October 28, 2005
“History will be kind to us, gentlemen, for I plan to write it”, said Winston Churchill.
There has been a gaga in South Korea over the alleged distortion of the Japanese history textbook that was designed for the middle-school students in Japan, and a series of mass rallies against Japan was held in Seoul, demanding the government’s action and seeking anti-Japanese product campaign by the ever-present civic group.
One of red-hot protesters bit his finger to write his deathwish against the Tokyo’s approval of distorted textbook with his dripping blood, which is common both in Korean and Japanese culture, and several “comfort women”, who served Japanese military during the WW II as forced prostitutes, showed their displeasure pumping wobbly arms up in the air.
However, quite a contrary to the nationwide protest, the Korean Government, has kept mum about the issue, while his foreign minister was reluctant to react against the Japanese government, suggesting that they have no realistic ways to sanction Japan for the matter, and took a symbolic gesture of recalling South Korean ambassador to Japan.
As every Korean Presidents, the factotum for the US neo-colonialism, have buckled humiliatingly under the pressure of the U.S. Administration with regards to the engagement policy vis-à-vis North Korea, the South Koreans are in no position to counter economically, politically, and militarily against their old colonial master, Japan.
“History is the memory of states”, wrote Henry Kissinger in his book, and Columbus later wrote, “Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold,” after he returned from the voyage to the New World, during which he took more than 500 Native American men, women, and children to Spain for sale who half of them died on the ship.
Kissinger tells the history from the viewpoint of political leaders, queens and Kings ignoring the millions who suffered from those statemen’s policies.
Columbus wrote the history of his voyages from the looking glass of Spanish conquerors, and felt no wrongs to massacre Arawak Indians for not bringing in gold.
The US President, Woodrow Wilson, was referred as the father of the national self-determination to the Korean students who were taught from the history textbook that was revised by the obsequious South Korean government to the Americans at the end of WW II.
No Korean history teachers knew that Wilson supported and executed the “righteous conquest of foreign country” in order to obtain foreign market for the American products, even if sovereignty of unwilling nations would be abused in the process.
Mandarins from the Education Department of Sygnman Rhee’s government have forced newspaper editors, history teachers, and scholars to change the description of America in Chinese character from “rice country” to “beautiful country”.
During the Vietnam War, Gen. CH Park, a vicious military dictator who most of South Koreans honor him a national hero and want to build the memorial hall for him, dispatched over 50,000 Korean soldiers to the independent-seeking country, raping, killing and marauding innocent Vietnamese men, women, and children under the guise of protecting democracy.
The history textbook in Korean school notes that the South Korean veterans in Vietnam War were national heroes and patriots, and students were never taught on the war that was one of the most unjust and cruel conflicts to humanity in modern history.
Recently, the South Korean news media fanned people’s anger over civilian killings committed by the US soldiers during the 1950 Korean War, without telling that fact that past Rhee’s government colluded with Americans in the massacre of innocent civilians beginning from 1945 to the end of the war, through a series of Kurchang massacre, Cheju Island revolt, and other numerous atrocities.
When the South Korean people devote exclusively to bolstering the orthodox history that rhapsodizes about Korean virtues and glories fed by their school, with no mention of their own shameful past history that leaves out anything might reflect badly upon Korean character, Japanese people can only see the Koreans soul full of ignorance and mouth full of hypocrisy.
“Traditional history” tends to project a Manichean world in depicting the world affairs: on one side, Japanese is an imperial evil intent enforcing their hegemony upon its neighboring countries simply because Japan was an occupier and conqueror in the past and refuses to admit the past wrongful activities.
On the other side, the Korean was the victim of Japanese colonialism, deserving compensation and apology from Japanese, no matter what the Korean does the same thing to other countries.
One of the typical lands that prevails a Manichean mind is the United States of America… Americans view their national history from the top down, to be deeply revered and not critically examined.
For example, since America is the land of opportunity, the poor have only themselves to blame and the riches deserve their wealth because the former was indolent and immoral and the latter was diligent and good. It is as simple as black and white, as in Cold War, Russia is bad and America the beautiful.
This mindset of American mentality never allows them to apologize, even though they hurt their neighbor, as in the Vietnam War and Spy plane incident in China. (When you hear repeated sorry from traveling American who bumps into your path, he does not mean “conventional” meaning of apology, but simply regrets what he has done and would not settle the matter without legal wrangling if saying sorry hurts him financially.)
In the high school textbook widely used throughout the United States, it said almost nothing about the anti-colonial nature of the Vietnamese struggle, the ecological destruction and massive bombings caused two millions of civilian casualties.
As history is largely a one-sided record compiled by the victors, the heterodox or loser’s history may offer a better learning experience than orthodox or winners records.
Koreans wisely are sided with American historians who note in history book that Japan was sole imperial force that expand their hegemonic power to conquer the China and Southeast Asia, which caused the Pacific War.
As a loser in the war, Japanese historians insisted that Japan did not have much choice in 1940s but to fight against the American Pacific Empire that strangled the commercial routes of Japanese industrial resources, such as tin, rubber and oil from the Southeast Asia and imposed total embargo on scrap iron and oil in the summer of 1941. (Japanese reminded American consuls in China initially supported the invasion of Japanese troop to China, and the US government exchanged notes with Japan saying that US government recognizes Japan has special interests in China.)
American always demanded an open door policy upon China, Korea, Japan and other countries, while they insisted on a closed door in Latin America with the Monroe doctrine and frequent military interventions.
