[KS] Re: Collaboration

[Henny Savenije]

Dear list, 

I fully agree with Jim, here in Holland, tons of books have being written
about
collaboration during WWII, shortly after the war (and actually even 20 - 30
years later) all about the heroic deeds the Dutch resistance has done. All of
them covering up the misdeeds being done by the collaborators, the cowardice
attitude of most people, even those of the same resistance. After and during
the occupation a lot of "communist" opponents were either deported (after
being
reported to the Germans by the resistance, even though a lot of communists
were
in the resistance as well), or conveniently killed during and even shortly
after the war. Our Queen fled to England, while the Danish King stayed in
Denmark, he was even the first one to wear a Jewish star when it was made
obligatory for the Jewish people. A lot of local "good" people cooperated with
the deportation of the Jews. 

Also here a lot of people who wanted to unveil the facts after the war, were
being brandished as leftists or liars. It took at least 30 years before little
by little the real facts (and not even all of them) were being acknowledged.
Unfortunately most of those books are written in Dutch so it will be hard for
the community to compare them with the Korean situation, which can be
compared.
Maybe this is something for one of those new brilliant scholars in Korean
scientists studying at the Leyden University, since a comparative study will
take at least a couple of years.


Sincerely 

Henny Savenije (Lee Hae Kang)
>
>Perhaps it would help sometimes to look elsewhere, so that the Korean
>experience of colonialism and the dilemmas it caused for those living
>under it, fall into some sort of perspective. Are Korean experiences
>more intense than those of say, the Poles under the Russians from the
>late 18th century to 1917, or Indians under the British empire, or
>indeed, the Irish and their relationship with the British?  There is a
>huge literature on 'collaboration' in wartime Europe, for example, which
>might just provide some understanding of the issues.
>
>I write as one who tries to be a historian - detached and objective as
>far as possible - works for the British government, but whose parents
>were Irish, and at least two of whose grandparents, sometimes at least,
>worked for the British government in Ireland - as did an awful lot of
>the population  - one reason I would never dream of working on the
>history of Irealand, for I think that I am too close to it to be
>suitably detached.
>
>Jim Hoare.
>
>More study and less emotion seems required.
>

-----------------------------
Henny  (Lee Hae Kang)

Feel free to visit 
http://www.henny-savenije.demon.nl/index2.htm 
and feel the thrill of Hamel discovering Korea (1653-1666)


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%