Daniel+K.+Reflection


 * NOVEMBER 13-14 write a two paragraph reflection: Should Korea and China have a say in what Japan puts into its textbooks?**

Korea and China has the rights to fight against what the Japanese are doing for their textbooks if it skews the reality of the historical event and if it can’t let young Japanese citizens perceive correctly the history. Japanese might refute against the actions of Koreans and Chinese by saying this is their own internal affairs, but this is a superficial argument. It is just like telling a story, but taking out parts of it. It’s like writing down a statement that digresses. What good is history, if it can’t teach the learners its influence and the lessons that can be learned from it?

From “Japan’s Sins of Omission,” a reader can already have a good idea of what the article’s going to be about. Japanese history textbooks omit information that embarrasses them, and ones that rip down their pride. For example, they omit information about thousands of girls that Japan took to force them to work in the brothels. In another article, Japanese history textbooks skew information, where they “deny or beautify Japanese aggression during World War II” (BBC). The Japanese include omissive information, and denying the truth as well. This is not only doing a bad job as educating Japanese learners, but also disrespecting the victims who suffered during their military aggression. Imagine if a member of your family passed away in a car crash, and the murderer doesn’t admit his actions. The full, complete story must be told in these books, and if they don’t, China and Korea gets to have a say in what they’re doing.


 * Nogun-ri Reflection **

The Nogun-ri massacre is different from Korea-Japan controversy: the US government and soldiers didn't know what was going on, the US government compensated accordingly, and the scale isn't as big compared to what the Japanese did during their occupation. Although in the end there was blood for both cases of injustice, there is a huge difference if the actions could've been controlled. For the case of American soldiers, the orders were unclear and had to take the safe side; which was killing Korean civilians, even if they were not sure of their identification. The Koreans thought the Americans were killing them with no particular purpose; but thorough investigations have solved out the confusion. Besides, the Americans came to help the South, unlike what the Japanese have done. It can be said the Korean civilians were there at the wrong place in the wrong time. On the other hand, the Japanese had complete control over their action. They were occupying Korea for nearly four decades, and it was up to them on whether or not to commit such crimes on Koreans. For the second point, president Clinton acknowledged the massacre and made sure Korea was compensated according to the existing evidence. Memorials were built, and apologies were given. The Japanese have compensated Korea for some of their crimes, but many are still yet to be given, such as the compensation for the comfort women. While there are hundreds of witnesses and textual evidence, the Japanese will still not admit their act. Lastly, the scale of the two cases are totally different. For the Nogun-ri case at the lowest scale, 50 people were killed, and at the largest perhaps 400. Compared to the scale of the Nogun-ri massacre and the number of Koreans that died during the occupation from the abuse of Japanese, the number that died during the occupation is at a whole new dimension. The level of compensation for two cases, therefore, should be different.

Countries have the obligation to compensate another country for the injustices they committed. The compensation should be given only for the actions that were immoral or unethical. For example, Japan is obliged to pay China and Korea for the occupation/atrocity. A country can't really compensate for the damages done in war, because damage is something inevitable in wars. However, the atrocities like such in Nanking cannot be justified in any form. It was absolutely unnecessary, and could be avoided. Taking even one human life can result life imprisonment today. Imagine killing hundreds of thousands of lives and how much loss that was made. Besides, with the case of Germany, they fully apologized for the Holocaust they did. Jews were paid back in some way, and although nothing can ever fully pay back the lost lives, Germany did make an apology. Whatever immoral actions or unethical actions a country causes in war are responsible to pay for the damages.
 * Do countries have an obligation to compensate each other for injustices done in times of war?**

Do the short activity at the RON place in history link, post to wiki, is the Rape of Nanking a genocide, holocaust, or massacre?** 1) What is a massacre, holocaust, and genocide? A massacre is killing a large number of people indiscriminately. mas‧sa‧cre 1 1 . when a lot of people are killed violently, especially people who cannot defend themselves . A holocaust is when a great number of people die, with governmental orders and specific plans. A genocide is when plans are set out to kill a group of people. Everything is set, from the beginning to the start. The leaders of the movement plan who will die, where, and how. It is very systematic, often using propaganda and complex plans to lead their victims to death.
 * 11/05/08

