Foreign teachers tour sites of Japan`s atrocities

A group of Canadian and a pair of Australian educators invited by an NGO based out of Toronto visited Korea Tuesday as their final stop on the "Peace and Reconciliation Tour for Educators 2009."

Hoping to build further awareness of atrocities committed by imperial Japan during World War II, the volunteer organization Toronto ALPHA (Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia) invited a group of educators and volunteers on a study tour that began on July 2 and will go on until the 18th.

The tour has thus far taken the group to Shanghai, Nanjing, Harbin and Beijing over a two-week period and this is the second year that Seoul has been included on the itinerary.

A major portion of the Seoul program has been sponsored by the Northeast Asia History Foundation for the first time.

The tour has focused on four major topics: The Nanking Massacre, Military Sexual Slavery, Forced Labor and Biochemical Warfare (Unit 731).



Initiated in 2004, the organization hopes to inform Canadian educators of war crimes perpetrated by the Japanese military during its World War II campaign in China and other parts of Asia from 1931-1945.

On Tuesday, the 35-member strong delegation were given a tour of the on-site museum at the residence of former "comfort women" by a volunteer Japanese national and curator before they were guided to meet the eight survivors in the Gwangju city of Gyeonggi Province.

The group briefly met with the WWII victims at The House of Sharing, a residence privately funded by Korean nationals that was built to provide a home and "place of healing" for survivors to live out their days in peace and solidarity.

The invited educators arrived at the site under a heavy downpour they had to brave as they trekked through muddy waters in open-toed sandals and loafers. But most didn`t seem to mind, captivated as they were by the harrowing stories told by the "halmeoni`s" - as they are referred to - and the clinical analysis from the museum`s curator in explaining the role comfort stations played during war.

During the meeting, the halmeonis introduced themselves one by one while sitting together at a dining table.

Lee Ok-soo, a former comfort woman who was abducted off the street by a Japanese soldier at age 16 relayed her tragic story first to the invited group. Before she began telling her story, she apologized for her accent which had a tinge of a Chinese cadence.

"My family never knew what had happened to me. I was sent to the comfort stations in China where I witnessed unimaginable abuse toward young girls like me getting raped, shot and physically beaten to death by Japanese soldiers," she said.

"When I came back to Korea, I had lost all of my family. My parents had passed away, I didn`t have a nationality and because I didn`t go to school, I didn`t know how to read or write - I didn`t have anywhere to go."

Lee said she was sent to China in 1942, where she remained for 58-years before finally making her way back to Korea in 2000.

"The Japanese government continues to ignore and refuse to take responsibility for their past war crimes," she said, pleading with her audience from the West to "let the world know and continue spreading the word to your students of the horrible crimes the Japanese committed during the war."

"They are waiting for all of us to die so history will be erased, so it is up to people like you to educate the young."

The other halmeonis had similar stories all recounting their experience as victims of imperial Japan`s brutality during their WWII campaign.

But while educating western youths of such events could have educational value, teaching youths in Asian countries that were subjugated by the Japanese during WWII may sow hatred, especially at impressionable ages.

In 2005, a subway station in Incheon received media attention for exhibiting art work by middle school students protesting the Japanese government`s ownership claims to the long disputed Dokdo Islets. The art works showed violent, blood-soaked drawings of the Japanese being shot, stabbed, and defecated on while portraying its citizens as monkeys.

Flora Chong, the vice-chair of the Toronto ALPHA does not think education of Japanese war crimes to Asian youths will fuel the flames of animosity.

"Hatred will be nurtured through misunderstanding and misinterpretation and the Japanese government`s continuing refusal to officially acknowledge their war crimes," she said.

"I`ve spoken with Japanese youths on a number of occasions and the general impression they have of the Chinese and Koreans is that they don`t like them and they don`t know why they`re hated. If they understand the past, if they know the history they will be able to understand why the Chinese and Koreans are angry with the Japanese.

"They will become crusaders who will safeguard peace and will not vote a government which will advocate militarism like the current right-wing government of Japan."

One of the invited educators, David Armani, a math and English teacher at a primary school in Mississauga, Ontario believes education is essential to prevent a repeat of the mistakes of the past.

But he also feels there needs to be a third party involved mediating between Japan and the rest of Asia on the issue of WWII.

"I think it`s vital that a third party gets involved in order to have the most objective view. The Japanese government clearly thinks everyone`s against them so they`re naturally in a defensive mode," he said.

"So I think a third party should moderate between the two sides to ensure there is no bias, but most importantly as a way to leave out the animosity felt by the countries that were invaded by the Japanese during the war and approach the issue with calm and rationale and I think that`s impossible without bringing in an outsider`s perspective."

The group`s Korean tour ended Wednesday with the participants accompanying the survivors to a protest rally in front of the Japanese embassy in downtown central Seoul. The protest has taken place every Wednesday since 1992 with no response from the Japanese government.

A screening of a documentary at the Joongang Cinema in Seoul which chronicles the life of the late Iris Chang - who wrote the bestselling 1997 non-fiction book "The Rape of Nanking" - rounded out the group`s visit.

(kws@heraldm.com)



By Song Woong-ki