One History, Two Paths
October 30th, 2005 by MarkSometimes when I read the news, I find myself startled at what kind of country Korea is. In many ways South Korea’s history is a mirror of Taiwan’s. Both territories were ravaged by the Japanese at the beginning of last century. While the Japanese developed the infrastructure, installed their educational system, and modernized life in Taiwan and Korea, they also took thousands of women as prostitutes for their soldiers, slaughtered civilians, and conducted chemical and biological tests on prisoners. All in all, not pretty stuff. Neither Korea, nor Taiwan were able to fight the Japanese off until the US defeated the Japanese forces at the end of World War II.
At the end of the war, both Korea and China were torn apart by the struggle between nationalists backed by the US and communists supported by the USSR. After the war, US troops were stationed in both Taiwan and Korea. While the bases did leave Taiwan, many US personnel remain in plain clothes to this day. Just as the South Koreans have relied on the US for protection against their North Korean cousins, the Taiwanese have relied on the US for protection against their mainland cousins. In terms of economics, the similarities continue: Both were very weak at the end of the war. However, by the 1980’s Taiwan and Korea had developed so rapidly as to became known as two of the “four tigers” of east Asia, along with Singapore and Hong Kong. Now each territory boasts a modern economy on par with an EU country, a great deal of expertise in computing and consumer electronics hardware, and a thriving democracy. Both do a great deal of international business, and people in both places have a strong desire to learn English well.
So, why the hell is it that Taiwanese people love Americans, love the Japanese, and are very open and accepting of foreign teachers, specialists and athletes, while Korean people hate Americans, hate the Japanese, protest at least once during every major sporting event in which they compete, and are about the most racist and xenophobic group of people on the planet?
Anyone?
:
October 31st, 2005 at 10:59 pm
I can think of at least a couple possible reasons, though I have no idea how accurate they are. They are just my understanding from talking with Taiwanese people, and a bit of guessing.
1. Many people in Taiwan were happy with Taiwan’s development under the Japanese. The argument seems to go something like, “We were second-class citizens but the trains ran on time and we didn’t have to lock our doors at night.”
2. When the KMT came to Taiwan, people were dissapointed. They were rag-tag and corrupt. They screwed up the progress that the Japanese had made, and the Japanese looked even better in comparison with the new colonial masters.
3. Korea must have had a strong national identity even before the Japanese came, whereas Taiwan had been bouncing between different colonizers. If you don’t consider the Qing to be colonizers, then you can at least say under Qing rule, Taiwan was an imperial backwater.
November 17th, 2005 at 1:34 am
I see you don’t have many takers…touchy subject, touchy ground, but a very good question. Maybe the continued presence of American GIs who don’t always act right, combined with a slightly more violent Korean nature has caused the Korean response to be more hateful, whereas the more hospitable nature of the people of Taiwan and the voluntary status of Americans there creates a more peaceful environment.
Still, there are Koreans who love Americans and Koreans who love Japanese and Taiwanese who hate Americans and Taiwanese who hate Japanese and it would be interesting to see the results of a study on this broken down by gender and reasoning. In other words, ask them! And ask if the hatred is based on historical violation or personal violation.
I would also include a question on physical punishment of children. I subscribe to the beliefs that it does promote aggressive, violent behavior and that it is embedded in Korean culture, moreso than in that of Taiwan.
January 5th, 2006 at 1:22 am
The Japanese did not slaughter civilians or conduct biological tests in Taiwan or Korea. Perhaps you are mistaken with issues in mainland China. It is correct that there were prostitutes for soliders. They were recruited by private agents, and the military did business with them. It is utterly sad that some women were deceived by their own parents and “sold” to the agents. The Japanese government then was responsible in the sense that it couldn’t prevent such tragedies.
Not only Taiwan and Korea, but countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, and Palau have experienced the occupation by the Japanese. As far as I know, most people today don’t have particular hostility toward the Japanese except in Korea. In Palau, where the Japanese took control for 35 years, some people still name their children Japanese names. Although made by a Japanese “right wing”, the following site shows interviews with people in those countries.
http://yellowpeep.blogspot.com/
January 5th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
First off, I’d like to say that the topic of Japan’s atrocities are NOT the topic of my post. What I find more interesting is how differently Taiwan and Korea feel about them now.