During 36 years of Japanese occupation, many Koreans obediently kowtowed to the orders of Japanese occupiers without any significant resistance, and many of them became the loyal viceroy of Japan, torturing and jailing their own people and paid homage to the Japanese Shinto temple.
There were no organized guerrillas fighting against Japanese authorities except some banditry in the northern part of the country bordered with China.
The late leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung claimed he was the ringleader of partisans roaming around the border, harassing and marauding the village people.
When the Japanese occupation has ended in 1945, the US army simply replaced the Japanese occupiers in the southern part of Korea with the help of a batch of Korean collaborators to Japan, including Gen. CH Park who was a lieutenant in Japanese Imperial Army stationed in Manchuria, and a majority of politicians, military officers, policemen, and civilian mandarins in the new South Korean government were former lackeys of Japanese imperialism.
The first thing Gen. Park did when he got the power with putsch was begging money from Japan, sending an emissary, JP Kim, then-KCIA chief, to his former employer, Imperial government of Japan, and Japan gave him $3 billion for the compensatory payment for the 36 years of Japanese occupation.
The Japanese payment was the seed money for the future development of the fledgling industries in the South in conjunction with the flow of scrap iron, raw materials and other resources that were robbed from the Vietnam War by the South Korean mercenary forces.
When media and civic leaders in Seoul pump anti-Japanese product campaign in the air, the former colonial masters in Tokyo laugh at the abject ignorance of poor “Senjin” (derogatory word for Korean).
Everyone in both Japan and South Korea knows that the export industries in the South Korea collapse if Japanese economy goes down the tube and the South Koreans can not live a day without Japanese products or technology.
In the future history book of Korean school children, it is a moot point whether the United States of America would be depicted as the savior of Korean democracy and prosperity or the neo-colonial power that emptied and exploited the national treasures leaving the South Koreans in despair.
However, if Koreans rely entirely on the textbook fortified by the official rendition of benign and rhetorical history, chances are they may never know where they are until they find themselves stark naked, chained, and work in the neo-colonial slave system.
It is not a time for the South Koreans lazily shouting against the past enemy, but must look into who the present enemy is and where their pied piper, their Government, leads them.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
We are Americans
We are Americans
2005/11/08
Americans are lucky to have a president who habitually is on bended knees every morning asking God for guidance and believes God is always on his side.
The president’s assumption is that Americans are somewhat ordained by God to have more resources and energy to waste for their extravagant lifestyle than other lesser mortals around the world, and therefore, there is nothing wrong to maximize the consumption of every available resources on earth that is a reflection of the strength of US economy.
The way of American life is a blessed one that only 5 percent of the world population uses 24 percent of the world’s energy resulting to produce 22 percent of the world’s industrial carbon dioxide.
Vice President Dick Cheney, another wealthy oilman, has pooh-poohed the energy conservationist as a wimp who can keep it as personal virtue and ridiculed that it is not a sufficient basis for a sound comprehensive energy policy.
He went on to call for more oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy to meet the ever-growing energy demand of American people for their cellphones, laptops, pagers, walkmans, DVD, and SUVs.
A Republican Senator, who hails from the state of Alaska where the oil barons were watering their mouths for the exploitation of the Arctic National Wild Life Refuge, stated: I am a big guy, and I don’t like to get into a small car because I’m not comfortable.
Even Environmentalists who denounced new oil drillings drive around on 5,000-pound vehicles that guzzle fuel with 12-mile per gallon on the highway.
The SUVs have become the all-American car, on which dashboard flashes the warning sign of empty gas tank.
For the god-fearing President, the quickest way to help people with their energy bill is tax relief and he’d like to have it in place tomorrow so that people would have money in their pockets to deal with high energy prices.
It goes without saying that he wants people to spend money at the gas pump that helps his friends in oil business making enormous profits.
Conserving, saving and recycling something are a non sequitur in the capitalistic society… Conserving something for the future generation does not stimulate the economy only leading to the recession, as savings for rainy days is not a virtue but borrowing and speculating on the future market are civic religion, a distinctively American way of success and prosperity.
Assets held by the world’s 200 wealthiest people total $1 trillion and three-quarters of them who suffer from “affluenza” live in OECD countries, 60 reside in the US, while three billion people live on $2 or less per day and one billion get by on $1 or less.
The statistics from the UN shows that the richest 20 percent of the world’s people eat 45 percent of all its fishes and meat, use 87 percent of all of its paper, and 58 percent of all the world’s energy.
According to the UN calculation, $35 billion per year is sufficient to fund the minimum conditions required for the human development worldwide that measures life expectancy, education, literacy and national wealth, and it could be financed with the proceeds of a 3.5 percent per annum levy on the assets of the world’s 200 richest people.
However, the concept of noblesse oblige is a cui bo-no for Americans and as oxymoronic as a jumbo shrimp for the compassionate conservatives.
It is a big NO to share the world resources and wealth with lesser mortals, because we, the nation of gluttons, want everything in our possession big, fast, powerful, and unlimited, and most of all, we want it a big “Now”, not tomorrow or never the day after tomorrow.
The beauty of American-ness is heavily relied upon its instancy—readymade, frozen, canned, dehydrated or freeze-dried—that provides immediate and palpable satisfaction literally and figuratively.
Politically, we are the master yielding a powerful hegemonic hammer on bootlicking serf nations around the world telling them: Do what I say, not what I do.
Economically, we are the chief custodian of the world economy under the rules of IMF and World Bank that is owned 51 percent by the US Treasury.
