Korea Times<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe\n‘crimes’ of BTS and the hidden issues behind reparations\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n November 24, 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emanuel Pastreich<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The November tour of Japan planned for\nrising Korean boy band BTS displayed the potential to become a massive\ncommercial and economic success that would go beyond even Psy’s “Gangnam\nStyle” in Japan, and around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The popularity of BTS with young Japanese\nalso had the potential to move relations between the two countries beyond the\nobsession with history issues and to create a new cultural circulation between\nordinary citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After all, BTS had been featured on the\ncover of Time Magazine’s international edition on October 11 with the\nprovocative headline “How BTS Is Taking Over the World.” That widely\nread article included a moving video relating how BTS emphasized ethical\nissues, as seen in their talk at the United Nations in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Band member Kim Nam-joon talked at the\nU.N. about the alienation felt by young people, suggesting they could move\nforward if they loved themselves and embraced a positive attitude toward the\nworld. This reference to the song and video by BTS “Love Yourself”\nsuggested a way out of the passivity and alienation that overshadows youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Time Magazine article also included\na comparison with The Beatles, noting BTS was the first Korean band to sell out\na whole stadium in the United States and that they did not need to redo all\ntheir songs in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BTS had managed to weave together a deep\nsympathy for the plight of young people in an increasingly ruthless and\nuncaring economic system together with the dance moves and tear-jerking lyrics\nthat young people can relate to. Others had made such arguments to youth. But\ntheir messages were lost on youth who are accustomed to responding to YouTube\nperformances, not lectures and sermons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Suddenly, on November 8, TV Asahi\nannounced that the live performance of BTS on its popular program “Music\nStation” the following day had been cancelled. The Japanese media was\nfilled with reports of other cancelations and for a few days it appeared as if\nJapan had been swept by an anti-Korean wave that endangered the entire tour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The newspapers in Japan and Korea were\nfull of superficial reports that described cultural and diplomatic\n“spats” between the peoples of the two countries. The actions of TV\nAsahi, a for-profit media corporation that obviously took a big financial risk\nby canceling the broadcast the day before, suggest that something bigger was\ngoing on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before looking at the mainstream\nexplanation for the cancelations, let us consider the critical events that\nproceeded TV Asahi’s decision and their implications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First and foremost, TV Asahi’s decision\nsuddenly to cancel the performance was a violation of contract law. A formal\ncontract for the performance had been signed. But TV Asahi felt free to renege\non it, even though BTS honored its side. The only excuse given was that one\nmember of the band had worn a T-shirt a year ago that was judged by TV Asahi to\nbe offensive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Such actions by a corporation are\negregious, but they have much in common with the blatant violations of the rule\nof law we are witnessing in Trumpian America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The position of TV Asahi that it could\ndecide on its own that BTS’s actions were offensive and that it could violate a\nlegal contract with impunity is best understood in the context of the new\ninterpretation of economic sanctions advanced by the Trump administration as a\nmeans to advance the interests of corporations through economic warfare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The campaigns against Iran, Russia,\nTurkey and North Korea under Trump have made such economic sanctions into a\nweapon for sale to multinational corporations to pursue their own interests.\nThis use of economic sanctions makes a complete mockery of not only\ninternational law and contract law, but also of the World Trade Organization\n(WTO) and trade agreements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the case of North Korea and Iran,\n“economic sanctions” have nothing to do with stopping the spread of\nnuclear weapons through international agreements (the Trump administration\nshows deep contempt for non-proliferation treaties) or about ending human\nrights violations (something that the Trump administration encourages at home\nand abroad). Rather, economic sanctions serve two critical purposes. They\nincrease pressure on the country targeted so that in negotiations that country\nwill be forced to accept a raw deal to avoid the pain created by economic\nsanctions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Economic sanctions also give certain\ncorporations with close ties to the government to have the right to engage in\nthe secret negotiations about economic relations with the country that is\nsubject to sanctions, while NGOs, experts and smaller businesses are completely\nblocked out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Abe administration finds the\nabandonment of international law, and of diplomacy, by the Trump administration\nintriguing. Economic sanctions could be a new tool for Japan to use to get what\nit wants without going through pesky processes like the WTO, which require transparency\nand accountability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The cancellation of the BTS appearance\ncan be interpreted as a trial balloon for a new kind of mini-economic sanctions\nthat could be applied even against economic rivals like South Korea that are\nnot branded as threats by the United States. The Abe administration was trying\nout this suspension of due process to see if it could create an environment in\nwhich powerful political figures dictate economic or trade relations without\nany means of appeal. Perhaps this action was a trial balloon for a new approach\nto economics better suited to the super-rich who are frustrated by the\nregulations made by bureaucrats and other little people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what was it that prompted the Abe\nadministration to pursue this strategy against South Korea, and specifically\nBTS? