MkoreaMwafrika comments

Posted in: Japan, S Korea reject report of WWII forced labor economic plan See in context

@Tom Doley -

I will use your parlance that, there's nothing "obnoxious" about acknowledging and thanking the Japanese for engineering the modernization and industrialization of Korea.

But in order to have an intellectual debate one needs a grasp of facts: Korea was not a colony in, say, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1890s, well before the Japanese set foot in Korea! Meiji Japan took the cue from Europe and started the industrialization process.

During this period in the middle of the nineteenth century when the rest of the world was rapidly industrializing, the inept and corrupt Yi Dynasty was unable or simply incapable of initiating or encouraging the most basic semblance of modernization and industrialization. Why? It took the Japanese to shake Joseon off its stupor.

It's a fact that Korea hitherto a backward country progressed rapidly during the period of Japanese colonialism of Korea from 1910-1945.

And yes, that period of Japanese colonialism was also repressive.

See, you can have a rational debate - if you choose to - once you set emotions aside and are willing to stick to the facts at hand!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Posted in: South Africa beat England 32-12 to win 3rd World Cup See in context

An amazing display of South Africa laager defense that the English could not breach.

Land this Kolbe guy scored a mesmerizing try; and Mampimpi with his chip and try!

My adopted country, the US, has another four years to improve. And still hoping to see my native Kenya make it to the rugby WC - but ranked only #32 that's a long way to go.

Congrats Springboks!

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Posted in: Japanese, S Korean lawmakers agree to work toward detente See in context

What a misleading headline.

It seems to me that the correct title should read: S Korean lawmakers issue conditions for detente with Japan.

8 ( +12 / -4 )

Posted in: Criticism after Kawasaki festival drops 'comfort women' film See in context

It's clear to all and sundry that some of these women were indeed in brothels. After all, it happens in every war, especially when rights and conventions were/are weakly enforced.

As Idi Amin's forces retreated after losing the war to the Tanzanian forces in 1979, we heard of the many cases of brothels. Yet there were also those Ugandan women who willingly joined the trade to provide services as prostitutes. I'm almost certain that our US soldiers had something similar - brothels - going on during the Vietnam War.

But Koreans ought to accept that some of these women willingly joined the trade in the face of poverty, at the behest of family, or to assist their families to survive during perilous times. And, yes, many others were forced by the invading forces.

Folks, the reality of our world is murky: it's not always a world of absolutes - that good is here... bad is there. No, it isn't.

Complicity under duress is a human trait - be it in Africa, MidEast, South Asia, East Asia, Europe or wherever!

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Posted in: Sony sees first-half net profit drop but lifts full-year forecast See in context

I still buy Sony TV and home theater. Sony is synonymous with quality IMO.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: N Korea fires 2 missiles in the sea amid stalled talks See in context

Please note correction:

....to tame his enigmatic brother, Kim Jong-un.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: N Korea fires 2 missiles in the sea amid stalled talks See in context

Was it not Moon Jae-in, who in making his pilgrimage to Pyongyang, wanted the world to believe that he had the diplomatic skill to tame his enigmatic brother, Kim Jong-il?

Chutzpah!

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Posted in: Japan, S Korea reject report of WWII forced labor economic plan See in context

@Tom Doley -

You have a right to your opinion but you cannot just invent facts and expect people to play along.

For starters, I didn't suggest that Japanese colonization was the only way for Korea to modernize. Alas.

Korea, like any other country was free to industrialize in the early 1800s, or in the 1850s, and even well into the 1890s. Korea did not, why? Remember that the Europeans began to industrialize; first in Britain, followed by France, Germany, and then across the Atlantic in the US. The Japanese were the Asian anomaly. So give credit to the Japanese for realizing the need and importance of modernization and industrialization during the Meiji era.

So, why not Korea or Joseon? At this point of time in the Nineteenth century - 1850s-1890s - Korea was still not colonized. You were free to modernize and industrialize, but didn't, because your Yi Dynasty was inept and corrupt. Your cousins, in China, under the Qing Dynasty were also not a colony of the Japanese in the 1800s. But they too failed to modernize and develop.

