일제 강점기: Forced Mobilization

일제 강점기 is the hangukmal phrase Koreans often use to refer to Japanese occupation from August 1910 until 1945. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Japan's forced annexation of Korea. Here is a little Wiki background and the map to the left represents Korea in the Japanese Empire in 1939. (Click on the map to enlarge it.)

My favorite Korean history book, at the moment, is Bruce Cumings' Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History. I recommend it: easy to find, engrossing and provocative. Anyway, it's difficult to find good modern histories for Korea. The Wikipedia page, understandably, needs a little editing. Overall, it's a fair overview of dates and events.

Japan has never wanted to be transparent about occupying Korea and continues to do whatever it can to hinder honest research into Japanese exploitation of Korea and Koreans. This is something I knew a little about before coming to Korea. Very little. Well, to be honest, I knew that Japan had occupied Korea until 1945. And this explains, I think, the detail most educated Americans know about Korea. Dates and names. Nothing more.

It's a shame because Korea and the United States are much more dependent on one another in many more ways than Americans would like to admit. Koreans don't like to admit it either as they have struggled throughout their history for self-determination.

I can't say that it's easy to learn. Much of the literature in English at Korean bookstores is outright crap seemingly authorized by government-friendly publishers and written by expat "journalists" and "historians" who must enjoy a little celebrity for kissing middle-class Korean ass. It's also more than a little patronizing to cast modern Korea as a classic, capitalist success story: placing Koreans in the role of a Horatio Alger hero who's rough, dirty, scrappy but works so hard that we all know he's going to win by the end of the story. I HATE THAT SHIT.

Sorry about the frank language, but some of the books are truly embarrassing and intellectual trifles. I don't want to get into historiography and dialectics here. I did want to share with you, on the other hand, three engaging articles from a Korean newspaper I enjoy reading, The Hankyoreh. The link is to the English language, online edition.

Yesterday, The Hankyoreh published the third in a three-part series of articles in observance of the 100th anniversary of Korea's annexation by Japan. The series is called "Traces of Forced Mobilization". The articles handle a particularly nasty part of Japanese occupation, the National Mobilization Law. After 1939 and until the end of occupation at the beginning of World War II, Japan mobilized (conscripted) over 5,000,000 Koreans as laborers in Japan and Korea, and elsewhere. Over 600,000 Koreans were taken to Japan. An accurate number will never be possible, but between 200,000 and 800,000 Koreans died as a result of forced mobilization. After the occupation, tens of thousands of Koreans were left as stateless refugees in what used to be the outlying ares of the Japanese Empire. (Again, an accurate number will be hard to learn.)

The Japanese attempted what many scholars now refer to as "cultural genocide"; the occupiers purposefully, brutally and crassly supressed Korean culture. It's aspects of occupation and war over the last 120 years that directly led to the revival of Korean Nationalism that so many foreigners complain about confronting while they live or visit Korea.

In the comments section, feel free to offer any stories you may have about family & friends; or, if you're learning about Korea, anything you'd like to discuss about the anniversary and topic.

Part One: Aso Group denies golf course sits atop burial grounds of conscripted Korean laborers
Part Two: Remains of unidentified Korean conscripted laborers remain at Takashima Island
Part Three: Korean former conscripted laborers live out last days on Russia’s Sakhalin Island

Added on 2/21, Part Four: “Peace” museum glorifies young conscripted Korean Kamikaze pilots

Back on the Bus with You (and Your Other-ing Elbow, too)

More than once on this blog, I have tried to address how quick US citizens, especially white folks, are to cry Xenophobia while living in Korea. It's true that Korea has a reputation for being rude to foreigners. People are pushy in the streets; they will look at you, but won't talk to you; they'll even talk about you while looking at you yet ignoring you.

But let's not kid ourselves: this is how foreign others are treated in the US as well as, well every other place I have been come to think about it.

I have yet to experience racism, though. Koreans have told me how rich I am, how lucky I am, how educated I am, etc. They like to draw rough caricatures of me: all end up representing me as an Ugly American of some sort. That is, until I get to know them.

I once got into an argument in my public school classroom with a teacher because I told a student who insisted Americans are all rich that I wasn't and the majority of Americans are not either. I told him, "in fact, we are poor." Speaking on behalf of millions of poor Americans, I felt proud of myself not permitting the nonsense in my classroom. My co-teacher stepped in and mentioned my clothes and then my wealth. After all, I was a traveler and living in Korea. Well, I stopped class. Turned on my laptop (a sign of wealth by the way, and it is and I must admit that,) turned on the projector, and connected the Internet. I showed them the poverty in the US. They shut up. The students ALL apologized. The adult teacher said nothing else about the matter. I had embarrassed her. It's not nice to do that to an adult here. Confucius still clouds daily life in Korea. On the other hand, I wasn't going to permit lies in our class to save her face.

