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Mr. Moon has been way more polite than he should dealing with a country that is attempting to deny history and the horrible tales of the comfort women.
The entire colonization of Korea by Japan was brutal enough that on a face-to-face level, Koreans and Japanese still harbor some actual bitterness towards each other.
Even the mainland Chinese agree that they've largely accepted Japanese as a people today, although (justifiably) the simmering grudge remains.
https://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippines-duterte-hands-off-comfort-women-statue-dispute-130023335.html
In relation to that, Duterte issued a "no comment" answer in the wake of the controversy regarding the statues.
Although it's not exactly related to a direct event, this article by Prof. Rana Mitter, one of the best historians of the Second Sino-Japanese War, is very interesting.
It centers around Japanese rule in Taiwan, which today causes a lot of arguments between the DPP and KMT, especially in the differences between Japanese and KMT rule.
Oh, bother.
My own grandma is old enough to remember a bit of that time. She's got...mixed feelings, to put it lightly. It's probably not for nothing that she's refused to even visit Japan for vacations whenever the rest of the family extended invites. Nowadays of course it's because she's at the age where she doesn't want to go on long plane rides (and even that's not much of an excuse since Taiwan to Japan isn't that long).
edited 14th Jan '18 5:45:06 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
Interesting. From what you hear nowadays from DPP supporters and most elderly Taiwanese who are willing to speak, the Japanese occupation of Taiwan is thought to be largely peaceful, unlike the KMT's iron-fisted authoritarianism during their early years in Taiwan.
Of course, it was peaceful...for the Hoklo. For the aborigines, it was a different story, involving typical IJA brutality.
edited 14th Jan '18 12:40:22 PM by TheWildWestPyro
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
There's a single glaring difference between the treatment of Taiwanese Hans and aborigines under the Japanese and Chinese Nationalists.
A relative phrased it at a family reunion in the best way I know possible:
"It is true that the Japanese saw themselves as superior and us inferior. A Japanese school teacher would be paid more than a non-Japanese one [said relative was a school teacher during the Japanese era]. However, they considered themselves to be superior to us while also accepting the fact that they had to accept us as their subjects and allow us to be productive and happy subjects of the Empire. If that meant allowing us to speak our native languages in the streets and giving us our own local councils, so be it.
"The Kuomintang on the other hand, saw the mainland Hans as not only superior to us Taiwanese Hans, but openly labeled us as Japanese collaborators despite the fact that we were born under Japanese rule and had no choice. There was no need to recognize and rule us to be productive and happy subjects, because the millions of mainlanders fleeing the Communists would live and work in our place. Thus, the KMT openly attempted to replace us instead of actually ruling us like the Japanese did. Thus, we were jailed, shot, massacred, and intimidated . No language but Mandarin was permitted in public. You would be beaten if a teacher heard you speak anything but it at school.
That's why us old folks speak fondly of the Japanese. Because they at least acknowledged that we were there before them while the Kuomintang tried to erase us to make Taiwan a new China."
Mitter is correct in reminding us that Japanese-ruled Taiwan was still a colonial society with a clearly defined superior and inferior peoples. However, he forgets to examine the fact that the end of World War II merely transferred rule of Taiwan from one colonial power to another with the literal intent on colonizing the island with millions of its own followers. Under the former, non-Japanese were permitted to elect their own local councils and representatives, while central authority truthfully lay with Japanese-appointed officials in Taipei. Under the latter, this pretense of parliamentary government was wholly done away with, with the Kuomintang being omniscient in all walks of life. A key cause of the 228 Incident was of Taiwanese pouring into the streets to protest the KMT's removal of the local councils.
In other aspects, the comments section to that article is ironically filled with accusations by 50 Centers that Mitter doesn't go out of his way to blast the Japanese enough:
Thanks for stepping in. Possibly the worst aspect of the White Terror was the KMT throwing teenagers as young as 16 into labor camps and not letting them out until Chiang Ching-kuo decided martial law should end. Really, it's no wonder that Chiang's statues are being taken down and his legacy is being challenged. While the KMT did plenty of good, they brought great sorrow to Taiwan.
And the White Terror showed just why the KMT is the Chinese Nationalist Party for a reason. Not that the CCP was any better, of course, with them being fanatically patriotic under Mao, crushing the Uyghurs and slaughtering the Tibetans.
I've heard that the KMT, well, treated the aborigines slightly better (although they tried to assimilate them too) via a patronage system. Also, I've read that the KMT wanted to create an ethnic bloc against the Hoklo majority to secure their power base better. As a result, most aborigines are still in favor of the KMT, although the DPP had some small successes in improving relations.
About the idiotic comments...did they not read his goddamn book on the Second Sino-Japanese War?
It's one of the best English books about the war, and pretty much codified the historical view that the KMT fought hard.
Oh well, you can't reason with wumaos and die-hard nationalists. Ugh. I don't think they'll even read the book, they'll skim it and then go back to wanking about their own superiority or dismiss the entire book as imperialist propaganda.
edited 14th Jan '18 1:19:35 PM by TheWildWestPyro
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180115_05/
ICAN wants a meet with Abe over the abolition of nukes. The FM mentions that Abe can't make it, since he's in an official trip in the Baltic states.
