Time Magazine, July 27, 1942
NEWS FROM OCCUPIED ASIA
In one way, Korea is the Austria of Asia: it was the first country overrun and exploited by the Asiatic aggressor. In other ways the parallel fails. The Japs are far more afraid of Korea than the Nazis are of Austria. To the Japanese, the Koreans are "inscrutable," as the Japanese themselves are to westerners. Ever since Japan took Korea in 1904, its Korean policy has wavered between uneasy placating and frantic terrorism. Grapevine news reaching the Korean National Front Federation in the U.S. last week showed quite clearly that Japan, however busy it might be elsewhere, could not turn its back on inscrutable Korea for a moment.
On Quelpart Island [present-day Cheju-do], off the Korean peninsula's southern tip, the Japs had an air base. In March—-according to last week's reports—-Korean workers suddenly attacked the base, set fire to four underground hangars, destroyed two big fuel tanks and 69 airplanes, killed 142 of the Jap crew and wounded or scorched another 200. Trembling with rage and fright, the surviving Japanese butchered every Korean on the island, some 400 in all.
This was not an isolated incident. It followed reports of other Korean uprisings—power plants dynamited, warehouses, mills, bridges, ammunition supplies, fishing boats and tankers destroyed or damaged, police stations overwhelmed, Japanese houses burned. The rumble of some of these doings reached the Chinese mainland. The Japs explained that it was just a big earthquake. Seismologists in the U.S. found nothing to confirm the claim.
My family are from Jeju, they weren't massacred... I suppose real reporting goes by the wayside when you are winning hearts and minds.
ReplyDeleteSperwer wrote:
ReplyDeleteGot any hard evidence for these claims of massive armed resistance.
Of course not. It's just stuff I randomly fished out of the archives.
This Time magazine stuff is patently mere wartime feel-good propaganda, as evidenced by the claim that "surviving Japanese butchered every Korean on the island, some 400 in all". 400 People lived on Jeju-do in the '40s? I think not.
That thought occurred to me, as well, but I think there may be possible alternative explanations that can reasonably address the 400 discrepancy.
It's possible, for example, that the 400 "on the island" is actually 400 in a part of the island or on some nearby island (e.g., Marado). That's nothing but an example, but recent examples have backed it up.
Kimsoft, which is never the most reliable source, reports that, "The Japanese later killed all of the 400 Koreans who survived the fighting." Again, this would be an error in reporting, perhaps caused by mistranslation or an error in retelling.
That this kind of thing happens from time to time is nothing new. Over at Marmot's (?) there recently was a discussion on a news report that mixed up "million" and "billion."
I was a teenager when Gorbachev was head of the USSR. When Gorbachev visited then ROK president Roh Taewoo, UPI reported that they were meeting "on the Korean island of Keishonando." I was trying to figure out where that was, since others were reporting that they were meeting at Chejudo. Well, I quickly realized that "Keishonando" is Japanese for Kyŏngsang-namdo, which is a province, not an island, and not even the right province/island.
But does this rather glaring mistake from careless reporting or a mistranslation mean that Gorbachev and Roh did NOT in fact meet? Of course not. It simply means one of the details was wrong. And I think it's perfectly plausible, especially given Kimsoft's take on the same incident, that that's something we might have here.
Time seems to have been regurgitating Korean National Front Federation wishful thinking for the purpose of sustaining US home front morale at a very difficult time in the Pacific War.
That's possible, but the Japanese themselves apparently acknowledged something had happened but was something else that couldn't be verified, which lends credibility to some sort of explosive attack(s) occurring.
To be honest, you may be right, but I don't think it can be dismissed so easily as being nothing.
The Allies were still reeling from an unbroken string of Japanese victories in the Pacific. Although the Allied side finally had engaged in something other than a full scale rout of their side, it still was not yet appreciated how much damage had been done and how significant Midway, which had just taken place in early June, was. The Allies had not taken any significant offensive moves yet. Guadalcanal was still a month off.