I am a teacher. I am here to teach. I am not in this country to piss and moan about my personal treatment. I am here to work with others. If I were here to make money, to travel, to be tourist, I'd be at a hagwon (a for-profit, language education business) and tutoring. But I believe in public education and I am decidedly not a tourist.

I have found that by engaging my hosts, I am always treated well. Always. But engagement with others is difficult. I understand. I also understand that some people who travel are not cut out for traveling. What many travelers want is to be catered to in a manner that meets the satisfactions they are accustomed to in their native countries and as consumers in their local markets. Or, they want to treat Korea as their Zoo. I think it's unfair to come to a country like Korea and expect to be treated as anything other than other. Unless. Unless you are willing to take some shots, to be hurt, but to push back and insist your permanency in your new local environment.

Each time I return a shove in the street or a rude look or whatever weirdness I am given by a strange Korean I don't know yet, I try to return the action with a smile and some Korean language. If another return is offered it is always kind. The worst thing that happens is that I receive a grimace from an old man or lady. And I love the older Koreans. For what they been through in their lives--occupation and war--they have earned the right to grimace at foreigners in their land.

***5/27, 12:44 pm: It has been suggested to me that my use of "return" above makes it sound like I am returning a shove with a shove-with-a-smile. No. I am using return to implicate the return in discourse. The shove is a speech act. People push me out of the way rather than speak to me for a reason. It means many things, but one of the most significant ideas communicated by the shove is "I don't want to talk with you." I have learned that Koreans are incredibly shy and so are apt to appear incredibly obstinate. I return the shove with a speech act that invites a revision of their act. I think insisting that they "see" me again (revise) is important.***

AND LET US NOT FORGET KOREA'S HISTORY. You all do know that the Korean War has never ended. No treaty was ever signed between the US and Korea. We are still at war with each other. It's worth considering that Koreans know this and that Americans seem to not give a shit. Well, let's be honest. I am willing to wager that more than half of the foreigners in Korea, American or not, do not know this.

It is not an exaggeration for me to say that most foreigner teachers (not the students) I meet, including the Korean-Americans here know less than I do about Korean history, geography, and its local culture. Even the foreigners who speak the language well are not necessarily informed. How is this possible?!? Maybe they have read wikipedia. I think this is suspect. I did my homework before coming here and I assumed that others who wanted to live here would feel the same obligation. Well, I actually started doing the homework years ago when I wanted to come here. My point is that there are many reasons for Koreans' lack of trust. Foreigners come here to make money, eat, drink, have sex, make friends, buy stuff, and leave. And many foreign teachers make a lot of money. Many foreign teachers also often talk as if it is their right and privilege to come here and make as much as they want without doing anything. In other words, they do not behave as guests who are asked to be here and granted limited access; they act as if Korea is theirs to do with as they wish. Yes, they are little Imperialists and they are colonizing Korean space. And many Koreans hate it.

I am not going to surprise any high school or University teachers who read DagSeoul by saying this. But I will piss off almost every foreign teacher in Korea who will read this. We do not do much teaching here. The students in hagwons are studying for multiple choice tests. The majority of their teachers are teaching Idiomatic Expressions and some of their teachers are great performers and tell fun stories and use neat technology. In the high school I teach at, I see 20 classes of 35-45 students for 50 minutes once a week. Really. What can I do as a language teacher? Not much. Koreans do not work on composition and do not involve much reading in their language education. They work out of text books that target certain learning areas in language so the students can score well on tests. The students can read English and with prompts in the form of questions written in Korean language, they can tell you some basic things about English syntax and grammar. I do more for my students just talking with them in English, to familiarize them with the language, than I can teach them English.

It was shocking when I first got here. To the point, the majority of "native speaking English teachers" (NSETs) in Korea do not teach much at all. They work. We all work hard here. But most of the NSETs are not teachers. It's obvious talking to some of them that they don't know what they are doing. Now public school teachers here are more with it. But many are young and inexperienced--in fact, here to get experience. I don't understand what the Korean government is thinking bringing new teachers here to teach the English language. They should bring experienced teachers. (And this no offense to recent college grads coming here to teach, have fun, and get experience. Good for you.)

At any rate, the students are my concern. And many NSET folks care more for themselves and their lifestyles as travelers than they do care for their students. In other words, they are not teachers.