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Korean man still in critical condition after self-immolation at Japan protest

8 Comments
By KIM TONG-HYUNG

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Next time he should try a mixture of gasoline and styrofoam. That way his pain would be less

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

My Korean Grandmother, who is above the age of eighty, likely went through a lot. She tends to pray a lot for the people of Japan, however, as does my Korean Mom. This is a bit extreme....

Hope he heals and recovers fully....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"They love taking things to the extreme. I just remember a korean playing arc and arrow against me back in 2003. After he lost he broke his arrow and throw the arc."

I can be like that too...so Japanese love taking to extreme also?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

This is so unfortunate. Seems that this old man wanted to send a strong statement to the Japanese government that people his age that survived the horrors inflicted on them still have a voice and aren't going to quietly 'die out'

I hope that for the sake of Japan it just acknowledges what it did back then (good and bad) so these people can have peace. phoney apologies mean nothing when there's no sincerity to educate the japanese public of what happened. Hiroshima and Nagasaki is one part but that's only highlighting the victimization of the Japanese. There's very little remorse for japan's bombing of pearl harbour that started the war between them and the US or its invasion of its neighbours and the forced conscription and agression of civilians

0 ( +0 / -0 )

They love taking things to the extreme. I just remember a korean playing arc and arrow against me back in 2003. After he lost he broke his arrow and throw the arc.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

A bit long, but an interesting read and adds a little detail and relevant facts to the article's line "Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced to fight as front-line soldiers"

"Japan did not draft ethnic Korean into its military until 1944 when the tide of WW II turned dire for Japan. Until 1944, enlistment in the Imperial Japanese Army by ethnic Koreans was voluntary, and highly competitive; only 6,300 were chosen from 303,294 applicants. From a 14% acceptance rate in 1938, it dropped to a 2% acceptance rate in 1943 while the raw number of applicants increased from 3000 per annum to 300,000 in just five years during World War II.

Of note, during 35 years of colonial governance by Japan produced 7 ethnic Korean Generals and countless field grade officers (Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels, and Majors) in the Japanese Army despite institutionalized discrimination. The first and the best known among them is Lieutenant General and Crown Prince Yi Un and Lieutenant General Hong Sa-ik, the Commander of all Prisoner Camps in southern Philippines in 1944-1945.

Starting in 1944, Japan started the conscription of Koreans into the armed forces. All Korean males were drafted to either join the Imperial Japanese Army, as of April 1944, or work in the military industrial sector, as of September 1944. Before 1944, 18,000 Koreans passed the examination for induction into the army. Koreans provided workers to mines and construction sites around Japan. The number of conscripted Koreans reached its peak in 1944 in preparation for war. From 1944, about 200,000 Korean males were inducted into the army.

During World War II, American soldiers frequently encountered Korean soldiers within the ranks of the Imperial Japanese Army. Most notably was in the Battle of Tarawa, which was considered during that time to be one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. military history. A fifth of the Japanese garrison during this battle consisted of Korean laborers who were trained in combat roles. Like their Japanese counterparts, they put up a ferocious defense and fought to the death. The Japanese, however, did not always believe they could rely on Korean laborers to fight alongside them. In Prisoners of the Japanese, author Gaven Daws wrote, "[O]n Tinian there were five thousand Korean laborers and so as not to have hostiles at their back when the Americans invaded, the Japanese killed them."

After the war, 148 Koreans were convicted of Class B and C Japanese war crimes, 23 of whom were sentenced to death (compared to 920 Japanese who were sentenced to death), including Korean prison guards who were particularly notorious for their brutality during the war. The figure is relatively high considering that ethnic Koreans made up a very small percentage of the Japanese military. Justice Bert Röling, who represented the Netherlands at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, noted that "many of the commanders and guards in POW camps were Koreans – the Japanese apparently did not trust them as soldiers – and it is said that they were sometimes far more cruel than the Japanese." In his memoirs, Colonel Eugene C. Jacobs wrote that during the Bataan Death March, "the Korean guards were the most abusive. The Japs didn't trust them in battle, so used them as service troops; the Koreans were anxious to get blood on their bayonets; and then they thought they were veterans."

source:wiki

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Hope that if he survives it they send him to Jail for showing that barbaric act to kids.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

May God help him. He has suffered 10 years of hardships under japanese colonial, those bitter memories haunting his childhood until now. His tragedies might stirring up another round of anti japanese sentiment in east asia. The senseless japanese government shouldn't ignore the consequences.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

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