Japan made full reparations to South Korea in its 1965 treaty paying compensation to everyone – the Korean government decided to invest the money in its economy instead. Surely that benefited everyone. these days it just seems like Koreans are money grubbers.
“We want more apology, more apology, AND we want Japan to agree with everything we say. How can Japan apologise about the war and occupation when they complain about Dokdo and the Sea of Japan. Waaa Waaa”.
What has the Sea of Japan and Dokdo got to do with anything else?
According to this Wikipedia article (and from a Korean point of view):-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan
Japan has apologized for the general war including in Korea 14 times.
Japan has apologized to Korea individually for its colonialism and the war 15 times.
Japan has apologized for the comfort woman situation in Asia (includes Korea) 5 times.
Japan has apologized to Korea individually for Korean comfort women 4 times.
These apologies do not include the compensation paid to comfort women under the 1965 treaty, that the South Korean government withheld from individuals and instead invested it in industry. A treaty which exempts Japan from any further payment obligations to South Korea.
It also does not include the setup of the Asian Women’s Fund which included a personal signed apology to individual comfort women from the Japanese Prime Minister at the time (Murayama).
PLEASE JAPAN DO NOT APOLOGISE ANYMORE. THAT IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT DOES NOT EXIST ANY MORE. THE PRESENT CONSTITUTION OF JAPAN WAS WRITTEN BY TWO USA GUYS. UNLESS SOMEONE HAS A PRIVATE APOLOGY THEN PLEASE DO NOT MAKE AN APOLOGY TO KOREA AGAIN. PLEASE, PLEASE.
The more I think about this, the more I think that Korea has no pride at all. I can see why they don’t have any pride, They were vassels to China until Japan defeated China and got China to relinquish Korea’s subservency by the treaty of Shimonoseki. Of course what Korean people dont realize is that Japan did not think about Koreans at all. It was worried about Russia trying to make a pacific ocean port and that Russia was threatening to be Japan’s only local neighbour. (Not taught in Korean schools at all. Korea at this time could not defend itself from anyone – it was just a pawn between China, Russia and Japan.
Everyone in Korea these days thinks their family was one of the upper classes. It was the Japanese aligned Korean cabinet that they have to thank for the Gabo reforms which oblished the class system. Before that 95% of the Korean population were peasents. Hmmm… aparently no-one is descended from the peasent classes anymore – ask anyone.
It is especially funny to see the indignation about the assasination of Queen Min. A newcomer to Korea would think that she was loved during her lifetime. When actually a large number of Koreans would have enjoyed to torture her to death.
It is a source of embarrassment to most Korean people these days that Japan occupied Korea without any resistance. I’m sure many people have heard unsatisfactory excuses as to why this was the case. The excuse given to me most often is “there was no-one to lead the Korean people”. Anyone with more than a basic knowledge of Korean history will know that none of these answers will do. The Korean people often rebelled against their leaders. The class system was only abolished with the Gabo reform of 1896. Around 95% of the population were in the lower classes of peasants (sangmin 75%) and slaves etc.. (Cheonmin – slaves, kisaeng etc..) and outcast “untouchables” (baekjeong). Everyone not surprised by the lack of resistance to Japan will surely be surprised by these rebellions, quite recent to the period (see the wikipedia article on the origins of the Donghak rebellion):-
1. In 1812 Hong Gyeong-nae led the peasants of Gasan in the northern part of Korea into an armed rebellion and occupied the region for several months. An army was sent to quell the rebellion and the revolt was only put down after a savage scorched-earth campaign. All over Korea, all the way to Jeju Island, peasants continued to defy the king in Seoul, the local nobility and wealthy landlords.
2. In 1862 half a century after the peasant rebellion led by Hong Gyeong-nae was put down, a group of farmers in Jinju, Gyeongsang, province rose up against their oppressive provincial officials and the wealthy landowners. This uprising was the result of the exploitation of destitute farmers by the local ruler. The rebels killed local government officials and set fire to government buildings. In order to appease the rebels, the government hastily revised the land, military and grain lending systems. It was an ineffectual attempt at reform, as many yangban in the central government were themselves deeply involved in such corruption. The revolt in Jinju triggered peasant uprisings elsewhere all over Korea; groups of farmers rose up with arms and attacked government offices in principal towns. Many government officials were executed. The uprisings were generally crushed by government troops. In 1862 the peasants of San-nam and surrounding villages took up arms against the elite, but were brutally butchered by troops. In subsequent years, peasants rose up in small groups all across Korea until 1892.
3. The Donghak Peasant Revolution, or the 1894 Peasant War (see the main wikipedia article).
I would suggest that the Korean peasants had had enough of their yangban rulers and with the defeat of the Chinese by Japan, the Gabo reforms introduced by the pro-Japanese cabinet removing slavery and the class system, the peasants finally saw some prospect of hope in their lives.
At least the Japanese introduced schools to Korea. (Yes, there were schools before, expensive schools for the rich to take the civilservice exams and some christian missionary schools – but the modern school system in korean for all Children was introduced by Japn).
(As a side note, ever heard that Korean people were forced to change their names to the Japanese style? Well changing the style was so popular at the beginning of Japanese rule that in 1911 a proclamation, “Matter Concerning the Changing of Korean Names” (朝鮮人ノ姓名改称ニ 関スル件) was issued barring ethnic Koreans from taking Japanese names and to retroactively revert the names of Koreans that had already registered under Japanese names back to the original Korean ones.) NASTY JAPANESE .