2) Was "The Rape of Nanking" a genocide and/or holocaust? The Rape of Nanking is hard to define for both. Although the Japanese did not plan too thoroughly, many plans were involved in killing Chinese civilians and soldiers. Propaganda was involved, and the Japanese often looked for ways to kill the Chinese with the least cost and maximum effectiveness. Some parts were prepared, some parts weren't at all. RON isn't necessarily a holocaust because it didn't involve direct, on-hand government orders. It was never planned as thoroughly as the European Holocaust. However, the murders were still as brutal and the outcome and consequences can't be too different from a genocide or a holocaust. In conclusion, in some areas RON is a genocide. However, mostly it is a mass, big scale massacre.

3) Why do you think some refer to it as a massacre? A big number of people were killed in groups. The civilians could not defend themselves at all, and they were killed without any trial process. It is hard to define RON as just a genocide and a holocaust according to some definitions. It would be good to define RON as a big scale massacre.

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

5) Why do we study such horrific events? We study these horrific events so that we can learn from the mistakes that occurred in history. From events like RON and others like the Holocaust, we now know what actions should be taken when a situation like this occurs again. We are also learning about ourselves, our mankind. Nobody could realize how evil humans can become, and events like these just show how extreme humans get.

Response to the Intro of RON ` The Rape of Nanking is a diabolical, perhaps the one of the most violent events in history. Although it has been hidden behind the veils, the book reveals exactly what had happened in Nanjing. Since the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Japan rapidly invaded more land in China since then, including Nanjing. The Nanjing massacre includes mass murders and diabolic crimes such as gang rape and torture. Japanese soldiers forced fathers to rape their daughters, sons to mothers, pierce their tongues and hang them. These unbelievable, cruel acts don’t stop there. Some would be buried halfway to the waist, and get devoured by German shepherds. In addition to these crimes, there were countless number of tortures and murders. The total number of victims in the Nanjing Massacre exceed the number of civilian deaths in Europe during World War II. The estimated number of the Nanjing Massacre ranges from 250,000~350,000, which happened in just a few weeks.
 * Reflection**

From reading the introduction, I came to reflect on what Japan did to other countries, such as Korea and USA (Guam). Japan put upon Korea just as equal amount of cruelty and ruthlessness during their occupation. With a surge of anger rushing into my mind, I thought that Japan was repeatedly doing the same unjust actions whenever the chance came. What irritated me even more was how Japan will not admit and compensate the victims. The Japanese government would also delete this truth from their textbooks and school curriculum. Some are even killed for accusing an Emperor for his actions in WWII. It is obvious that the Japanese are not willing to learn from their mistakes, or admit it to fix it. As the last sentence of the introduction says, by George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In addition, it saddened me to find out that this event in history hasn’t spread as widely as the Holocaust or the Hiroshima bombings. It is an event that deserves just as equal amount of attention that other events receive. Hopefully this book will teach the world about making mistakes and making sure they do not repeat it.

Response to Chapter 1 Chapter one briefly summarizes the background history that Japan had to go through, including times hundreds of years ago. Influenced by the strict regulations set by the samurais, the same were set into many modern Japanese people as well. Many Japanese soldiers, kamikazes in WWII sacrificed their life to fight against the Americans. Japan’s ultimate goal was to make sure the West’s influence is wiped away, and that they become the strongest in Asia if not the world. After the Global Depression occurred and Japan went through great hardships, they decided to expand. Probably as Japan expanded, their harsh, violent actions naturally should’ve shown up. As those soldiers have lived on strong discipline and guidelines, it must have been easy for them to become violent towards the civilians in the places they invaded. Perhaps from a small root, the violence and the barbaric actions grown tremendously when Japan got to Nanking.

Questions: What motivates people to be evil? Did the Japanese soldiers lose their morality in the massacre? What causes nationalism? How was this portrayed in Japan in the late 19th century? Did Japan become greedy as they started invading into China? What were the consequences?
 * Questions & Observations**

Observations: Keeping up with the modern trend is essential. Nationalism can bring the country unimaginable development. Human greed never stops by it self.