Korean-Americans Win Victory Over WWII Novel

Two questions for you:

Why the endless Japan-bashing in your posts?

What the hell has this got to do with Twitch?

Yeah, I wish those damn Koreans would just shut up and accept this completely fictional Japanese version of their history like they're supposed to. So ungrateful, all Japan ever wanted was to bring them bluebirds and happiness. But apparently, Koreans don't LIKE bluebirds and happiness, because they keep getting hung up on invasion and rape and ugly things like that.

Make your own website if you don't like what's on this one.

Jasper, I think you bring up some valid questions – I'd like to address the second one first, that is, what relevance do these articles have to a site devoted to cinema? Japanese-Korean relations are of vital importance not only to an understanding of many of the films to emerge from both countries, but also from an economic standpoint, as sales of Korean films to Japan, Korea's single largest importer, have dwindled over the past year. This dramatic decrease in exports has often been attributed to a decline in the quality of Korean films, but is also inextricably linked to the anti-hallyu [Korean Wave] backlash and deteriorating relations between the two countries because of misunderstandings about events that took place during the period described in the novel. In answer to your first question, why is it not Japan-bashing when news about the making of a revisionist documentary of the Nanking Massacre appears in the pages of Variety, but it is here? If out of 380 or so posts, I’ve published four or five news stories relating to Japanese, Chinese and Korean relations, how is it that I am suddenly Japan-bashing? Anyone who has read my posts knows that I don’t blindly embrace all things Korean and that I've reserved some of my highest praise for Japanese productions. When I write about Koreans’ obsession with appearance and plastic surgery, the destruction of Chinese natural habitat by Korean film crews or post an article about homophobia being a taboo subject in Korea, nobody accuses me being anti-Korean. So what exactly does the decision of a school board in Maryland have to do with a site devoted to film? I recall seeing last year in an affluent middle-school in Auburn Hills, MI a poster of flags from around the world which depicted Korea as a backward agricultural nation. I reflected on the inadequacy of my own education concerning Asian history, when it suddenly dawned on me how crucial early education is to shaping the attitudes of young adults toward other cultures, and by extension, toward foreign film. As lovers of world cinema, if the teaching of Japanese and Korean history to middle-school students doesn’t concern us, then what else should?

Thank you Jon for offering your explanation and for posting the story. I for one have followed the book's story over the past few months and I don't really have a viewpoint on which side is right, etc. However, following the story has pointed out a disturbing trend in American opinion and maybe even the Western perspective.

It appears that when it comes to looking at the Far East, Americans and other Westerners tend to do so through the eyes of the Japanese. The first American production on a piece of Asian literature was done on "Memoirs of a Geisha," a Japanese work with primarily Chinese actors. The Japanese see China as a threat and Korea as irrelevant, the same way most Americans see it. It a globalizing world, where new players are emerging, this narrow view has to change.

To most Chinese and Koreans, the Japanese occupation of their countries is at least as worse, if not more so, then the Nazi occupation of Europe. If you think about it, just how much sympathy would a children's book about a child of a Nazi official fleeing from Jewish freedom fighters in Poland in 1945 have in American and Western society? I guarantee you it wouldn't have much, and it's non-inclusion in the curriculums of American elementary schools would be a forgone conclusion.

"The first American production on a piece of Asian literature was done on 'Memoirs of a Geisha,' a Japanese work with primarily Chinese actors."
Uh, say again?

I think Jon that you understand well the points that I am making. Firstly, with regards to this particular story, this is not a case of you offering a historical framework for Westerners to understand Asian cinema. It has nothing to do with the reception and dwindling popularity of Korean films within Japan. This is about a conflict between a Japanese-American writer and Korean-American citizen groups as adjudicated by an America board of education, being reported on an English language website by an American writer (I assume this is where you are form) to make an implicit point about Japanese war responsibility. It is not related to film in any way at all.