Militarily, we are the biggest spender in military budget of $325 billion (2002 fiscal year) on killing business over $6 billion of former enemy Russia and our military has overseas bases in 139 countries with over 200,000 service personnel.
Financially, we are flooding the world with our dollars under the rubric “petrodollar recycling” and forcing other industrial nations to buy Treasury bonds so that we maintain the unlimited wealth.
Culturally, we export and dominate entertainment industries with Hollywood movies, Broadway theaters, Television network, hiphop music, media, art, and academia that enter the brains and become apart of viewers, listeners, readers, performers, and teachers.
We even make people change their eating habit exporting fast foods like Domino pizza, Starbucks coffee, and McDonald’s hamburger that enter the body and become a part of the eater. As the old saying goes: You are what you eat.
We are Americans.
We are the only game in town.
All must play by our rules.
Get the hell out of our way, folks.
Or else we would condemn you to death.
2005/11/08
Americans are lucky to have a president who habitually is on bended knees every morning asking God for guidance and believes God is always on his side.
The president’s assumption is that Americans are somewhat ordained by God to have more resources and energy to waste for their extravagant lifestyle than other lesser mortals around the world, and therefore, there is nothing wrong to maximize the consumption of every available resources on earth that is a reflection of the strength of US economy.
The way of American life is a blessed one that only 5 percent of the world population uses 24 percent of the world’s energy resulting to produce 22 percent of the world’s industrial carbon dioxide.
Vice President Dick Cheney, another wealthy oilman, has pooh-poohed the energy conservationist as a wimp who can keep it as personal virtue and ridiculed that it is not a sufficient basis for a sound comprehensive energy policy.
He went on to call for more oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy to meet the ever-growing energy demand of American people for their cellphones, laptops, pagers, walkmans, DVD, and SUVs.
A Republican Senator, who hails from the state of Alaska where the oil barons were watering their mouths for the exploitation of the Arctic National Wild Life Refuge, stated: I am a big guy, and I don’t like to get into a small car because I’m not comfortable.
Even Environmentalists who denounced new oil drillings drive around on 5,000-pound vehicles that guzzle fuel with 12-mile per gallon on the highway.
The SUVs have become the all-American car, on which dashboard flashes the warning sign of empty gas tank.
For the god-fearing President, the quickest way to help people with their energy bill is tax relief and he’d like to have it in place tomorrow so that people would have money in their pockets to deal with high energy prices.
It goes without saying that he wants people to spend money at the gas pump that helps his friends in oil business making enormous profits.
Conserving, saving and recycling something are a non sequitur in the capitalistic society… Conserving something for the future generation does not stimulate the economy only leading to the recession, as savings for rainy days is not a virtue but borrowing and speculating on the future market are civic religion, a distinctively American way of success and prosperity.
Assets held by the world’s 200 wealthiest people total $1 trillion and three-quarters of them who suffer from “affluenza” live in OECD countries, 60 reside in the US, while three billion people live on $2 or less per day and one billion get by on $1 or less.
The statistics from the UN shows that the richest 20 percent of the world’s people eat 45 percent of all its fishes and meat, use 87 percent of all of its paper, and 58 percent of all the world’s energy.
According to the UN calculation, $35 billion per year is sufficient to fund the minimum conditions required for the human development worldwide that measures life expectancy, education, literacy and national wealth, and it could be financed with the proceeds of a 3.5 percent per annum levy on the assets of the world’s 200 richest people.
However, the concept of noblesse oblige is a cui bo-no for Americans and as oxymoronic as a jumbo shrimp for the compassionate conservatives.
It is a big NO to share the world resources and wealth with lesser mortals, because we, the nation of gluttons, want everything in our possession big, fast, powerful, and unlimited, and most of all, we want it a big “Now”, not tomorrow or never the day after tomorrow.
The beauty of American-ness is heavily relied upon its instancy—readymade, frozen, canned, dehydrated or freeze-dried—that provides immediate and palpable satisfaction literally and figuratively.
Politically, we are the master yielding a powerful hegemonic hammer on bootlicking serf nations around the world telling them: Do what I say, not what I do.
Economically, we are the chief custodian of the world economy under the rules of IMF and World Bank that is owned 51 percent by the US Treasury.
Militarily, we are the biggest spender in military budget of $325 billion (2002 fiscal year) on killing business over $6 billion of former enemy Russia and our military has overseas bases in 139 countries with over 200,000 service personnel.
Financially, we are flooding the world with our dollars under the rubric “petrodollar recycling” and forcing other industrial nations to buy Treasury bonds so that we maintain the unlimited wealth.
Culturally, we export and dominate entertainment industries with Hollywood movies, Broadway theaters, Television network, hiphop music, media, art, and academia that enter the brains and become apart of viewers, listeners, readers, performers, and teachers.
We even make people change their eating habit exporting fast foods like Domino pizza, Starbucks coffee, and McDonald’s hamburger that enter the body and become a part of the eater. As the old saying goes: You are what you eat.
We are Americans.
We are the only game in town.
All must play by our rules.
Get the hell out of our way, folks.
Or else we would condemn you to death.
The Tyrannical Generals: Augusto Pinochet and CH Park
March 4, 2000
Pinochet, an ex-despotic ruler who overthrew the democratically-elected government of Chile in 1973 under the sanction of US government (Nixon and Kissinger) and committed mass-killing and disappearance of over 3,000 dissidents, was allowed to leave the Great Briton under the assumption that the General was unfit to stand trial that the Spain government requested the extradition on charges of torture and disappearance of their nationals.