But printing something that was blatantly untrue? That seems a bit much. Even if it were exaggerated, it would seem that there was some kernel of truth to it.
If this alleged resistance was so significant, how come it doesn't even warrant a mention in any of the standard Korean histories written by Koreans?
I wouldn't say that it goes unmentioned. Kimsoft had something on it. And Korean textbooks are full of claims that Korean resistance did continue throughout the occupation period.
The substantial remains of the Jap airbase on Jeju BTW are still there to be seen, mostly low conrete hangars and other fortifications.
Whereabouts are they? I'd like to go check that out.
Anyway, I did want to mention that even if this stuff is 100% false propaganda generated by the Korea Provisional Government in Shanghai, if the ROK government in 1965 believed that these types of incidents did occur, that would partially justify a belief by negotiators that Korea deserved recognition as being on the victors' side. I guess.
sperwer wrote:
ReplyDeleteI figured you were headed in the direction of Korea's wish to be included among the victors in WWII, so I thought I'd nip it in the bud.
Well, to be honest, I only made that connection after I printed this archive piece. I'm sort of divided on whether Korea had any right or business to have "victor status" included in a treaty or something.
My interest in the archives is that they provide some insight to a time long ago, when things were very different in Korea.
Whether the event is true or completely fabricated or somewhere in the middle, I find it interesting nonetheless. My selection of this one was completely random (i.e., I did a word search and randomly picked the first one I saw). You can see that there really is no connecting thread or anything: an extremist missionary, a rosy picture by the governor-general, rumors of espionage.
Time's founder Henry Luce was born in China, and maintained a vivid, if politically partisan, interest in Asian affairs. His wife, Clare Boothe Luce, counted May-Ling Soong, aka Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, among her friends. My gut feeling is that the origins of this report lie with the KPG, relayed through ROC reporting channels to Time. When it came to Chinese reporting, Luce was equally partisan to Chiang Kai-shek's version of events, and thus was more of a propagandist than a source of unbiased information.
ReplyDeleteStrangely enough, other materials on Kimsoft's site portray the historical relationship between Cheju-do islanders and the Japanese as warm and friendly. That's part of his problem. He never tries to collate any of his information.
As a footnote, all "K" designated airfields in Korea were originally built by the Japanese.
lirelou wrote:
ReplyDeleteTime's founder Henry Luce was born in China, and maintained a vivid, if politically partisan, interest in Asian affairs.
Didn't his son or grandson pass away recently?
His wife, Clare Boothe Luce, counted May-Ling Soong, aka Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, among her friends. My gut feeling is that the origins of this report lie with the KPG, relayed through ROC reporting channels to Time.
I think everyone here is assuming that if it came from the Korean Provisional Government that it has no validity. Are you suggesting there is no truth at all in this report? Asking, not preaching.
When it came to Chinese reporting, Luce was equally partisan to Chiang Kai-shek's version of events, and thus was more of a propagandist than a source of unbiased information.
Maybe, but these are the Koreans, not the Chinese, and there may have been less desire to lie on the behalf of someone other than the Chinese. Just speculating.
Strangely enough, other materials on Kimsoft's site portray the historical relationship between Cheju-do islanders and the Japanese as warm and friendly. That's part of his problem. He never tries to collate any of his information.
I always got the feeling he just lays it out there. Some of it certainly has an agenda, but a lot of it is stuff he just puts out, letting the reader figure what he wants. If there was an agenda, touchy-feely stuff between the Japanese and any Koreans would be verboten.
I know the blogosphere wants to depict all of Korea as undulating in hateful unison against all Japanese people, but there are a lot of things out there showing otherwise. Former President Kim Youngsam made a big deal out of inviting the Japanese family of his "favorite teacher" from back then to Korea and the Blue House. The press reported this without any criticism or anything. Very matter-of-fact. There are lots of little things like that that don't get the blog play of a Tokto-frenzied postcard display or a finger chopping.
As a footnote, all "K" designated airfields in Korea were originally built by the Japanese.
I did not know that. Nor do I know what that means.