Neither is this about the issue of Westerners or Americans tending to view Asian history through Japanese eyes or identifying with a Japanese viewpoint as Edward suggests. This has clearly never been the case. Asia, whether it be China, Japan or Korea, is always been viewed in the West with Western eyes. Very few non-Asians really understand Asia in the sense that they can read or speak the languages and engage in and report these sort of issues by looking from within the cultures –in the mass media, academia or fan circles. You only have to look at the huge amount of books and newspaper and magazine articles in the English-language both either demonizing the Japanese for their atrocities committed in the war, or criticizing them or poking fun at them for various aspects or shortcomings in they way they run their country today, suggesting that they are all unified kamikaze nationalists who need teaching about their own history.

Let me state now, I am not an apologist for Japan's wartime activities. I don’t have any vested interest in defending or criticizing Japan either way. I personally believe that if the Japanese government just went ahead and apologised for its wartime actions, it would go a long way to clearing up a lot of the ill will clearly felt by the rest of Southeast Asia towards the country, and subsequent generations of Japanese would not be receiving this continuing criticism.

But this is a case about a non-Asian offering a very simplistic and partial account of a very complex and multi-faceted period in Asian history; and I’m not talking just talking about in this one post. “Why is it not Japan-bashing when news about the making of a revisionist documentary of the Nanking Massacre appears in the pages of Variety, but it is here” you ask? Well, first of all, maybe it still is Japan-bashing when it appears in Variety, but more importantly it has come to my notice, and please forgive me if this is an unfair assessment, that you seem to report a lot of these kind of articles on quite inflammatory topics.

My basic contention with posts like this is, whether intentional or not, it becomes kneejerk and political. You are basically going beyond the reporting of film or history related facts, and engaging in propagating and colouring certain opinions about a country (and maybe other countries too) by drawing attention to subjects that are still very sensitive politically. And with the blog format of Twitch, where discussions are likely to scroll off the page way before they ever develop past mere black and white opinionating, the cumulative effect they have is to create a very negative picture of a country based on selected facts.

It is incredibly easy to pick from at selective evidence from English language sources that nowadays everyone in Japan is becoming more rightwing, or that no one in Japan is aware of what went on in the war, or the country has rewritten the past history of colonies like Korea and thus regard incidents like the Nanking Massacre as ‘myth’. Look at the effect it has. Take a look, for example, at some of the responses for your postings – Rectum-X’s above, or “Because of this film, I'm getting rid of my Sony Vaio and Camera. No more Japanese products”, one of the responses to the Nanking Massacre post, even though this was just one film out of the 300-400 released in Japan every year. “This could never be Chinese-Japanese co-production, half the Japanese population doesn't even believe it happened” is another sweeping generalization.

This is all bollocks. It may be true for certain sectors, certain agencies and certain individuals in Japan, maybe, but you simply cannot weight your postings to stuff that either assumes or encourages people to assume that EVERYONE in the country thinks the same way. If many (not all) people in Japan are ignorant about wartime history then yes, it might well be because a lot of it is not included in their school textbooks (and indeed, I don’t remember learning about the bombing of Dresden when I was at school in Britain either), but it is also because it is 60 years ago, and possibly not a subject the younger generation wants raking up all the time.

But more importantly, ever since the Pacific War there have been no shortage of books and films and political movements and endless discussions and debates in Japan that have tackled and criticized EXACTLY these issues that so many self-righteous foreigners seem to believe no one is even aware of, yet alone talks about. Why don’t we get some sort of information on that? Maybe because none of the critics of Japan can read Japanese or actually really care what Japanese people think.

What bothers me in all this anti-Japanese discourse, is that because of language issues, no one from Japan is ever allowed to step into the discussion, get their point in or tell their side of the story. They are left outside of the discussion and thus the critics think they can up their criticism and harp on about the war in a way that, for example, no one would ever do about Germans. Its just gone on and on too long and its boring. All we get in the way of reportage in the English-language comes from people who clearly haven’t taken the time to peer far beneath the surface and learn the language of a country which has over 120million people and is far more diverse than it is given credit for. It is called orientalism – whole attitudes and ideals being attributed to Japan by the West that have nothing to do with what the Japanese think.