Give credit where it's due: the Japanese opted to imitate the Europeans as needed and to trade with the Europeans when necessary! That's what spurred Japanese industrial revolution during Meiji. The Japanese leadership had foresight - the Korean under the incompetent and corrupt Yi Dynasty lacked foresight and leadership! And so did the inept and decadent Qing in China.

So, in Asia, that's the point at which we see the divide into industrial Japan and non-industrial countries like Korea and China. The examples were there for all to follow: the technologies that spurred Japan in industrialization: coal, smelting pig iron, using steam engine, were also available to Korea.

Blame your inept Yi Dynasty - not the Japanese!

As for Korea ending up as a divided country, sorry. That has everything to do with Yalta Conference in 1945. You can thank Stalin, Truman, and Churchill for the division. And Gen. Hodges. Oh....and Kim Il-sung.

Japan is not to blame!

10 ( +12 / -2 )

Posted in: Japan, S Korea reject report of WWII forced labor economic plan See in context

@Tom Doley -

First off, I am not Japanese!

I am a Kenyan born black African, whose country faced even more severe colonialism than the picnic you guys encountered under the progressive and modernizing Japanese, who when they departed in 1945, bequeathed your country hitherto a backward and primitive society with a semblance of modernization and industrialization!

If Korea was such a great country prior to the arrival of the Japanese, why did you fail to industrialize and modernize? It was the Japanese crossing the Sea of Japan in their civilizing mission that finally shook the decadent Joseon Yi Dynasty from its stupor of backwardness.

Do thank the Japanese for giving you the building blocks that has made Korea - the RoK - what it is today, a modern country! The Japanese invested so much in you guys; education, management, technology, agriculture, etc.

If the Japanese hadn't taken over your country, today South Korea would either be under the Chinese, or perhaps the Russians. Or, maybe the DPRK!

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan, S Korea reject report of WWII forced labor economic plan See in context

Several Koreans whom I've met in the US, or when I travel overseas, concede these facts, that:

The very short period of Japanese colonialism in Korea - 1910-1945 - was a progressive period that saw the most rapid modernization and transformation of the Korean economy and society in her 2,000 years plus history.

For the first time in Korea's history, the Japanese colonialist introduced and developed modern railways, a modern telephone and communications grid, a modern road system, a national banking system, an effective public health system - Seoul, a former cesspool of disease finally became habitable for many a slum dweller there, thanks to Japanese sanitation measures. In agriculture, an extensive rural irrigation system, was developed, thus improving agricultural yields, particularly hybrid rice.

Plus, the freeing of the Korean hoi polloi from chattel slavery under the Yangbyan and the decadent, inept Yi Dynasty saved millions of Koreans.

Compensation? For what?

14 ( +15 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan's beer shipments to S Korea dive 99.9% in Sept See in context

Folks, per the Korean mindset there is an inverse correlation between boycotting Japanese products and growing the Korean economy!

Meanwhile, the Korean economy is in the doldrums and Korean youth are bitter for want of jobs and future prospects at home; many want to emigrate from Korea to better prospects in the US, Japan, Australia, Canada, etc.

Korean companies are losing market share to Chinese rivals in every sphere: Samsung is steadily losing to Huawei, Oppo, et al; Hyundai to assorted PRC competitors; in Semi Conductors and Microchips too, Chinese firms are steadily clobbering Hanguk!

And here we have a nation of 50 million whose national hobby is the practice of Hwabyeong throwing their perennial histrionics and tantrums.

Par for the course.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Posted in: Poll finds over 80% in Japan back female emperor See in context

Yes, indeed, Wolfpack is right: she can become an Empress or Queen.

So I correct my sentence to read: Let a femme become an Empress.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Poll finds over 80% in Japan back female emperor See in context

This is totally anachronistic! Let a femme become an Emperor.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan should do more to alert its public of the growing military threat from China and rethink its rejection of offensive weapons. See in context

Sh1mon M4sada -

You absolutely capture the core argument! The law of unintended consequences.

The deluded west, essentially created the PRC and N Korea during World War 2.

