Here is Japan’s official homepage;

http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/takeshima/position.html

> When I was attending a public Korean schools from kindergarten to high　school, my knowledge gained from the schools did not stimulate any hates for Japan although Japanese history clearly display many events of war-crimes, racism/anti-human rights, and such..

Then, what do you think about those drawings by Korean children?
http://www.geocities.jp/bxninjin2004/data_room/05/cache/01/indexphp.htm
I want to hear from you if these drawings seem to be heart-warming?

> What disturbs me is that, Japanese people distorting and censoring almost all of their shameful historical events.

As I’ve repeated, those who distorted the history seem to be Chinese and Korean people.
As a Japanese, I have learned enough about the Imperial Japan’s deed. I thought the education in Japan seems to be more self-tortured one. This is because of “Nikkyoso (the Japan Teachers’ Union)” – the largest organization of teachers in Japan, whose idea is almost that of communists, as they have a connection with Japan Communist Party and they always blamed Japanese government policies and what Japan did in the past. They oppose to hoist Japan’s national flag and oppose to sing Japanese anthem during the ceremonies such as graduation ceremony in school. But with the destruction of communist countries, they have been criticized nowadays.

I know that books against the government are prohibited in Korea. But in Japan we can get various books, some against the government, some for the government. I understand that Korea is always in the war time, a kind of state of emergency, due to North Korea, but this is too much. These policies may make people’s eyes smoke and cloudy. They should permit books with various opinions, it’s the basis of impartial judgment.

And in Korea, the anti-Japan education is still going on, as I showed you above. They educate only the wrong side of Japan in order to hate Japan.

And I fear that the anti-Japan movement in Korea and in China, evoked by these anti-Japan educations, would let Japanese people have the hatred of Korea and China. Actually, it worked as I feared.

But we should not hate each other, we should understand each other.

So please stop the anti-Japan education and teach the pupils every thing Japan had done good and bad. And they should educate that there are dispute between Korea and Japan concerning Takeshima (Dokdo), with each country having different views. (This way of teaching is usual in Japan’s textbooks.)

> Japanese anime, electronics and cars bought my interest for long time and still are.

But did you know that Korean Government banned the animation movie “Hotaru No Haka” (it means “Firefly’s Grave”) last year because it shows how miserable Japanese children were during the war – they think all the Japanese were bad and no victims shouldn’t be in Japan. (But actually, there were many victims in Japan as you may know. And the movie’s theme is a kind of anti-war message, like “we shouldn’t do the wars – never again”. )

> No one really had any hatred against Japan until Japanese people suddenly claimed the ownership of Dokdo island.

It was Korean people who suddenly claimed the ownership of the island. Japan owned the island since 1905 and Korea occupied it “illegally” (for us Japanese) in 1954. Japan has long advocated her right to own it. But Japanese government has acted as a gentleman not to make it an international dispute, whilst Shimane prefecture has wanted the government to postulate more actively because fishermen in Shimane couldn’t get fish around the area for 50 years. (Although there is an agreement between the two countries that Korean and Japanese fishermen could operate in the area, Korea has shut Japanese fishermen out unreasonably.)

As I wrote before, we were astonished to see Korean people protesting furiously. People of the country that occupying our island illegally are protesting…..what a big surprise! All the Japanese people thought that we can’t talk with these people – we can’t get across to them.

But I think we should talk. We should talk, not yelling like a child.
So your government should talk openly to our government about this matter and if they won’t get an agreement unfortunately, the issue should be judged impartially by the international court. (But as you know, Korean government rejected this proposal.)
If Korean people believe the validity of their theory, why do they reject the proposal?

As to the items you mentioned, I will say;

1. Whether Korean history textbooks are distorted or Japanese history textbooks are distorted, both side’s argument won’t end.

Objectively spoken, Korean textbooks are distorted. They intend to make Korean people hate Japan. I know the Korean textbooks because they were tranlslated into Japanese but I wonder have you ever read Japanese textbooks? If you didn’t, how do you say which is distorted?