So Jon, I am sorry if I am accusing you of something you are not consciously doing. This may be a gut reaction on my part, but it is because my view is that a website like Twitch is not the forum for bringing these type of complex and emotive issues to – although I’d happily engage with anyone about it over a beer or two if the opportunity arises. I feel it is better when aiming to bring cultures together, not draw lines between them. I am very sorry if this email is not as lucid as it could be – its late here in England, and I never intended to write quite so much. And as for the comment above from Rectum-X, to “make your own website if you don't like what's on this one” – thanks, I already have. Doesn’t mean I can’t voice my opinions about things on this which I find xenophobic.

Since this is categorized as "Random Geek Talk" let's keep it as random and geekish,shall we.

I am taking the liberty of criticizing Jon's post without reading the actual book in mention here,but I found a few troublesome details in his mentioning "numerous historical inaccuracies uncovered in the novel".

1)"Japanese atrocities during Korea's 40 year of occupation."
Actually it was 36years.

2)"Japan's military occupation of Korea was justified by the Taft-Katsura agreement of 1905"
The agreement was made between American secretary of War,William Howard Tuft and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Katsura which was kept secret to public at the time.The deal was you-take-the-Phillipines-and-I-take- Korea-kind.Very imperialistic and realpolitik of worst kind from 2007 view point.However the agreement DID justified the Japanese colonialization of Korea of which the U.S was main opponent.It is part of the history of the two countries along with it's injustice.I think.

3)"The writer claims that she and her mother were forced to steal the uniform of a dead communist soldier in order to hide from North Korean forces is questionable,as North Korea's communist army was not founded until 1948."
Partly true.For Korean People's Army was officialy founded in 1948.
However Korean partisans armed ,equipped and trained by the Soviets and led by Kim Il Sung(the fact is under disoute)was active in Northern Korea at the time.Japanese called them "Communist bandits" or "Red bandits".Though I too wonder whether such dramatic scene had occured in one's real life,but the fact remains that the group of armed men in uniform who were Korean and Communist active in Northern Korea at the time of the writer's inhavitancy seems to be existed.

4)"Her father,who worked in Manchuria,was against the war,but records show that he was a wa criminal who served six years in a Siberian prison."
After Joseph Stalin decided to join the war against Japan in August 9,1945.Sovviet troops had captured about 1070,000Japanese soldiers and civilian men.They were deported to Siberia and Central Asian gulag for the slave labor.According to the Kremlin at the time everyone of them is guilty of war crime for they were the very member of the fascist regime thus justified the slavery of the surrendered men.About 340,000 had died in the process and the last man returned to Japan in '56.Amongst the prisoners there were war criminals such like member of the notorious germ warfare unit,Called Ishii 731 unit.However there is no information as I have until present that Watkins's father had any relation with Ishii
unit.Unlike Americans who pardoned the ex-Ishii unit member at the exchange of the data of human experiment,Soviet published their name
and punished them.I pretty doubt Watkins's father had any connection
with Ishii unit or belong to any categorized status of war criminal beside he was a Japanese serviceman in the gulag.Although there are rooms for new discoveries,of course.

Lastly,"So Far From The Bamboo Grove" has not been tranlated into Japanese nor plan to be translated in the near future.
Let me get this straight.I(who is pretty much a conservative fellow) was quite surprised by the fact that this book was even published in America for it is pretty much difficult in Japan for it is breaking four or five taboo chords of Japaese political correctness,no major publisher in Japan dare to risk publishing this. Making it as a recommended book for school is unthinkable.

So far the Japanese media's coverage on this issue is close to the minimum and I have learned about the issue through Japanese version of Korean dailies(Chosen,Joongang and Donga)and Yonhap along with Boston Globe.
Sadly Boston Globe is going to close down Tokyo bureau which had covered the Japan news(as well as Korea news).So likely what Jasper mentioned in above post would get worsen in the future,I'm afraid.

If there is anything I miss about this issue,let me know.Jon.

P.S
Well,well,well, Jasper.I think we are in the same camp here!Quelle suprise!

I have no interests in starting a flame war here. Too busy and too serious about the world outside of blogs to participate really. However, I did want to ask Jasper a relevant question.