The West, more so, the US, did liberate China and the Koreas from the might of the valiant Imperial Army of Japan.

Absent the US intervention in the Pacific theater of battle that finally rescued and saved China and the two Koreas from the yoke of the battle-hardened Japanese, those three countries would today be speaking Japanese as their lingua franca.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: G20 ministers to address issues involving 'overtourism' See in context

In the US, for instance, many ostensible tourists add to the number of our undocumented immigrants.

Using tourism as a pretext to immigrate is the other untold story of this so-called over-tourism story.

The countries that send the most undocumented "tourists" turned illegals to the US are:

South Korea

China

India

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan sees signs of mood in S Korea to defuse tensions: Suga See in context

Well, folks, just as a recalcitrant toddler sooner or later realizes the folly of throwing temper tantrums as the parent ignores her, I see in this story that the inept Moon cabal and the Republic of Korea, has finally come to terms with brutal reality.

Today, as always, Korea continues to need the more advanced Japanese and its high technology than the converse. I can't think of anything substantial that Japan obtains from the RoK that Japan cannot obtain from third parties via a simple substitution-effect. Not so for the Hanguk people! They NEED Japan!

This is a plaintive cry from Seoul heard across the Sea of Japan for three main product: Flourinated Polymide; Resist; and, Hydrogen Flouride.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

Posted in: 4th suspect arrested as UK truck deaths case probe deepens See in context

Well, as you can see the lure of the Anglo-Saxon countries is quite strong: these countries offer migrants more rights and freedoms, economic opportunities, civil and political rights - including minority rights - than they'd get in their own countries of origin - be it those emigrating from Vietnam, South Korea, Afghnanistan, my fellow continental Africans, Middle Easterners, Latinos, etc!

These poor folks typically want to immigrate to the US, the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Their other options are: Japan and Singapore.

Then you have those who will gravitate to their ethnic enclaves in Germany, the Benelux countries or Scandinavia.

Interestingly, whenever I'm in Korea I'm amazed at the number of youth who are so eager to emigrate from their poor job opportunities in Korea and hoping for greener pastures in Japan, Australia, Canada or the US!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Abe renews call on S Korea to keep promises in order to mend ties See in context

Folks, you can't break a promise that you have no intention of keeping!

Sorry, in Korea promises are made to be broken!

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Posted in: 4th suspect arrested as UK truck deaths case probe deepens See in context

What's wrong with this Global Times of China or whatever it's name is: your Chinese people are running away from tyranny in China, poor future prospects, lack of freedom to pursue their goals and ambitions, etc.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: Confused Assange in UK court ahead of extradition hearing See in context

In Assange, we have someone who is flighty, borderline psychotic or simply another member of the voyeuristic, Instagram me-me, as excitable as the African bush warthogs on-heat during breeding season!

Assange and his side-kick, the extremely naïve Edward Snowden, who passed through Chinese immigration and had Chinese intelligence scoop up the entire contents from his laptop, as he made his way to that bastion of freedom, Vladimir Putin's Moscow, are no heroes!

R.I.P Assange = Rot In Pieces Assange!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Posted in: EVs, short-range cars take spotlight at Tokyo Motor Show See in context

The always Superior Japanese engineering, Quality, design and aesthetics, will soon rule and corner the SUV luxurious EV market.

It is the Japanese and the Germans who have the right pedigree for superior automobile manufacturing!

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Posted in: Uniqlo pulls ad after South Korean objections See in context

Dear Heckleberry -

Contrary to what you say...there's absolutely nothing twisted about my logic at all.

The South Koreans had/have every right to install the THAAD batteries without seeking permission from or trying to appease "master" China PRC.

Isn't it your putative Foreign Minister who is wont to hector on and on to the world, that: This is an internal affair... it's a matter of national sovereignty....yada yada yada!

The last I checked, the Republic of Korea is/was a sovereign and independent republic; not an appendage of the PRC

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Posted in: Emperor Naruhito proclaims ascendancy to throne; pledges to fulfill his duty as symbol of the state See in context

Magnificent! Spectacular! It is through ceremony like this that I find Japan to be the most unique country not just in Asia, but probably the world!