2. Everything you said about Korean history, I knew and most Korean people knew although most of the information in co.jp blogs you linked are absolutely incorrect. Chinese/European/American history books will help with corrections perhaps.

I don’t understand if they knew that Korea had been a tributary to China and that they got to be independent for the first time in the 500 years after Japan defeated China, why do they blame Japan? After the Sino-Japanese war why Korean people didn’t choose the way of independent country themselves? Why Korean people don’t reflect on what they chose, instead of blaming Japan?

Most sites I wrote are not Japanese ones, except the one showing the Korean pupils’ drawings.

3. It’s human nature to exercise hatred against enemies and competitors, so why even try to argue

We are not your enemy. After the war, we apologized many times and had a friendship treaty with your government in 1965 and paid lots of money to your government and helped in many ways to build modern country.
But your government did not only informed Korean people about the contents of the treaty for many years but also banned Japanese culture – music, movies, etc for many years. And they gave eccentric education to hate Japan, as you see the pupils’ drawings. Do you think this policy is a friendly one?

4. Arrogance among Japanese caused by lack of knowledge in their own history has gone too far and it produced over-reaction of many Japanese nationalists from the anti-Japanese movement in China and Korea.

Japanese students may have not been taught straight history, but they were not taught a distorted history. As I mentioned above “Nikkyoso” teachers taught the history through communists’ eyes, denying Japanese flag and anthem, but not all the teachers are communists. But nowadays there is a movement to teach students the right history.

And anyway, hmmm, are you projecting this as sort of what the Japanese did? It sure sounds like you are…Except, that the killer has not gotten away. He has been bombed, shelled, irradiated and contaminated with stuff that results in terrible genetic mutations, forced to start over with population, economy etc., thanks to a prolonged campaign of firebombs, which Patton (the US feller who ordered the campaign) said “were the stuff of war crimes”.

And now he is being forced and called upon all over the blogosphere to relive his disgraces and crimes all over again through apology, by people who wish to shove his crimes into his face again and again.

Do you really believe that an apology that is not met with forgiveness will even help in the least of senses? I doubt so.

If the Japanese truly wish to hide their history, then it will eventually come to light, whether by our efforts or not. Relax a bit, will ya, Jung? Whether they like it or not, the flat truth is that they did the stuff of nightmares down there in China and Korea, and were given an extremely unfair share of suffering back. They can go anywhere in the world with a connection to Japan in the war, and they will know what happened. And they will know indeed.

Forgiveness is not given when the suspect denies the truth and distort the history. Here’s a scenario..

A Theif comes into your room with a weapon, he then takes your wife from your bed, rapes her over and over. You end up getting killed by him, when the police arrives and captures the killer, he pretends to be innocent and walk in the path of lie. Except the killer gets away from the police.

To sum up what I wanted to say,
1. Whether Korean history textbooks are distorted or Japanese history textbooks are distorted, both side’s argument won’t end.
2. Everything you said about Korean history, I knew and most Korean people knew although most of the information in co.jp blogs you linked are absolutely incorrect. Chinese/European/American history books will help with corrections perhaps.
3. It’s human nature to exercise hatred against enemies and competitors, so why even try to argue
4. Arrogance among Japanese caused by lack of knowledge in their own history has gone too far and it produced over-reaction of many Japanese nationalists from the anti-Japanese movement in China and Korea.

When I was attending a public Korean schools from kindergarten to highschool, my knowledge gained from the schools did not stimulate any hates for Japan although Japanese history clearly display many events of war-crimes, racism/anti-human rights, and such.. What disturbs me is that, Japanese people distorting and censoring almost all of their shameful historical events. Japan has been producing new generation with their past completely blacked out from 1900s.

