Korea Comfort Women

During world war two, the Imperial Japanese army forced an estimated 200,000 women into sexual slavery. This is just one of the many atrocities committed by Japan during world war two. Even though many say that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were inhumane, the US was completely justified because the future casualties were minimized and Japan and its allies committed atrocious war crimes.

     For over a century, the United States has been one of the most powerful and influential states on the globe. However, every nation has made mistakes in its past. Throughout our country’s history, certain groups have had to endure horrible injustices: the enslavement of African-Americans, the removal of Native Americans, and discrimination against immigrants, women, homosexuals, and every other minority. During World War II, the government crossed the line between defending the nation and violating human rights, when it chose to relocate Japanese residents to internment camps. The actions taken by the U.S. government against Japanese Americans and Japanese living in the

One of the most justified reasons for the apology would be how the Canadian Government caused the pain and suffering amongst Japanese Canadians. Firstly, the 22,000 Japanese Canadian citizens and residents were taken from their homes on Canadas West Coast without any charge or due process and exiled to remote areas of Eastern British Columbia (Greg Robinson, Internment of Japanese Canadians). In addition, the RCMP arrested suspected operatives while the Royal Canadian Navy impounded 1,200 Japanese fishing boats, and to avoid racist backlash Japanese newspapers, as well as schools were voluntarily shut down. In this time the Japanese population in Canada had been greatly damaged and families became separated into the internment camps. Moving on, my second point for further justification is the Labor Camps Japanese Canadians were placed in, further increasing pain and suffering. Because of the amount of political

On December 7, 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It became clear to the U.S. that Japan was a threat and was an enemy so thus began the war between the two. When Japan had finally collapsed in 1945 the Soviet Union troops accepted Japan’s surrender north of the 38th parallel line on the Korean peninsula as the U.S. troops also had done south of it. But after World War II ended; just as Vietnam was, it left Korea split into two separate political groups, with the communist North Korea which was led by a man named Kim Il Sung and the anti-communist South Korea being led by its leader Syngman Rhee. The two territorial groups often fought against each other but the conflicts between the two rarely resulted to outbursts of attack to each other. So, even though they were at odds the two were supposed to reunite with each other as the United Nations had previously planned and thought out. Sung and Rhee were nationalists and meant to bring Korea together upon their two sides but to no avail since they both had a completely distinct ideology on what was best for their country. It was merely a civil war only between North and South Korea until the war itself went international, with the United Nations under the leadership and orders of the United States decided to aid South Korea and with the PRC

     By the time America paid reparations, and said their apologies to the Japanese, it was too late. Almost 50 years went by before reparations were paid. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was created in order to give all people that suffered in these camps $20,000 each, however only 82,000 out of 120,000 Japanese people were paid. With this act, the US realized that an injustice was done to Japanese Americans by the evacuation, relocation, and internment of civilians during World War II. By the time that reparations were paid and apologies were said, Americans of Japanese ancestry suffered enormous damages. The losses these people encountered were incalculable. All of which resulted in much suffering, for which appropriate compensation has not yet been made.

Because of this, the United States government revoked the privileges of citizenship that all American citizens are entitled to, even though the Japanese population was fairly harmless in comparison to the Communists and Communist supporters in the country. The United States’s actions are unjustified because the U.S. government was hypocritical. The government claimed to be in support for democracies and freedom, yet while fighting for those ideals, the government themselves took away the rights of a targeted group. Their actions are similar, but very much milder, to Germany’s concentration camps.

