun on his next trip to Washington is gonna say "hey, I wanna talk about getting compensation for the Taft-Katsura agreement of 1905". Well, I suppose he COULD say that, if only to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt how much the outside world is indifferent to Korea's nationalist psychodrama.

I suspect that both Kim's remarks and the Ilbo's editorial were intended simply for consumption by their respective fan clubs. Can't see much resulting from this either way.

[desultude]

[EFLtrainer]

The several histories of Korea I have read all support the essential argument of the lawmaker.

Here's a nice synopsis, which also mirrors my previous readings on the subject. In fact, I have read nothing so far that would contradict the basic premise of the lawmaker's remarks.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/2460/korea.html


And this may explain the first tangible beginning of the process of Japan's rule of Korea:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_War_%281894-1895%29

[Ya-ta Boy]

[desultude]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[desultude]

[Kuros]

The dichotomy between the Taft-Katsura agreement and the US' support of South Korea against North Korean aggression is particularly effective in showing just how unhinged and unconditional some of the nationalist resentment in Korea nowadays can be.

Obviously, the Taft-Katsura agreement is not America's moral highpoint, but it should be acknowledged that it was signed as part of the deliberations on the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the Russo-Japanese War.