[KS] Official end of WWII in Asia

[Kwang On Yoo]

Dear Mr. Jim Thomas,

Thank you very much for the clarification.
That was the exact message I hoped to relay. As you pointed out Mr. Yoon's
act
had positively influenced Chinese at the time.

Regards,

Kwang-On Yoo

2010/9/6 Jim Thomas <jimpthomas at hotmail.com>

>  Dear Listserve members,
>
> If I may, and so that we do not digress further, the point of Mr. Kwang-On
> Yoon's original posting, was that
> A) "the narrator of the film footage of the Japanese surrender mentions
> that the Japanese Foreign Minister, Sigemitsu Mamoru (重光葵) was wounded by
> a Korean patriot and walks on an artificial leg,"
> B) I"n 1932, upon learning that the Japanese were going to have a ceremony
> in a Shanghai park to commemorate their recent victory over China in a
> Shanghai skirmish and to celebrate their Emperor's birthday, Mr. Kim Ku (김
> 구), the then President of the Korean Provincial Government (the government
> in exile) and Yoon Bong-Gil (윤 봉길) concocted a plan to eliminate Japaneseleadership in China,"
> C) "with money sent by Koreans in the U.S., Mr. Kim Ku ordered two bombs
> made by the Nationalist Chinese Ordinance Depot in Shanghai,"
> D) "On April 29th, 1932, during the ceremony in the Shanghai park, Yoon
> detonated one bomb on the troop review stage, killing General Sirokawa
> Yosinori (白川義則), who was the overall commander of Japanese forces in
> China. The bomb also wounded several other military commanders as well
> as Sigemitsu Mamoru, who was the then Japanese Ambassador to China at the
> time," and
> E) "the City of Shanghai sets aside one day to remember him [Yoon].
>
> All of these pieces are important, but the last is what interests me
> most. This is because, over the years, numerous Chinese colleagues
> have remarked positively on the bravery of Korean risistance fighters and
> their willingness to die for the cause (of independence, liberation,
> freedom, etc.), which make them and other Chinese envious of the Korean
> resistance movement and the nationalist cause. So even if Korea did not "win
> its independence" on its own, it did mount a resistance and does have a
> pantheon of heroes who did resist and have now been canonised in the ROK and
> the DPRK--in a way that perhaps early resistance (ie 1931-1945) Chinese
> figures have not been canonized. It seems that this sets Korea and China
> apart--at least among Koreans and Chinese. Likewise, the U.S. has its
> Revolutionary War heroes who "waged war for independence" (often in
> clandestined missions), while Canada does not. Martyred heroes are central
> to modern nationalism (just consider the Tillman Story).
>
> But however we might judge the moral justifications of those who
> resisted (be they suicide bombers or non-violent peaceniks), it seems
> that we can acknowledge certain historical facts and make certain
> assessments about them, independently from our (i.e. current)
> judgements about the "violent" tactics used or the scruples of the
> principals involved.
> jim
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> General Chiang Kai-sheck, the then Nationalist Chinese Premier stated,  "A
> young Korean patriot has accomplished something tens of thousand of Chinese
> soldiers could not do." Ever since, finally,  he and his government extended
> their full support to the Korean Provincial Government.
>
>  Mr. Yoon was later executed in Japan at the age of 24,
>
>
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