No one would ever think that an apology and a meager amount of money would be sufficient enough to pay back for taking away freedom and rights for several years. Apparently, it appears as Canadian government did. During World War II, Japanese immigrants and Japanese Canadians were denied of their rights as humans and Canadian citizens, and were forced to live in internment camps (Baldwin, 2011). Although the Canadian government has realized its wrong doings to Japanese Canadians and has made attempts for reparation, the formal apologies and

In addition, two accidents strengthen the Reagan administration’s support to South Korea. First, on October 9, 1983, North Korean attack in the Martyrs’ Mausoleum of Rangoon, Burma, killed 17 South Koreans and four Burmese. Even though President Chun saved his life, South Korea lost many high ranking officials (p.119). Second, on September 1, 1983, the Soviet Union attacked Korean Air Lines Flight 007 because the flight had intruded into Soviet territory to gather military intelligence for the U.S. After the incident, Reagan assailed Soviet’s massacre and savagery in his public addresses and launch a vigorous anti-Soviet campaign (p.117).

Japanese families are sent away to internment camps as prisoners, which is biased treatment. Henry’s mother acts biased towards everyone but the Japanese while stating, “I know. There are some families. Chinese families. American families. Families that right now, even as we are speaking, are hiding Japanese. Taking their belongings. Very dangerous. You, me, all of us risk going to jail if we help them” (Ford 127). It is clear that Henry’s mother would be exasperated if this happened to the Chinese. The American army would be as well if this happened to them. No one seems to care since it is the Japanese people who are treated like this, and everyone believes they lead to every suspicion. Japanese people, generally, are given unnecessary punishments throughout this entire

The social perspectives had directly effected on the social status of Korean Military Brides in a negative way. In South Korea, there were a lot of camptowns where were a special place that consisted of bars, some entertainment shops and store, and camptown women, who were served as a legal prostitute for those military men. So that was why many people saw these Korean Military Brides as a victim of militarized prostitution or thought that they had some experiences involving with the camptown. As many military brides’ complaint, they said that “the behavior and backgrounds of a few “bad women” tainted the image of [them] in general” (247). In addition to Koreans’ perspectives, the Korean wives of Korean men in the United States denied to let

In his work “Right to Kill, Right to Make Live” Takashi Fujitani compares and contrasts the Japanese treatment of colonialized Koreans leading up to World War II with the American treatment of the Japanese residents following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This work highlights how both the Japanese and the Americans treated the Koreans and Japanese Americans, respectively, and offers several different viewpoints. Thus, this work is exceptionally important and provides incredible insight into both cultures and the harsh reality of wartime. Additionally, Fujitani also explains how the Korean and Japanese populations are still influenced today.

To make matters worse, Japan incurred heavy debt and financial burden from the war. When Russia failed to pay the reparations to Japan, Japan could not undo the damage that had been done to their economy. (Ben Pi et al. SS 20IB) To top it all off, “The United States started to segregate Asians in California schools, and made it impossible for them to own land.”

(8). It has been noted that it is rarely mentioned in history books. Rebuffing atonement to the remaining comfort women, this strains the relationship between the Japanese government, the surviving comfort women and the South Korean

Under the Black Umbrella tells the many captivating stories about the 35 years of Japanese occupation in Korea through both world wars. The memories are all from the perspective of Korean men and women who lived through some or all of it. Many of their stories and the history during that time are influenced by several factors, some of which include their location in Korea or surrounding areas and the government’s involvement in recording history. The Japanese were not all awful to the Koreans, since they were humans all the same, but they committed enough atrocities to have a bad reputation with the Koreans. In attempts to unify, North Koreans employed nationalism and ethnocentrism to fuel their way to become a strong nation again. South Koreans did not rally around such extreme ways and did not utilize their northern brethren’s methods of fear for power. Back then and now, globalization is a part of life and it should not be stifled. Nationalistic thinking will bring about more pain and suffering rather than just trying to coexist. Korea faced many hardships with the Japanese occupation. In recovery to their rule, issues arose when it came to accuracy in history, nationalism, ethnocentrism, and the different roles they all took between the north and the south.

Elllen’s female identity made her an alienated participant in the work place in Korea, whose culture is dominantly masculine. The acceptance of her came in and took responsibility as the senior member of the project was early based on a compromise of her obtaining of required skills, however, her identity as a female was constantly reemphasized in the company’s social events.