Ed+Cho

Reflection I think Korea should have opened more towards the western influence. It is true that it is best for the country to be conservative about its religion and traditions. However, I strongly believe in order for any countries to improve, they have to go through westernization. As the western countries are getting immensely strong there is no reason not to open up to the western culture. From opening up towards the western culture, the country can develop their own way to improve.

1) What is a massacre, holocaust, and genocide?

- Massacre is a slaughter with out any purpose. Massacre is unnecessary killing of animals or humans for revenge or plunder. - Holocaust is a great devastation or destruction by fire. It is sacrifice consumed by fire. - Genocide is massive extermination of a national, racial, political or cultural group.

(From dictionary.com)

2) Was "The Rape of Nanking" a genocide and/or holocaust?

Just by definition, "The Rape of Nanking" is a genocide. The Japanese killed massive numbers of people of same race, and culture. However, I believe it was a both genocide and a holocaust. Even if they did not plan the whole murdering, they ended up killing both Chinese soldiers and innocent citizens of Nanking. This shows that the whole happening was both genocide and a holocaust. (I'm still very confused about these two definitions though)

3) Why do you think some refer to it as a massacre?

I think some refer to it as a massacre because the innocent people killed by Japanese people were killed without any specific reasons. As Japan's purpose of the invasion was to take over Nanking, there was no reason for them to murder so many innocent civilians. As massacre means slaughter of people without any purpose, murder of so many innocent lives proves that the happening can be called a massacre.

4) Does the term we ascribe (assign to) really matter?

It is just my personal thought but I think the term does not matter. The fact that the killing happened is not going to change no matter what people call that event. The fact that the event was unethical will never change. I strongly believe that without deciding what to call the event, people should focus more on what really happened at the event. 5) Why do we study such horrific events?

We study such horrific events to learn about the mistakes people made in the past. From learning about the mistakes people made in the past, we can learn why it is best to avoid actions such like that. Not only learning about the mistakes people made in the past, we learn about ethics about what is really right and wrong without any biased views. Additionally, people say that the key to the future is to know about the past.

Nogunri reflection

The incident of Nogunri with the America during the Korean war sounded very different. As I have presented my idea during class about how I think people shouldn't get caught from the past but only should learn from past, I believe the families who are not satisfied should change their minds and live on. What else can American do to compensate for the incident? President Clinton compensated quite a lot admitting the incident that occurred in Nogunri. One big thing that Nogunri incident is different from Korea-Japan controversy, is that Japan did not accept what they have done at the first time when they were accused of doing what they actually did. America accepted and compensated right away trying to comfort and satisfy the citizens who lost their families. The behaviors of these two countries were very different to each other. I partially believe that it is very true that money and public apology can't relieve the mental pain that the families of victims are feeling, however, what more can the United States do? I guess all that matters is the attitude. How Japan denied what they did, and how U.S. accepted right away and compensated. I believe that these two situations are very different. On the other hand, I also believe that as Korea is still a weaker country than both Japan, and U.S., Korea should stop trying to get public apology and start thinking about how they are going to improve to become a stronger country than Japan, and U.S., so they can one day finally get formal apology maybe even using force.

reflection 11/13 reflection

Should Korea and China have a say in what Japan puts into its textbooks? First I want to clarify what the word "should" means. In this case I think the word will mean something about if it makes sense to do something. Most of the citizens feel patriotic towards their country. Among these people, most of them will not agree with me if I told them that their country did something horrible. I think Japan is doing their best for the future education. However, I think it is partially wrong to completely deny the fact that they have done something very horrible. They had many other choices to take. They could have agreed the to the fact and showed the children the act of apologizing to the mistakes the country made.

I personally have two different ideas that completely oppose each other. One part, I think Korea and China should have a say towards the Japanese about the false informations that are getting taught to students in Japan. As a Korean I feel very frustrated about this happening. About how Japanese students learn false informations and think that their country have done nothing cruel to other countries. My other idea is very realistic to the situation Korea and China is in.