I planned to write about King Sejong, but changed my mind because of the happening related with Steve Yeun. Personally he seems to have more merits than demerits. Even though I'm outside of the US, the glass ceiling for people of colors appear to be clear. (It's a complicated issue.) How did I come to this conclusion? Thanks to Netflix's high quality films! As soon as Netflix started it's service in Korea, I joined it. Now whenever I have the urge to binge watch, the answer is Netflix. Even when the show is running on a Korean TV channel. Particularly I enjoy black comedies and documentaries, while my husband likes zombi movies and animations.
One of the reason I love Netflix is that I can hear the true voice of others. Not just imagining but reaching and getting to know what are others' issues in their community and life. Those are so delicate that as a foreigner I can never get close to it nor even realize its existence. Only the real dealers can sense and apprehend it. However as every country becomes more similar to one another than before, the curiosity about the world gets bigger, in order to find a clue and solve problems, which my community is confronting. As far as I am concerned, Steve Yeun has built a neat career despite being an Asian American male actor. I hadn't seen 'Walking Dead'(hope to see it some day), so I don't know how impressive his acting is. But through the Netflix documentary 'Ugly Delicious', I was able to know what influence Steve Yeun made. I appreciate his work ethics and so on.
Let me get back to the point, even for my appreciation for Steve Yeun's diligent and hard-working career, he made a big mistake which is not easy to get over, as it happened officially twice. Both are all related to the 'Japan Sun Rise Flag'. Steve Yeun wore a 'sun rise print underwear' while he was filming 'Walking Dead' season2 episode1. After the episode, Korean fans told him about the flag, and fans believed it was an accident out of ignorance. Unfortunately, when the movie 'Burning' by Director LEE CHANG DONG is scheduled to be released soon, on instagram Steve liked a photo of a boy , Joe Lynch's childhood, wearing a T-shirts with a Japan Sun Rise Flag print on it. Although he made apologies for twice, it is hard for Koreans to believe his authenticity.
Sadly this is not the first time that Korean Americans being ignorant of the Japan sunrise flag and having zero sense of justice about the fact. I'm not talking that Korean Americans should be perfect at another country's history which may even be difficult to its own people. I am just so sad that Japan does not admit her own fault and therefore many westerners have a misconception about the criminal flag. Meanwhile Germany made an sincere apology and everybody in the whole world at least knows it's not right to like the Nazi flag. As many do not know, I decided to write about it.
Japan Sunrise Flag was used during the Japanese colonial empire. Japan's invasion against the Korean peninsula was frequent throughout the history. The recent and last invasion was carried on from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, specifically during 1910~1945 Korea lost its sovereignty, as many historians say Japan learned from the Western imperialism and practiced it. One of the most ridiculous saying is that Japan contributed to the development of Korea, this is not true.
Firstly the Korean Empire(1897~1910)'s emperor Kojong set a electric tram in the middle of Seoul(4/5/1899) ,for the first time in Asia, many people enjoyed riding so much that it was said that if you enjoy it too much you will go bankrupt. Secondly Kojong carried out a policy which stimulates economy, leading to the increase in company's number of Korea Empire's economy by 40 times in 10 years. There are more evidences that Korea had been struggling to modernize on its own. In 1905 Japan extorted diplomatic rights(the Eulsa treaty) ,though, Kojong had not signed the treaty. After the Eulsa treaty, Japan blocked every possible way for Kojong to make the international community aware of Japan's unjust invasion. Thirdly as the Japanese colonial empire carried a Forced Moblization Act into effect in 1938, so far it is officially recorded that people whom were forcedly mobilizied are up to 480.693. These people were sent to Asia and Pacific regions only to serve the purpose of Japan imperialism. They were treated as slaves. The usage of these forced labor victims is divided into three, the first group were sent to the mine fields or munitions factories, the second group risked their lives in the battle, under the command of Japanese Colonial, the third group were comfort women sent to the battle, being exploited as sex slaves.
Since 2013 the Korean government has opened the record of Korean wartime forced labor victims to the public. You can check it out on this site. (http://theme.archives.go.kr/next/collection/viewJapaneseIntro.do)
Following image is the first page of this internet site. It's in Korean.
You can read the testimonies from the victims of the warfare forced labor, and also donate to the victims well being.
https://www.ilje.or.kr/
I hope this article becomes a step for a better world.