He was detained under house arrest for 17 months while recovering from back surgery in London.
The ex-dictator, who was diagnosed brain-damaged, too sick to stand and on a wheel-chair bound while in England, rose to embrace the commander in chief of Chilean army on his own when he arrived in Santiago and recognized every friends and military officers and there were no signs of illness that were the basis for his release.
His sudden recovery from sickness seems to be miraculous and evangelical since Lazarus as the despot has received a hero’s welcome by his coterie of military officers.
His put-on shows were shrewd enough to make British government a laughingstock.
Pinochet’ regime had many similarity in the governance of national affairs with the corrupt military government of tinpot dictator, Gen. CH Park.
They were both career military officers, had snatched power by putsch, committed atrocities against their people with arbitrary arrest, torture, imprisonment, forced disappearance, homicide, exiles, abduction, intimidation, etc.
Pinochet has betrayed and murdered his president 18 days after he was appointed the commander in chief of the army
Park was a graduate from Japanese Military Academy who has pledged to fight for the Emperor and remained loyal to Japan until Japan surrendered while his people suffered greatly from Japanese colonialism.
Pinochet ordered his infamous secret police, DINA, to detain, kidnap, and torture anyone who stands against his regime and thousands of men and women disappeared without trace.
Park committed the same atrocities under the command of KCIA and Military Security Command and the prisons were flooded with students, professors, labor leaders, and ordinary people who valiantly protested against his tyranny and hundreds of detainees were met with various forms of tortures and long-term jail sentences that resulted in suspicious deaths.
Surprisingly, two generals seem to share the same destiny even after their departures from power…Pinochet enjoys the immunity from criminal process as a senator for life and an amnesty decree that covers crimes committed from 1973 to 1978 in Chile.
Park was rehabilitated and resuscitated in the grave by DJ Kim who desperately seeks for the support of the region where Park hailed from and he would be remembered as a national hero who brought forth the economic prosperity through the banditry in the Vietnam War.
In Chile and South Korea, there exists a high degree of consensus, that during the past military regime the violation of the human rights was necessary condition for laying the foundations of a economically prosperous nation… that is, the public take the General’s brutality for granted as peccadillo that some one has to pay the price to achieve the material satisfaction.
The only consolation in which the families of victims from both Pinochet and Park rejoice is the principle that those who commit human rights violation in one country could be tried in elsewhere.
This principle would apply to Gen. DH Chun and TW Roh who massacred hundreds of young men and women during their dictatorship, although they were pardoned by another corrupt bozo who was bribed with boxes of cold cash.
Pinochet still faces criminal complaints in Chile for kidnapping, murder and torture, all of which were lodged in 1998 and 1999 and the cases are in the preliminary stage of investigation by the judge of Santiago Appeals Court.
However, in South Korea, no one seems to bother to inquire about anything that is related to the conviction of Chun and Roh: two crooks have not paid the fines and they still keep the Swiss accounts. Not surprisingly, DJ Kim still invites them for the Christmas party.
Pinochet, an ex-despotic ruler who overthrew the democratically-elected government of Chile in 1973 under the sanction of US government (Nixon and Kissinger) and committed mass-killing and disappearance of over 3,000 dissidents, was allowed to leave the Great Briton under the assumption that the General was unfit to stand trial that the Spain government requested the extradition on charges of torture and disappearance of their nationals.
He was detained under house arrest for 17 months while recovering from back surgery in London.
The ex-dictator, who was diagnosed brain-damaged, too sick to stand and on a wheel-chair bound while in England, rose to embrace the commander in chief of Chilean army on his own when he arrived in Santiago and recognized every friends and military officers and there were no signs of illness that were the basis for his release.
His sudden recovery from sickness seems to be miraculous and evangelical since Lazarus as the despot has received a hero’s welcome by his coterie of military officers.
His put-on shows were shrewd enough to make British government a laughingstock.
Pinochet’ regime had many similarity in the governance of national affairs with the corrupt military government of tinpot dictator, Gen. CH Park.
They were both career military officers, had snatched power by putsch, committed atrocities against their people with arbitrary arrest, torture, imprisonment, forced disappearance, homicide, exiles, abduction, intimidation, etc.
Pinochet has betrayed and murdered his president 18 days after he was appointed the commander in chief of the army
Park was a graduate from Japanese Military Academy who has pledged to fight for the Emperor and remained loyal to Japan until Japan surrendered while his people suffered greatly from Japanese colonialism.
Pinochet ordered his infamous secret police, DINA, to detain, kidnap, and torture anyone who stands against his regime and thousands of men and women disappeared without trace.
Park committed the same atrocities under the command of KCIA and Military Security Command and the prisons were flooded with students, professors, labor leaders, and ordinary people who valiantly protested against his tyranny and hundreds of detainees were met with various forms of tortures and long-term jail sentences that resulted in suspicious deaths.
Surprisingly, two generals seem to share the same destiny even after their departures from power…Pinochet enjoys the immunity from criminal process as a senator for life and an amnesty decree that covers crimes committed from 1973 to 1978 in Chile.
Park was rehabilitated and resuscitated in the grave by DJ Kim who desperately seeks for the support of the region where Park hailed from and he would be remembered as a national hero who brought forth the economic prosperity through the banditry in the Vietnam War.