Japanese anime, electronics and cars bought my interest for long time and still are. I have taken over 3 East asian history courses in University of washington and still have access to great resource of information. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Japanese and try to bash them based on their world reputation. I know 6 Japanese friends who knows their history and we never had a single argument with historical events. No one really had any hatred against Japan until Japanese people suddenly claimed the ownership of Dokdo island. Because of the current situation with North Korean nuclear missile testing, Dokdo issue has not been too serious in Japan.

To sum up what I wanted to say,
1. Whether Korean history textbooks are distorted or Japanese history textbooks are distorted,
2. Everything you said about Korean history, I knew and most Korean people knew although most of the information in co.jp blogs you linked are absolutely incorrect.
3. It’s human nature to exercise hatred against enemies and competitors so why even try to argue
4. Arrogance among Japanese caused lack of knowledge in their own history has gone too far and overreacted over Anti-Japanese movement in China and Korea

I found the site about hanglu here:
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/h/hangul

It says that Japan taught hanglu from 1910 to 1937.
So words by someone, who said “Japan had never taught Hanglu”, must be corrected.

“When the idea of nationalism was introduced from Japan to Korea, Hangul began to be considered as a national symbol by some reformists. As a result of the Gabo Reform(갑오개혁) by pro-Japanese politicians, Hangul was adopted in official documents for the first time in 1894. After Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, Hangul was compulsorily taught in schools until Japan began the national mobilization policy in 1937″.

Lots of thanks for your comment!
You are right. We should get together for the future children of Asia, paying respect to each other country.

And yes, governments can be “dumb enough” to falsify the information in textbooks, if it suits their internal agenda. I’m very sure the Korean people would like to know the atrocities between North and South Korea, if only there were enough memorials to remind them. And I’m sure the Japanese would love to know what happened during the Second World War, and they can, by crossing the sea to see the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbour. All nations have done something terrible sometime in their history. Remind yourself of all the sordid events within court that happened accross the histories of all imperialistic, or formerly imperialistic nations. Please. I believe they can be that “dumb” if they wish you not to know. And if they don’t, how great must that evil be that is never said!

However, I might like to state that the way a country’s education system works is ALWAYS (or almost always) based on their political stand towards the issues in history. I live in Singapore, another one of the nations who were conquered by the Japanese in WWII. I have never forgotten this, but I bear toward them no animosity. As a matter of fact, I consider that having been under a colonial rule, and having been brutalised for 3 years and 8 months acutally allowed the people of our country to realise that we had been wrong in our thinking that we needed a colonial power to rule us over, and we realised we could then rule ourselves, and so 40 plus years down the road after independence, we had become a prospering, independent nation, in a way, thanks to the Japanese Occupation. You know, even black periods of history can be converted into the most valuable of lessons.

And secondly, I would also like to state that history should be forgiven, but should never be forgotten. The wrongdoing is forgiven and forgotten, but the history remains. If we never learn to forgive one another, we will do exactly what Stephen Hawking said we might end up doing, which was eating each other up. And btw, his solution to that was to send us off to other planets, so no one catastrophe could destory us all at the same time. It’s a pity, that if space travel were possible at that point, then people who hate each other on a national level could then fly off to other planets and continue killing each other, and then possibly Mars’ seas would run again, but red with blood. And things like that. You see, if we don’t forgive, we’ll eventually kill each other, but if we don’t forget, we will be able to learn from history. That’s how many countries, inclusive of Japan and Germany, both former oppressors in the Second World War, have become the countries they are today. Japan has learned that conquering nations by force is only one of the ways it can be done. Now, it has annexxed us (so long as annexation means unification) via the means of the Playstation (Sony) and the manga/anime craze (Sunrise,Ghibli, etc.). We’ve already lost that war here in Asia, and even the US and Europe, who beat them in terms of force in WWII, has to give them a point for that. (Hence the Xbox, but that’s not my point really)

So Learn from history, and don’t forget it. History tends to repeat itself, as all the wars on earth show us. They are all fought over the same things: Ideology, Power, Wealth, Land, Resources, Good and Evil (so long as it’s THAT black and white) and things that would help one’s nation, or international alliance.