Talk about PM Abe's fifth year in office. Whether he'll go for the third term (probably), his defence policy (offence vs. defence) and to where we go from here.
edited 19th Jan '18 1:07:41 AM by TerminusEst
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180120_12/
The JASDF mentions that their first F-35 will be based in Misawa.
Interesting article about an opinion on the CKS memorial hall's fate
This is interesting in that it's actually a multi-structured argument addressing various points, and links about the difference between Taiwanese of Hoklo ancestry and Taiwanese of mainland ancestry.
With Aum trials over, Asahara and his accomplices can finally be hanged
The Aum trials were unprecedented in Japan’s judicial history in terms of their sheer number and the length of the deliberations. The focus now shifts to when the 13 members on death row — including Aum founder Shoko Asahara, 62, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto — will be hanged.
Public security officials say there is a possibility that Asahara could be deified by remnants of the cult. Three groups have taken over Aum — their ranks number 1,650 and they collectively have ¥1 billion in assets, the officials said.
edited 21st Jan '18 4:16:07 AM by TerminusEst
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
That'll be interesting.
https://ph.yahoo.com/news/anger-over-second-snatching-bookseller-china-033635689.html
One of the Hong Kong-based booksellers has been snatched again, this time in front of Swedish diplomatic personnel.
Last week there was a hospital fire in South Korea that killed 39, and injured over 150. Most of the dead were elderly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Miryang_hospital_fire
Cause is presumably still under investigation.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
A very detailed op-ed about China's egregiously Orwellian control over Xinjiang's Uyghurs, written by an expert in the topic.
Use incognito mode to read.
edited 4th Feb '18 1:05:06 AM by TheWildWestPyro
Goes pretty well with this article: Death Solves All Problems: The Authoritarian Counterinsurgency Toolkit
Oh, bother.
So Taiwan just got hit with a 6.4 magnitude earthquake.
The parts of Taiwan where me and my family live are more or less okay, but the city of Hualien was not so fortunate.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Glad to hear that you are safe.
BBC reports that some high rises were toppled or close to it.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42966916
EXCLUSIVE: New photos show China is nearly done with its militarization of South China Sea
Most of the photos, taken between June and December 2017, were snapped from an altitude of 1,500 meters and they showed the reefs that had been transformed into artificial islands in the final stages of development as air and naval bases.
Shown the photographs, Eugenio Bito-onon Jr., the former mayor of Kalayaan town on Pag-asa Island, the largest Philippine-occupied island in the Spratlys and internationally known as Thitu Island, recognized new facilities on the man-made isles.
Oh, bother.
Seems like those of us in Taiwan are going to be feeling aftershocks for a while after an earthquake of that level. Heck, I just felt one a few minutes ago.
edited 7th Feb '18 9:41:33 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
Oh, bother.
Double post for a brief update:
Powerful aftershocks hit Taiwan after deadly quake
From Feb 4 to Tuesday night's 6.4-magnitude quake, 94 shocks were recorded.
Between then and 1pm on Wednesday, 150 aftershocks were recorded.
"This is unprecedented and not a normal release of energy," Chen Kuo-chang, acting director of the Central Weather Bureau's Seismology Centre told Taiwanese media.
Taiwan experiences 20 to 25 earthquakes of magnitude of 5.0 or higher each year and the sequence over the past few days has already accounted for nearly half of that number, he added.
The bureau warned of more aftershocks, adding that it does not rule out the possibility of strong quakes of magnitude 6.0 or higher.
edited 7th Feb '18 9:41:50 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
Oh, bother.
Another (grim) update on the Taiwan earthquake:
Hopes fading of finding more survivors in Taiwan earthquake
Rescuers broke through to a room in the Beauty Inn where the couple — Canadian citizens originally from Hong Kong — were found, Taiwanese broadcasters reported. No signs of life were found, they said.
The hotel, located on the lower floors of the 12-story Yunmen Tsuiti building, had almost entirely collapsed. The building itself was leaning at a 45-degree angle, forcing crews to stabilize it with steel beams.
The others missing in the hotel are five members of a family from China, including parents, grandparents and their 12-year-old son.
The Yunmen Tsuiti building was one of several damaged by the magnitude 6.4 temblor that struck Tuesday in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hualien county, whose economy is heavily dependent on tourism.
The deaths of the couple, both 49, raises the death toll to 12, including four tourists from China and a 27-year-old Filipino employed as a household helper. Taiwan's National Fire Agency listed 273 people as injured.
https://ph.news.yahoo.com/nbc-apologizes-koreans-opening-ceremony-remarks-japan-050041700.html
NBC made an ooopsie during the broadcast and they had to do damage control.
The South Korean government actually said that after consideration it will not ask for a revision of the agreement, citing that it cannot deny the fact that it was a bilateral agreement.
Moon Jae-in's recent address speech had a conciliatory tone wanting greater cooperation and wishing for a more compassionate stance from Japan.