In Chile and South Korea, there exists a high degree of consensus, that during the past military regime the violation of the human rights was necessary condition for laying the foundations of a economically prosperous nation… that is, the public take the General’s brutality for granted as peccadillo that some one has to pay the price to achieve the material satisfaction.
The only consolation in which the families of victims from both Pinochet and Park rejoice is the principle that those who commit human rights violation in one country could be tried in elsewhere.
This principle would apply to Gen. DH Chun and TW Roh who massacred hundreds of young men and women during their dictatorship, although they were pardoned by another corrupt bozo who was bribed with boxes of cold cash.
Pinochet still faces criminal complaints in Chile for kidnapping, murder and torture, all of which were lodged in 1998 and 1999 and the cases are in the preliminary stage of investigation by the judge of Santiago Appeals Court.
However, in South Korea, no one seems to bother to inquire about anything that is related to the conviction of Chun and Roh: two crooks have not paid the fines and they still keep the Swiss accounts. Not surprisingly, DJ Kim still invites them for the Christmas party.
The Abduction of Conductor Yun Isang
The Abduction and Torture of Yun Isang, 2006/05/01
The following is an article from the Korean newspaper (April 30 2006) on Conductor Yun Isang.
The Korean younger generation who do not know much about MIlitary Dictator Park CH may find the story worth reading how Gen. Park beat, jailed, tortured, and murdered thousands of innocent students, professors, writers, musicians, actors, journalists, and other ordinary people in order to keep up his military regime for 19-years long.
There were generally two choices under his controled bureaucracy...you eithe live and follow whatever he orders you to do, or you just pack your back and leave the country, and I chose the latter and became a non-Koreanesque Korean, lashing out, whenever opportunity arrives,the Korean overbearing hypocrisy and shabby nationalism: "Korean-Number-Oneness".
Isang Yun’s Wife Wants Apology From Seoul
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
MT. KUMGANG, North Korea _ Lee Soo-ja, 79, widow of renowned composer Isang Yun, appeared nervous when the conference room was packed with journalists from South Korea; a place she had stayed away from for more than three decades but now wants to revisit any time soon, when her husband’s honor is restored.
``Everyday, I hope that the South Korean government would restore the honor of the artist who was so dedicated to the Korean people, so that his spirit could finally visit his hometown,’’ she said during the press conference.
Lee was the center of attention during a ceremony here from Friday through Sunday to pay tribute to her late husband (1917-1995). North Korean officials carried her bags around, and South Korean cameras rallied around her.
With short, curly silver hair and resolutely tight lips, the South Korean-turned-German national, now residing in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, mingled with high-profile figures from the two Koreas. Among them were Ri Jong-hyuk, vice chairman of the North’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee; Lee Jong-seok, the South’s unification minister; Hyun Jeong-eun, chairman of the South’s Hyundai Group; and Park Jae-kyu, former unification minister and now president of the Seoul-based Isang Yun Peace Foundation.
Members of North Korea’s Isang Yun Orchestra perform during a concert to mark the first anniversary of the Seoul-based Isang Yun Peace Foundation and pay tribute to the late composer, at Mt. Kumgang in the North, Saturday.
Isang Yun Peace Foundation organized the three-day program, highlighted by Lee Soo-ja’s first-ever press conference with South Korean journalists Friday. On Saturday, a ceremony marking the foundation’s first anniversary was held at the Singye-sa Buddhist Temple, followed by a concert which included performances by musicians from the two Koreas.
Yun, a world-class composer born in Tongyong, South Kyongsyang Province, and his wife were residing in West Berlin when South Korean intelligence agents kidnapped them to Seoul in 1967. Yun had visited the North Korean Embassy in East Berlin and also Pyongyang in 1963. It was to see murals in a tomb dating back to the Koguryo Kingdom (37 B.C.-668) and meet a friend in the North, according to Lee.
But in Seoul, Yun was tortured and charged with spying for the North Korean regime. He was labeled as head of a spy ring that included a number of other renowned artists who were also rounded up for their alleged ties with Pyongyang.
``In 1967, Park Chung-hee’s military regime kidnapped overnight many Korean students who, studying abroad, were free in their thinking and attitude,’’ Lee recalled. ``The students were not raised in Korea during the 1950s and 1960s, so did not really know about anti-communism or the National Security Law. Especially, we were living in Berlin, where there were no barbed wires and the inter-German transportations were operating.’’
In what was later called the Tongbaengnim case, named after East Berlin, Yun was released from imprisonment in 1969 following appeals from international art circles and the diplomatic efforts of the West German government.
Returning to West Germany and becoming a naturalized German citizen 1971, the estranged Yun never returned to the South, but visited the North during vacations as Kim Il-sung, then North Korean leader, reportedly was proud of the world-renowned composer _ presenting him with a special residence where Lee is now living. Before dying in Germany in 1995, Yun taught students at a music institute named after him in Pyongyang.
``From the time he was studying in Japan before coming to West Germany, my husband had very strong affection toward Korean people and was very keen on the sense of justice,’’ Lee said. ``The Tongbaengnim case changed his thinking, music, ideology, everything. He felt the reality and pains of the nation’s division so directly. After that, his music became heavy, he composed music that reflected Korean people’s agony.’’
In the South, a semi-government panel looking into the intelligence agency’s past wrongdoings announced early this year the Tongbaengnim case was fabricated for the purpose of mustering anti-communist sentiment and support for the regime under the late President Park. The panel recommended the government apologize to the victims and redeem their honor.
