Here is the latest South Korean movie that is expected to rekindle anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea:
The shape of Hashima Island resembles a warship from a distance as shown in this photo taken by South Korean photographer Lee Jae-gab in July 2008. The photo was provided by Lee. (Yonhap)
When Choi Jang-seop left for Japan more than seven decades ago, the 16-year-old did not know that the journey would change his life.
He was one of hundreds of Koreans who were conscripted into forced labor on Japan’s Hashima Island as part of the country’s mobilization of Koreans during World War II. Korea was under Japan’s colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.
Choi — wearing only underwear — toiled eight hours in a hot, cramped undersea coal mine with the constant fear of death. Other survivors said they worked for 12 hours at a time as three eight-hour shifts gave way to two 12-hour shifts with the rising demand for coal during the war.
What’s worse is that forced laborers, mostly in their teens and 20s, were given food that was mostly remnants of beans after the vegetable oil had been extracted, a situation that led to malnutrition and starvation among some forced laborers.
“I was hungry all the time and life was miserable beyond description,” Choi recalled of his days on the island between 1943 and 1945 in a recent interview with Yonhap News Agency at his small apartment in Daejeon, some 160 kilometers south of Seoul. [Yonhap]
You can read much more at the link, by the way has anyone seen the movie yet?
This expected purchase of an Aegis Ashore system seems to make sense considering it can provide a persistent missile defense capability for Japan without having to rotate in and out their current Aegis BMD ships:
Japan is planning to deploy a new U.S.-developed ground-based missile defense system.
The Defense Ministry is to provisionally request that the fiscal 2018 budget cover planning costs for installing the Aegis Ashore system, according to a ministry official. “We are being urged to enhance our capabilities to continually protect the entirety of Japan from the threat of a missile attack,” the official said. (……)
Japan’s Defense Ministry has studied whether to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system or the Aegis Ashore shield. But it has not planned for Aegis Ashore installations. The system is not included in the current National Defense Program Guidelines or mentioned in mid-term defense planning documents. The official said Aegis Ashore plans will be finalized by the end of the year. [Asian Review]
A weekly rally is under way in front of the Japanese Embassy, which is being renovated, in downtown Seoul on May 17, 2017, to demand Japan apologize for the sexual slavery of Korean women by the Japanese military during World War II. (Yonhap)
I bet the leadership in USFJ when they heard about this accident probably thought to themselves, at least this accident did not happen on Okinawa:
A Yokota civilian was under the influence of alcohol before the car he was driving crashed into another vehicle, injuring its occupant, Japanese officials said Monday.
A man in his 20s was taken to the hospital after the accident, which happened around 6 p.m. on May 7, a North Kanto Defense Bureau spokesman said. The man sustained minor injuries to his neck, he said. [Stars & Stripes]
Just imagine if a stereotype of a minority was said by a passenger to explain some strange episode like the one in the story below. The Internet outrage would be instantaneous with everyone claiming racism. When it comes to negatively stereotyping US military servicemembers few seem to care:
A fight aboard an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight from Narita, Japan to Los Angeles went viral this week after an agitated passenger began throwing punches at another man shortly before takeoff. At the time, it was believed the man was intoxicated. Now, the passenger on the receiving end of the altercation is speaking out. According to Ryan Humphreys, the aggressor may have been suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Humphreys, an ex-Marine, told TMZ by video Wednesday that man, shown in video clips wearing a red patterned shirt, was talking loudly to other passengers before standing up and becoming agitated. Humphreys said he was watching the man before the altercation occurred, but maintained that he hadn’t done anything to initiate the incident.
“I didn’t say anything to the guy and he was like, ‘What are you looking at? I will kill you,’” Humphreys told TMZ. Humphreys said he asked the man if he was okay, to which the man responded by asking him if Humphreys was in Vegas. “It had something to do with Vegas, I don’t know,” Humphreys said.
Humphreys said the man then began assaulting a couple on the plane, allegedly attempting to choke a man and smothering his partner, a woman, in the process.
“He’s either active military or a veteran. When his shirt got ripped up I could [see] all his ink,” he said. “I would guess [he either had] PTSD or maybe off his meds. He didn’t strike me as being drunk.” [Yahoo News]
You can read more at the link, but there could be multiple reasons to explain what happened but to just claim the guy is a veteran and must have PTSD just further promotes a poor stereotype about veterans that is not true. Even more troubling is that the PTSD claim is being thrown around in the media now despite the airline saying this guy was drunk.