Banzai!

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Posted in: Uniqlo pulls ad after South Korean objections See in context

Koreans are an interesting bunch. A few years ago, their then president Park Geun-hye allowed us to put up the THAAD batteries on the South Korean soil. Beijing was not happy.

What transpired is classical Korean cowardice. Several of their businesses were expropriated or outright shut down by the no-nonsense Chinese! Korean response? Not a peep! Koreans are, as always, too scared to whine against their mighty Chinese overlords!

Try pulling this gimmick on UniQlo against ANY Chinese company, and you Koreans will soon be back to paying your customary yearly tribute + kowtow to the Chinese court in the Forbidden City!

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Posted in: Uniqlo pulls ad after South Korean objections See in context

Why do Koreans bark up the wrong tree? This UniQlo drama-queen behavior is yet another reflection of the melodramatic Koreans.

The period of Japanese colonialism, from 1910-1945, resulted in the demise of the corrupt and backward Yi Dynasty of Joseon. Which is actually the most progressive period in Korea's 2,000 years history; resulted in agricultural progress, high rice yields, increased life expectancy, modernization, economic growth, and rapid development of an hitherto hopeless country.

If Koreans have a beef with ANY country - that should be with China and their brothers in N. Korea.

Those two countries, under the leadership of the blood thirsty megalomaniac Mao Zedong, and his schizophrenic side-kick Kim, caused the slaughter of 3,500,000 innocent South Koreans!

5 ( +12 / -7 )

Posted in: Uniqlo pulls ad after South Korean objections See in context

TakCWAL -

Koreans are basically Chinese with a chip on their shoulder.

Hence the tendency of both to overreact over the most innocuous slight of their fragile collective fragile egos. A manifestation of their low self-esteem, really!

18 ( +29 / -11 )

Posted in: Uniqlo pulls ad after South Korean objections See in context

National neurosis does exist.

Koreans hyper-irrational, reactionary, and extreme anger, Hwabyung, exemplify the existence of this phenomenon as a uniquely Korean behavioral and psychological characteristic.

In East Africa, we have the mental disorder called Kiwelewele.

In Malay and Bahasa Indonesian they have the mental disorder called amok!

So, in fairness, this seemingly extreme Korean psycho reaction vis-a-vis UniQlo, actually has very deep societal and cultural roots.

16 ( +28 / -12 )

Posted in: Hong Kong leader to visit Japan after huge rally, night of violence See in context

Well, how dare we mere mortals question the "correct" version of history emanating from the Middle Kingdom?

Are you not all aware that the Communist Party of China derives its mandate..er...from the Mandate of heaven?!

Let's see, this is 2019. What Carrie Lam is serving today, is merely an appetizer.

In 2047, all pretension of freedom and democracy in HK will be as dead as the Dodo!

Welcome to the "peace loving" PRC!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Another cabinet minister, 100 cross-party lawmakers visit Yasukuni shrine See in context

Poor Koreans, your economy is in shambles; your youth are in penury for lack of jobs; Chinese companies are taking over market share from you low-tech Korean companies!

And all you can do is perennially whine and moan about Yasukuni?!

Sorry, Hanguk folks, don't you have l'affaire Cho Kuk to take care of?

And also resuscitating your tanking economy? Why not use your energy more productively?

Actually, I, as a foreigner, am planning on visiting Yasukuni next year!

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Posted in: Another cabinet minister, 100 cross-party lawmakers visit Yasukuni shrine See in context

Actually, Japanese politicos should continue visiting Yasukuni if they so wish; it's part of honoring their history.

I, as, an African , Kenyan born, have absolutely no problem with a British politician, say, visiting Westminter Abbey or such like place that honor British explorers, adventurers and colonialists, and war dead of yore. It's part of their history. So what?!

Why don't you ask the Chinese to stop visiting Tiananmen and Mao's mausoleum? After all, Mao not only caused the deaths of 20,000,000+ innocent Chinese!

The megalomaniac Mao, like a rabid hyena, then crossed over the Yalu River and slaughtered 3,500,000 more Koreans!

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

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