``Of course, the government should apologize,’’ Lee answered to a question about what is needed to restore her husband’s honor. ``He was not a spy, yet the newspapers all ran headlines labeling him as the head of a spy ring. It was unthinkable.’’
But the possibility of the South Korean government actually apologizing is not yet high, due to the issue’s ideological sensitivity. North Korea, on its part, refuses to hold an official ``joint” ceremony with the South to remember Yun, arguing the South’s apology should come first.
Nevertheless, during the concert at the Mt. Kumgang Culture Hall musicians from both Koreas took turns playing both classical and pop music, including pieces written by Yun. From the South there was the Ensemble from the Tongyoung International Music Festival (TIMF), dedicated to Yun’s memory, while from the North there were members of the Isang Yun Orchestra.
``Political ideologies are like broad-leaved trees from the long-term perspective,’’ Yun’s words, written in the preface of a book recording conversations with the late, famous German writer Luise Rinser, were shown on a screen behind the concert stage. ``They flourish, become colored, and cast leaves according to seasons. But people (of a nation) are as majestic and eternal as the sky.” The book was published in 1977
The following is an article from the Korean newspaper (April 30 2006) on Conductor Yun Isang.
The Korean younger generation who do not know much about MIlitary Dictator Park CH may find the story worth reading how Gen. Park beat, jailed, tortured, and murdered thousands of innocent students, professors, writers, musicians, actors, journalists, and other ordinary people in order to keep up his military regime for 19-years long.
There were generally two choices under his controled bureaucracy...you eithe live and follow whatever he orders you to do, or you just pack your back and leave the country, and I chose the latter and became a non-Koreanesque Korean, lashing out, whenever opportunity arrives,the Korean overbearing hypocrisy and shabby nationalism: "Korean-Number-Oneness".
Isang Yun’s Wife Wants Apology From Seoul
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
MT. KUMGANG, North Korea _ Lee Soo-ja, 79, widow of renowned composer Isang Yun, appeared nervous when the conference room was packed with journalists from South Korea; a place she had stayed away from for more than three decades but now wants to revisit any time soon, when her husband’s honor is restored.
``Everyday, I hope that the South Korean government would restore the honor of the artist who was so dedicated to the Korean people, so that his spirit could finally visit his hometown,’’ she said during the press conference.
Lee was the center of attention during a ceremony here from Friday through Sunday to pay tribute to her late husband (1917-1995). North Korean officials carried her bags around, and South Korean cameras rallied around her.
With short, curly silver hair and resolutely tight lips, the South Korean-turned-German national, now residing in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, mingled with high-profile figures from the two Koreas. Among them were Ri Jong-hyuk, vice chairman of the North’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee; Lee Jong-seok, the South’s unification minister; Hyun Jeong-eun, chairman of the South’s Hyundai Group; and Park Jae-kyu, former unification minister and now president of the Seoul-based Isang Yun Peace Foundation.
Members of North Korea’s Isang Yun Orchestra perform during a concert to mark the first anniversary of the Seoul-based Isang Yun Peace Foundation and pay tribute to the late composer, at Mt. Kumgang in the North, Saturday.
Isang Yun Peace Foundation organized the three-day program, highlighted by Lee Soo-ja’s first-ever press conference with South Korean journalists Friday. On Saturday, a ceremony marking the foundation’s first anniversary was held at the Singye-sa Buddhist Temple, followed by a concert which included performances by musicians from the two Koreas.
Yun, a world-class composer born in Tongyong, South Kyongsyang Province, and his wife were residing in West Berlin when South Korean intelligence agents kidnapped them to Seoul in 1967. Yun had visited the North Korean Embassy in East Berlin and also Pyongyang in 1963. It was to see murals in a tomb dating back to the Koguryo Kingdom (37 B.C.-668) and meet a friend in the North, according to Lee.
But in Seoul, Yun was tortured and charged with spying for the North Korean regime. He was labeled as head of a spy ring that included a number of other renowned artists who were also rounded up for their alleged ties with Pyongyang.
``In 1967, Park Chung-hee’s military regime kidnapped overnight many Korean students who, studying abroad, were free in their thinking and attitude,’’ Lee recalled. ``The students were not raised in Korea during the 1950s and 1960s, so did not really know about anti-communism or the National Security Law. Especially, we were living in Berlin, where there were no barbed wires and the inter-German transportations were operating.’’
In what was later called the Tongbaengnim case, named after East Berlin, Yun was released from imprisonment in 1969 following appeals from international art circles and the diplomatic efforts of the West German government.
Returning to West Germany and becoming a naturalized German citizen 1971, the estranged Yun never returned to the South, but visited the North during vacations as Kim Il-sung, then North Korean leader, reportedly was proud of the world-renowned composer _ presenting him with a special residence where Lee is now living. Before dying in Germany in 1995, Yun taught students at a music institute named after him in Pyongyang.
``From the time he was studying in Japan before coming to West Germany, my husband had very strong affection toward Korean people and was very keen on the sense of justice,’’ Lee said. ``The Tongbaengnim case changed his thinking, music, ideology, everything. He felt the reality and pains of the nation’s division so directly. After that, his music became heavy, he composed music that reflected Korean people’s agony.’’
In the South, a semi-government panel looking into the intelligence agency’s past wrongdoings announced early this year the Tongbaengnim case was fabricated for the purpose of mustering anti-communist sentiment and support for the regime under the late President Park. The panel recommended the government apologize to the victims and redeem their honor.