I have read that there was on-going slaughter. Also if you ask any aboriginal group in Taiwan, they will say that the Japanese slaughtered people. It isn’t an easy thing to prove though, and I realize that most Japanese people will not have heard of it and will deny it.
Regardless of their claims, the Japanese conducted horrific experiments on countless Chinese and Koreans. Even if you subscribe to the view that none of it happened in the colonies, is the location of the atrocities more important than the fact that they happened?
日軍登入澳底:
These people were NOT all military.
I’ve read similar accounts of the Korean occupation. It would take me some time to retrieve my references, though. Since we’re debating something tangential to the topic of this post (Why do Taiwanese people and Koreans feel so differently about foreigners?), I suggest we move this discussion to email.
January 6th, 2006 at 12:27 am
It is true that the Japanese troops encountered a Taiwanese resistance after the 1895 treaty. It’s not hard to imagine that many civilians were involved and killed in the battle. Do most Japanese people deny it?
>is the location of the atrocities more important than the fact that they happened?
I just pointed out some inexactness in your original post, and provided a different view with information on other colonies of Japan. I am not interested in discussing atrocities by the Japanese either. After reading your thoughtful and incisive comments on Darin’s Blog, I was quite surprised by your first response, to tell the truth. But I thank you for your response.
November 18th, 2006 at 12:53 am
I find James’ responsibility-shifting for the comfort woman phenomenon away from the Japanese government rather reprehensible. I’m not anti-Japanese, but people like you who are trying to minimize Japan’s past atrocities are making it alot harder for us to leave that war behind. (It should go without saying that I detest the anti-Japanese movement that has been gathering in China right now.)
Sigh. Anyhow, to answer Mark’s question, here are a few factors that I’m throwing out there that might differentiate Taiwan and Korea. Mark points out many similarities but he leaves out a few big differences:
(1) Not only was Taiwan a backwater of the Qing, the Qing are themselves non-chinese rulers of China. They were Manchus. And the Yuan dynasty were Mongols. Meanwhile, Korea’s Joseon dynasty endured for a record 500 year run until the Japanese invasion ended it. Koreans have previously had to pay tribute when they were defeated in wars, but they never lost their self-rule until the Japanese colonial period.
(2) As for the Americans, um, the Korean war anyone? While Taiwan escaped relatively unscathed from WWII, Korea was carved in two with as little ceremony and imput from those affected as a wishbone pull after thanksgiving. The ensuing bloody war was harrowing, brother against brother. It doesn’t help that during the Korean war US soldiers (inevitably perhaps) ended up killing many south koreans indiscriminately fearing North Korean infiltrators. If No Gun Ri happened in Taiwan, I bet we Taiwanese won’t be quite so pro-USA.
(2i) The boot-on-the-neck factor: We might still have “personnel” in Taiwan, but they are low in numbers and well-nigh invisible. Whereas in South Korea the bases are massive and the GIs are both a visible reminder of a foreign military presence and unaccountable to the Korean justice system for the most part.
(3) On the Taiwan side, the KMT forces that took over from the Japanese were not just “ragtag and corrupt” as amida correctly pointed out, they differentiated themselves as a separate “mainlander” group and lorded over the “locals” openly and even violently. The non-mainlanders were probably too busy hating on the KMT to sustain animus for the Japanese.
(4) The Japanese occupation of Taiwan and Korea were very different. Granted, I don’t know that much about the Korean experience, but I gather that it was a much more brutal affair. In Taiwan however, the occupation became more enlightened. In addition to paying painstaking attention to infrastructure, the Japanese encouraged the Taiwanese to become more Japanese and rewarded them for speaking Japanese, going to Japan to study, even to take Japanese names.
(3) and (4) kind of come together in Lee Teng-Hui, or Iwasato Masao, his Japanese name.It’s no coincidence that one of the leading proponents of Taiwan’s independence is also exceedingly pro-Japanese. Lee, a “local Taiwanese” who grew up during Japanese rule not only spoke Japanese and studied in Kyoto, but has a brother in the controversial Yakusuni shrine. I remember how my (mainlander, of course) aunt would seeth with the heat of a thousand suns about how Lee would wear Japanese cloths at home. At the time I was blissfully aware of the political implications. I just thought “that’s kind of odd, but what’s so bad about wearing Japanese clothes?”