The blood myth

Gov’t to seize land owned by 9 collaborators during apanese colonial erayohan

via “Internet centrist” on Sparkling Korea
I was not interested in it because it was just Korean internal affair. I think it violates the most fundamental principle of law, but Korean supreme court hasn't judged it yet, so I have made no comment on that.
But there are some interesting comments on it at Marmot holes.

2 hoju_saram
Posted May 3, 2007 at 9:30 pm | Permalink

It’s a pretty standard Korean philosophical bent - to continue to assign blame to the blood descendants of past criminals (and I use that last word loosely). Anyone with a passing interest on North Korea will see immediate parallels with what goes on there. People with a “bad history”, ie, capitalist parents or grandparents or those with relatives who fled to the south during the Korean War, were purged from NK when Kim Jong Il got into power - either killed, or sent to the remote northern provinces. There have been quite a few North Koreans who fled because they found themselves bereft of opportunity for a decent job owing to some distant relative who had pro-japan sympathies.

Very sad that the mindset is alive and well here in democratic S.K. I wonder if the “vicars” in charge of this whole thing would have turned their back on a better life for their families in colonial times in the name of nationalism. I doubt it.

Probably the blood myth is alive among some rightists in Japan only in relation to the emperor's family.

3 ZZOOzzoo
Posted May 3, 2007 at 9:34 pm | Permalink

I find it scary that no one in Korea will dare speak out against the whole land confiscation thing simply because being labeled ‘pro-Japan’ is possibly the worst stigma imaginable for Koreans.

That is most important, the point is whether Korea is self-corrective or not.

If this is not about Japan-hate, why not go after those people who aquired their wealth by standing on the backs of ordinary Koreans in the pre-colonial period, ie the Yangban class? Much of their wealth must have survived and trickled down throughout the last century and a half.

Or wait, I have a better idea. Why not simply go after the corrupt elite who are acquiring wealth at the expense of their fellow Koreans today? Why is it that the crimes of the 재벌, the crooked politicians, teachers and journalists get ignored and the children of long-dead collaborators get attacked?

I’ll tell you why: because this isn’t about justice, it’s about jingoism, contived for political ends.hoju_saram

This is 100 % correct analysis of what they are doing.