Jae+Doh

__**Western Intrusion**__

 * 8) Write a short reflection of what you learned from these readings. With the benefit of hind site and knowledge of China and Japan, would Korea had been better off if it had “opened up to the west.”**

From the reading one can clearly notice that Korea did not open up to the west, and were constantly fighting to keep their culture. They went to extents as fighting and creating organizations to stop them etc. Keeping in mind what happened with Japan and China, by opening up to the west, Korea might be able to develop faster. Japan and China both developed technologically after contact with the westerners. Korea would probably have the same outcome, by opening up to the west, they will be able to advance technologically. However on the other hand, they could be completely dominated by the western nations like what occurred in China. If Korea was willing to push aside their pride and their culture in order to advance perhaps they could have been better off. This is the observations I came up with after reading the article.

=THE RAPE OF NANKING- reflection= As in the Rape of Nanking, there were multiple events in human history when humans committed extreme violence/violation to other humans. People considered the holocaust the worst atrocity that happened during the WWII however many people are not aware of all the genocides that took place in Asia. For some reason, Asia was not able to express their tragedy to the world. Also, the world did not seem to care. Was the death of countless human lives not important? Many people died without being recognized by the world. Violence that could not be expressed in mere words took place in Nanking when the Japanese army attacked. However the Japanese still deny this event in history, going around changing textbooks. Iris Chang thought that it was the duty of the people who knew of this terrible event in history to show the world. She questioned why this terrible event had not been addressed to the world, why was their pain not expressed. The Japanese had committed crimes as much or even more as the Nazis had during WWII however they do no admit it, they ignore it and go on. Iris Chang is showing the world of what happened in Nanking in multiple perspectives, so that the world can know what really took place.

RON in history.
In my opinion, RON is most definitely a genocide. The Japanese went through all the eight steps as the article stated, all eight stages of genocide. Except perhaps PREPARATION, since they didn't really have to. Since they were in China most of the people there were Chinese so there was no need for them to separate people from Chinese and etc. Although their ways differed slightly from what the article said, they did most of the 8 steps in a similar manner. Therefore I believe RON can be considered a genocide.

===read today's article on Nogun-ri and write a half page reflection explaining how this is the same or different from Korea-Japan controversy. Note how the perceptions of the Koreans and Americans involved in this incident differ. Do you still have the same opinion about compensation? Why? If you believe this situation is different, how is it different?===

Both of these incidents involved innocent lives to be lost and casualties in Korea. For one a similarity is that Korea was the one suffering, however the two events were in completely different scale. For one, the Korea- Japan controversy was a huge event and they did formally apologize and compensated for their deeds. However the Koreans are not in as accepting and believe that there should be more done. Also, the fact that one is a war and the other is a massacre, the amount of death is significantly different. Perhaps in war it can be accepted that you kill multiple people. Also the US took action to cover up this incident, and the people who suffered were not satisfied. And they did admit to it that they did such acts, unlike the Japanese, but they still tried to cover it up. Therefore in this particular case I believe the compensation was not enough and that there should be more done about this.



NOVEMBER 13-14 write a two paragraph reflection: //Should Korea and China have a say in what Japan puts into its textbooks?//
The write to create a text book fit for a nation is only given to the nation that the text book is made for. Japan has committed terrible deeds during the WWII and they have not put it their text book. This has angered many of the other Asian nations who had suffered under Japan. Therefore the other nations feel that Japan should change their text books. However I personally do not think they have a say in what goes into Japanese text books. Granted they were apart of Japanese history, however every nation is part of another nation's history. I believe that a nations right to create their own text book fit for their needs is reserved for that nation alone. However I also feel that Japan is obliged to state the entire history. By writing only one part of history and disregarding the other they will not only insult other Asian nations, but also blinding their own people. China and Korea do not have a say in what goes in, however that does not mean Japan should not include their war crimes in their text books.