But learn to forgive those who trespass against you, just as you have to beg their forgiveness for your own trespasses. Even if they do not apologise, you will know that you are the braver, and the better man if you have already forgiven them. The one who forgives before an apology is given, is truly a brave man, and I would take off my hat to him anyday.

For if we do not learn the importance of that fact, we will never have world peace, we will only get ourselves another world war, and then after all the brutality that resulted from hatred, and that will lead to yet more hatred, we can bicker like this on internet forums again.

Pray all you Koreans and Japanese friends, I would like to say one thing that is in one of the greatest Chinese novels of all time, Water Margin. It says that “all the peoples of the world are brothers”.

Why can’t we all forgive and be brothers again, and stand “hand in hand, all across the land, and make this world a better place for us to live”?

(Any way, that line I put in quotes at the end is taken from an song called “All as One” which is based on the style of a Korean folk song “Arirang”)

Thank you for your opinion.

I will tell you about my personal things first. I have not been interested in your country for a long time, although I had some “Zainichi” (Koreans living in Japan) classmates in school days, including a person with the same name as you. There was not so much information about Korea for many years. But the world cup football games and the booming Korean TV drams made me interested in Korea. I saw the dramas very favourably, persons in the dramas look alike us and emotions such as love, hate, sorrow, anger etc are acted as in the quite same way as in Japan. And I noticed some of the Korean movies are quite moving and impressive. Then I went to Seoul for three times and found it very interesting. I began to learn Korean language and found the grammar is almost similar to Japanese, although my Korean tongue is still poor. So anyway, I personally like Korea and Korean culture.

But one day, all of a sudden, I was surprised to know that Korean people were burning Japanese flags and shouting “Dokdo is ours”… I couldn’t say a word. I couldn’t understand why they were furious in such a barbarous manner. We all know that Takeshima, Dokdo in Korea, belongs to Japan and that the island has been illegally occupied by Korean troops… but the people of the country that occupied the island are protesting….
Why? Ridiculous.

So I examined by myself and found that Korean people were not properly informed. The books that favoured Japan are prohibited. The only available books are for Korean government. And the textbooks of Korea are made only by the government.

Then I noticed that the problem lies in the education and freedom of press in Korea.

Please receive my sincere advice. Please take a look once again at every thing around you with critical eyes.

The facts (with evidences) are as follows:
1) Chosun dynasty had been a tributary to China for hunderds of years until Japan defeated China (Qing).
2) There were miscellaneous unpleasant things for Korean people during the colonial days but all of what Japan did were not always wrong. In some aspects, quality of life, environment, hygiene, economy etc were improved.
3) There is controversy over the Takeshima (Dokdo) issue. Korean theory is not always right. (There is no evidence.)

Hey Jung, I didn’t deny anything. Please think again about the three items I listed objectively above.

O Sonfa wrote in her books that many old Koreans told her good memories of the Imperial Japan days. And Gerry Bevers also wrote, “I have talked with elderly Koreans who fondly remember the colonial period. Why is it that Koreans who experienced the colonial period seem to like the Japanese more than the ones who did not?”…

It’s because they knew the real colonial days, whilst younger Koreans didn’t know the real colonial life but had brain-washing education by the government.

All the origin of the disputes between Japan and Korea is attributed to the distorted education in Korea. Wake up my dear Korenas, please notice the problems in the education system in your country!

But the barriers, such as Takeshima (Dokdo) issue, textbook issue etc always prevent us to do so.

In my opinion, the origin these disputes came from Korean education. They sometimes distort the history and make pupils hate Japan.

Please look at this site:
http://www.geocities.jp/bxninjin2004/data_room/05/anti_Japan_education.html

Normal people will be surprised to see these drawings by Korean pupils.