``Of course, the government should apologize,’’ Lee answered to a question about what is needed to restore her husband’s honor. ``He was not a spy, yet the newspapers all ran headlines labeling him as the head of a spy ring. It was unthinkable.’’
But the possibility of the South Korean government actually apologizing is not yet high, due to the issue’s ideological sensitivity. North Korea, on its part, refuses to hold an official ``joint” ceremony with the South to remember Yun, arguing the South’s apology should come first.
Nevertheless, during the concert at the Mt. Kumgang Culture Hall musicians from both Koreas took turns playing both classical and pop music, including pieces written by Yun. From the South there was the Ensemble from the Tongyoung International Music Festival (TIMF), dedicated to Yun’s memory, while from the North there were members of the Isang Yun Orchestra.
``Political ideologies are like broad-leaved trees from the long-term perspective,’’ Yun’s words, written in the preface of a book recording conversations with the late, famous German writer Luise Rinser, were shown on a screen behind the concert stage. ``They flourish, become colored, and cast leaves according to seasons. But people (of a nation) are as majestic and eternal as the sky.” The book was published in 1977
Lordy, lordy, my prayer is answered
2006/02/10
A few weeks ago, I had prayed seriously to Lord: "Please, let Ariel Sharon, the butcher of Lebanon, live a life of coma permanently, peeing and poohing in his pants, so that he would realize that his life is no better or different than any others, especially innocent Palestinians, kids, women, old men who viciously were murdered by him."
And a trickle of news about his condition after he suffered a massive stroke emerged yesterday: He is stable, but serious condition intubated through his stomach fed by machine and still in coma...peeing and poohing in his pants.
It is somewhat eerie and macabre rarely to hear about his condition....few people understand why media kept mum about his status....but you know the global media has been under the Jewish control and the non-Jewish media fear the power of Jewish financiers and bankers.
They won't tell a story Jews don't want to hear...to see...to talk about.
At any rate, I am really pleased to see a fat, greasy, ugly, and murderous Jewish General Ariel Sharon lies on a hospital bed, soiling his pants with shit, and from now on, I really believe God is doing his job...
Thank God
A few weeks ago, I had prayed seriously to Lord: "Please, let Ariel Sharon, the butcher of Lebanon, live a life of coma permanently, peeing and poohing in his pants, so that he would realize that his life is no better or different than any others, especially innocent Palestinians, kids, women, old men who viciously were murdered by him."
And a trickle of news about his condition after he suffered a massive stroke emerged yesterday: He is stable, but serious condition intubated through his stomach fed by machine and still in coma...peeing and poohing in his pants.
It is somewhat eerie and macabre rarely to hear about his condition....few people understand why media kept mum about his status....but you know the global media has been under the Jewish control and the non-Jewish media fear the power of Jewish financiers and bankers.
They won't tell a story Jews don't want to hear...to see...to talk about.
At any rate, I am really pleased to see a fat, greasy, ugly, and murderous Jewish General Ariel Sharon lies on a hospital bed, soiling his pants with shit, and from now on, I really believe God is doing his job...
Thank God
Let Us Pray for the Fat and Ugly Jewish Warrior
2006/01/08
I, Pepe, would like to join hands in the prayer service for Ariel Sharon... I pray God for his recovery from the stroke and he continues to live a life of permanent coma, peeing and poohing in his pants.
Imagine a Jewish warrior general who murdered so many innocent people, women, children, old men, goyims, kikes, live a wasting life of a bed-ridden and tube-connected ICU patient in Hospice...he is not deserved to die so quickly until he tastes how bad and miserable his life can be and he is a mortal as much as others he loves to kill.
This fat and ugly Jew has never thought about others as if Yahweh in the Old Testament did not care about other ethnic groups except "Chosen" Jews, a religious-group privileging.
In the Tanakh (the Jewish Bible), group-privileging is inherent, creating instantly insiders (Jews) and outsiders (Goyims) (Deut.23:3 and Ezra 10:3-44).
I, Pepe, again love to see Lord, in our time, is fair and just to keep Grandpa Arik from reaching Him so quickly until this fatso repents what he did to others.
God bless Arik as God bless America
I, Pepe, would like to join hands in the prayer service for Ariel Sharon... I pray God for his recovery from the stroke and he continues to live a life of permanent coma, peeing and poohing in his pants.
Imagine a Jewish warrior general who murdered so many innocent people, women, children, old men, goyims, kikes, live a wasting life of a bed-ridden and tube-connected ICU patient in Hospice...he is not deserved to die so quickly until he tastes how bad and miserable his life can be and he is a mortal as much as others he loves to kill.
This fat and ugly Jew has never thought about others as if Yahweh in the Old Testament did not care about other ethnic groups except "Chosen" Jews, a religious-group privileging.
In the Tanakh (the Jewish Bible), group-privileging is inherent, creating instantly insiders (Jews) and outsiders (Goyims) (Deut.23:3 and Ezra 10:3-44).
I, Pepe, again love to see Lord, in our time, is fair and just to keep Grandpa Arik from reaching Him so quickly until this fatso repents what he did to others.
God bless Arik as God bless America
"A Man of Peace" is dying
Sharon Meets His Maker
By GILAD ATZMON
"Laura and I share the concerns of the Israeli people about Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's health, and we are praying for his recovery. Prime Minister Sharon is a man of courage and peace"George W Bush (US President and man of courage and peace)
"He has surprised, I think, everyone with the courage and statesmanship he has shown in recent years to work towards a long term peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians." Jack Straw (UK Foreign Affairs Minister and man of courage and statesmanship)
A man of peace is dying.