In your post you had indicated that the believes and attitudes that are transposed by the West to Japan is called "orientalism." I'm curious as to what you would call attitudes and believes that gives the Japanese viewpoint primacy over China and Korean ones?

My whole point was that as a person of non-Japanese Asian American decent I feel as if the Japanese viewpoint get's preferential treatment. You can get definatly see this in films. Chinese and Korean films that can be seen in the U.S. don't get A list Hollywood actors or funding. However, you have Sofia Coppola direct "Lost in Translation" and Tom Cruise star in "The Last Samurai." I actually liked "Last Samurai," but at the same time you are talking about a movie that promoted the preservation of a warrior ethos that has to at least take some of the responsibility of getting Japan in the mess that is called World War II today.

I am not interested in starting a flame war either. I have not given the Japanese viewpoint primacy over Chinese or Korean ones. I am saying if one Japanese American decides to write a book, it cannot be assumed that his/her opinions stands for the whole of Japan.
I do not live in America, so I do not know if the Japanese viewpoint gets priority over other Asian countries'. I suspect not. For starters, neither Lost in Translation and The Last Samurai can be described as representing the world through Japanese eyes. They are American films that use Japan to present their own viewpoint and own agenda, and I would suggest as many others also have that in the case of The Last Samurai, coming at a time when it did, if the film did champion the preservation of a warrior ethos, it was for American, not Japanese ends. That however is another issue.

Aceface, why be surprised we are in the same camp? I thought my own stance should have been made clear that time we met many moons ago. I'm not in Japan anymore, but drop me an email sometime anyway. It would be interesting to catch up.

And with that, the thread slides gracefully off the page...

Jon:
I don't think the detelioration of the Korean wave has to do with "inextricably linked to the anti-hallyu [Korean Wave] backlash and deteriorating relations between the two countries because of misunderstandings about events that took place during the period described in the novel".

I just think the "bubble"has bursted here.Simply the year 2005 was(supposed to be)Japan-Korea (or is it Korea-Japan?)friendship year and many media(including the one that I work for)bandwagoned and that gave "Korean Wave" semi-national movement like status for general public wanted have better relation with Seoul,though I admit this "happy-go-lucky"atomosphere is the thing of the past now.

Seen from the industry perspective,the purchasing price of a Korean cinema had become ridiculously high to make profit for any Japanese distributors.If it become resonably low price like some Hong Kong movie then the trend might push back.Nevertheless South Korea still is the largest foreign movie exporter to the Japan outpacing longtime status holder of France,maybe Chungmuro people are more demanding,but this is still not a bad record.

I hear more Japanese film making success in Korean market along with Japanese manga or novel based Korean film.At first I thought they were targetting Japanese market(some of them unarguably are)but as I come to know that last year nearly 30％of entire novel sold in Kyobo Book Center were the translation of Japanese novella,so it came to me that the rise of anti Japanese feeling does not effect much with accepting popular cultures.Coming to ourside the Japanese still do go see Chinese movie,even though the positive feeling toward the country is continuously lowering in the past decade,so I believe there is a chance for the comeback for Korean wave too.

The movie can become the bridge across the troubled waters between Japan and Korea.Though I am aware that some on both sides see anything with "Korea VS Japan, until-the-end-of-the- universe"angle,either that is Movie or Football or girl's figure skating or anything,but I don't want my beloved Twitch to be part of the turf war.

Edward:
Did you actually liked "The Dance With The Samurais"?

Jasper:

Since you were classic moderate gentle liberal English man type and not the one who would find oneself in an internet flame war,unlike myself,and you ARE critical about many aspect of Japanese society, for that I was surprised.(JOKING).
oh well,since you said you are not in it,so be it.But I still don't apply Said's "Orientalism"theory onto Japan directly for the reason as I said many moons ago.
I'll send you an e-mail sometime.Sad to know you are no longer in Machida.

"Nevertheless South Korea still is the largest foreign movie exporter to the Japan outpacing longtime status holder of France"

correction:
South Korea is the second largest foreign movies exporter to Japan outpacing long time status holder of France".

And here is a quiz for you.
Which country is the biggest exporter of the movies to Japan?