Japan annexed unlawfulness Korea in 1910 so Korea had been colonialized
by Japan for 36years until 1945
About Us
Is
Dokdo a Japanese island?
Sunmyung
“Harry”
Lee
Editor-in-Chief,
US News
A legend has it
that once upon a time the Emperor of the Seventh Heaven had dropped
down to the planet Earth three Pandora Boxes of lies to make fun of
the people tired of killing time and bored of insipidity after
having been kicked out of Eden. Of the three boxes, one was picked
up by the Geishas of the Red Garden, another by the Wheeler-Dealers
in the world of politics and the third by the Traders of merchandise
in the Marketplace.
Thus when a
competition to lie takes place, it would be neck and neck among
these three holders of the Pandora Box. This is a dry sarcasm that
has deep connotations, which one cannot just laugh at and pass over.
In reality, "I love you" by a Geisha or "I'll do this for our people
and our country" and "This special price for you is less than its
cost" -- remarks often made by politicians and merchants are mostly
lies to their core.
Japan's continued
attempts at whitewashing, distorting and falsifying the atrocities
committed by Imperial Japan during World War II and her claim on
Dokdo Island, the two lone isles popped up in the middle of the East
Seas led me to wonder if Konishi Yukinaga, a Japanese general
who slipped into Korea as a spy to size up our situation before the
Japanese Invasion in 1592, might have stolen one of 'the bags of
lies' while hiding at Geisha houses.
Not all lies are
malicious. Some of the sarcasms beneficial to psychological
catharsis belong to this. An innocent boy, who was listening to his
dad boast, "Our dog wears a gold necklace" to his friends,
volunteered to clarify, "you know my Mom returned the other night
through the hole in our hedge wall which our dog uses as his gate,
after enjoying a date with a neighbor uncle and had her necklace
caught by a branch. Without her knowledge it ended up on the neck of
our dog that followed her steps." One of the popular Korean jokes,
this is a white lie, which prompts us to chuckle.
There are
good-natured exaggerations of a higher level that strike a
sympathetic chord. Mohammed, the proponent of Islam, was born in
Mecca and spent his young years very poor. He got an inspiration on
one of his trips to Syria in a peddler caravan and made his mind to
render salvation to his people by the strength of a religion. At the
time, each tribe of Arabic’s had its own unique religion, which kept
it at war with the others. Mohammed, declaring himself a prophet of
the singular god Allah, called on all the Arabic people to unite
under his banner.
According to a legend, he had
a pigeon trained to stand on his shoulder and pick barleys inserted
in his ear. Then he showed this ear-picking pigeon before a crowd
and claimed: "This pigeon is a messenger of the Allah. Look, it
delivers me a providential commission."
The 'mountain
story' of his is the essence of his third dimensional sophistry. The
Arabian people, skeptical of his preposterous claims at the initial
stage, demanded that he show proof that he is a prophet of Allah.
But Mohammed retorted that the demand was an unacceptably arrogant
request trying to test the Almighty God.
He rather warned that it would invite Allah's anger. But faced with
a persistent call from the people, Mohammed ordered Mount Shafer to
move forward to him. Of course, the mountain didn't budge an inch.
"God is great,"
he yelled. "If the mountain had moved as I ordered, all of us should
have been crushed to death. I will now go to the Shafer and praise
the grace of the Allah." Then he shook his leg and hastened his
paces towards the mountain.
These kinds of
white lies give wings to man's boundless world of imagination and
play the role of refreshment and sweet rains of romance, wit and
sarcasm to the dry land of our heart. The laughing stock of Japan's
malicious act of laying claim to the Dokdo, however, is a palpable
lie distorting our history and the truth. Japan watchers are well
aware that Japanese right-wing ‘cracker-barrel’ historians in
succession have repeatedly proved to be expert in falsifying history
in favor of Japan, of course, to show up their chauvinistic
patriotism.
In early November 2000,
for example, Japan was agog with news that a scholar ‘found’ stone
tools and other relics in the Kamitakamori site replete with
historical remains in Japan dated as old as 600,000 to 700,000
years. Some ultra-nationalistic scholars wanted to lengthen the
history of Japan to date back 700,000 years and claimed that Japan
hosted an ancient civilization as significant as Egypt's.
A new history textbook
prepared by this group even published an absurd theory that an
ancient civilization continued for more than 10,000 years in Japan,
before the dawn of the major four ancient civilizations on the
earth.
No wonder. Barely-clad
Samurai ruled the islands of Japan up until they sat down on their
knees and bowed their heads deep down at the appearance of the Black
Ship from America under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry in as
late as 1854.