Let us all pray for his quick recovery.
A man that was just about to rejuvenate the Israeli political world, redeem for us all the Zionist state and its racist agenda.
The great man is gravely ill.
Oh dear Lord, save our messiah,
oh dear Lord may you now be able to create a donkey so upright that it can carry his load.
A peaceful man is on his way to meet his Creator.
The Lord may ask him, just as he enters the gate of heaven,
"Hey Grandpa Arik, why are your hands so red?"
Sometimes the Dear Lord pretends to be ignorant, he loves to give his chosen followers a chance to repent.
Somehow, they tend to forget to do so while they are still amongst the living.
But Grandpa Arik is not that silly, the Dear Lord isn't going to fool him that easily.
"What red, what blood? This is me painting your land in my favourite colour, I thought you'd like it".
Grandpa Arik winks to the Lord.
The Lord is left cold, unaffected.
For more than a while, he seems to have been perplexed by the conduct his chosen followers.
Meanwhile, down on earth, the Israelites are praying for a new saviour, a new man of peace, a merciless general with a long-term agenda.
A term that is so long that no one can ever see where it leads.
The Israelites do not like to see a light in the end of the tunnel because it means that they live in a tunnel.
No, it isn't easy to find a replacement for Grandpa.
Indeed, as far as filling his shoes goes, the task seems slightly easier, but as far as the waistcoat is concerned, the mission is almost impossible.
The whole of the Israelites can fit in.
The whole of the Hebraic nation wants to wrap itself up in Grandpa Arik's flak jacket.
It is warm in the winter and it provides shadow in the summer.
Somehow, it worked for him for many years.
Nothing really touched him, nothing really stacked against the man; not the Qibya massacre, not Sabra and Shatila, not the death toll of thousands of Palestinian and Israeli civilians that took place under his direct command.
Not even the bizarre death of his first wife and his son.Grandpa has managed to get away with everything.
On Earth.Grandpa was the last and the best of his kind.
He was a devoted Jewish Nationalist.
For him peace wasn't an end but rather a tactic.
Arik was the last Hebraic warrior, he was the very last Israelite knight.
All his followers are merely professional soldiers.
They can kill if needed but they do not prefer to bathe in blood.
They are spoiled.
Thank you peace loving old man for teaching us what the Israelites are all about.
Thank you peace loving old man for taking leave of us.
Thank you especially for teaching us what Israelis love to love.
It is a slight shame it took you so long but considering your talent to resurrect yourself from the dead, I would just say that it is never too late.
By GILAD ATZMON
"Laura and I share the concerns of the Israeli people about Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's health, and we are praying for his recovery. Prime Minister Sharon is a man of courage and peace"George W Bush (US President and man of courage and peace)
"He has surprised, I think, everyone with the courage and statesmanship he has shown in recent years to work towards a long term peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians." Jack Straw (UK Foreign Affairs Minister and man of courage and statesmanship)
A man of peace is dying.
Let us all pray for his quick recovery.
A man that was just about to rejuvenate the Israeli political world, redeem for us all the Zionist state and its racist agenda.
The great man is gravely ill.
Oh dear Lord, save our messiah,
oh dear Lord may you now be able to create a donkey so upright that it can carry his load.
A peaceful man is on his way to meet his Creator.
The Lord may ask him, just as he enters the gate of heaven,
"Hey Grandpa Arik, why are your hands so red?"
Sometimes the Dear Lord pretends to be ignorant, he loves to give his chosen followers a chance to repent.
Somehow, they tend to forget to do so while they are still amongst the living.
But Grandpa Arik is not that silly, the Dear Lord isn't going to fool him that easily.
"What red, what blood? This is me painting your land in my favourite colour, I thought you'd like it".
Grandpa Arik winks to the Lord.
The Lord is left cold, unaffected.
For more than a while, he seems to have been perplexed by the conduct his chosen followers.
Meanwhile, down on earth, the Israelites are praying for a new saviour, a new man of peace, a merciless general with a long-term agenda.
A term that is so long that no one can ever see where it leads.
The Israelites do not like to see a light in the end of the tunnel because it means that they live in a tunnel.
No, it isn't easy to find a replacement for Grandpa.
Indeed, as far as filling his shoes goes, the task seems slightly easier, but as far as the waistcoat is concerned, the mission is almost impossible.
The whole of the Israelites can fit in.
The whole of the Hebraic nation wants to wrap itself up in Grandpa Arik's flak jacket.
It is warm in the winter and it provides shadow in the summer.
Somehow, it worked for him for many years.
Nothing really touched him, nothing really stacked against the man; not the Qibya massacre, not Sabra and Shatila, not the death toll of thousands of Palestinian and Israeli civilians that took place under his direct command.
Not even the bizarre death of his first wife and his son.Grandpa has managed to get away with everything.
On Earth.Grandpa was the last and the best of his kind.
He was a devoted Jewish Nationalist.
For him peace wasn't an end but rather a tactic.
Arik was the last Hebraic warrior, he was the very last Israelite knight.
All his followers are merely professional soldiers.
They can kill if needed but they do not prefer to bathe in blood.
They are spoiled.
Thank you peace loving old man for teaching us what the Israelites are all about.
Thank you peace loving old man for taking leave of us.
Thank you especially for teaching us what Israelis love to love.
It is a slight shame it took you so long but considering your talent to resurrect yourself from the dead, I would just say that it is never too late.
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