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is not hard to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The South Korean Supreme Court issued a\nruling on Oct. 30 ordering Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation to pay\n100 million won ($88,000) to four Koreans who were forcibly made to work under\nhazardous conditions in its factories during the Second World War. Several\nother similar cases are pending that could result in even larger demands for\nreparations. If the flood gates are opened, thousands of Koreans may seek\nbillions of dollars in compensation from Japanese corporations over the months\nand years ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This ruling is the first concrete award\nof damages since the Supreme Court recognized in 2012 the rights of victims to\nfile for compensation against Japanese companies during wartime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The granting of such compensation may\nnot seem that remarkable. After all, the crimes of the Japanese government\nduring the Pacific War have been extensively documented. But this ruling\nrepresents a historic shift in how the suffering of Koreans before 1945 is\ntreated and a breakdown of the consensus that has been in place for the past 60\nyears that limited how the issue could be discussed and addressed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Japanese government claims that all\nreparations from Japan to South Korea have been paid in full, in accord with\nthe 1965 normalization treaty (Treaty on Basic Relations). That treaty, signed\nby Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and South Korean President Park\nChong-hee, stipulated that $300 million in economic aid, $500 million in\nfavorable loans and some technology transfer from Japan would settle all claims\nof Koreans against the Japanese government, against Japanese corporations and\nagainst Japanese individuals, forever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The recent ruling is a major risk to the\nconservatives around Abe, particularly those who have large holdings of stock\nin conglomerates. They worry that the future debate on compensation will cease\nto be presented as the fuzzy resentment of the Japanese people by the Koreans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Such vague ideas of Korean emotions\nabout Japan have aided corporations by keeping public attention focused on\nintangible bad feelings between the peoples that can never be resolved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But this ruling is not vague at all, and\nit is not anti-Japanese. It focuses on the specific actions of two\ncorporations, corporations that have deep pockets and which were liable by\ninternational standards for damages. The discussion is no longer about Korean\npride now, but rather about corporate liability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The risks of this ruling for wealthy\nstockholders in Japan are immense. It is not an issue that matters so much for\nordinary Japanese. But powerful forces want the man in the street in Japan to\nthink that somehow the ruling is an affront to all Japanese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Aso Taro, finance minister in the Abe\ncabinet and arch-conservative, is outspoken on the issue of reparations. Aso\ncomes from a family that made a fortune from mining in Manchuria that was\nundertaken by Koreans (and other peoples) \u2015 many forced laborers \u2015 none of them\nprovided with appropriate safety equipment in the dangerous mines. Aso Taro’s\nfather, Aso Takakichi, was the owner of the Aso Cement Company that profited\nfrom the exploitation of forced labor and low-wage labor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Aso and his friends have been counting\non the basic treaty of 1965 to block all demands for compensation. The Japanese\ngovernment, and Japanese corporations that influence it, have consistently\nresponded to demands for compensation by stating that all compensation issues for\nthe government and for corporations alike were settled by the treaty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The treaty also dictates that no\ncompensation for damages from before the 1911 annexation will be allowed\neither, blocking the way for claims concerning the manner by which Japanese corporations\nillegally seized land and resources in Korea at the end of the Joseon Dynasty\nand illegally (by Joseon Dynasty law) set up banks and railroads, and bribed\nKorean government officials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course all that was a very long time\nago. But let us not kid ourselves here. There are plenty of precedents for\nsuccessful lawsuits for compensation for wrongs from 100 years ago. What has\naltered is the consensus held over the past 60 years that these topics are off\nlimits for demands. I personally think that the irrational assumption that the\n1965 treaty ended all possibilities for claims against Japanese companies for\ndamages during the Second World War derives from a series of post-war\nU.S.-Japan-Korea agreements that remain classified to this date. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But there is more to the story. Although\nthe media presents the court ruling as one favorable to Koreans and unfavorable\nto Japanese, such an interpretation is dishonest. First and foremost, Koreans,\nthat is to say the people who inhabited the region previously controlled by the\nJoseon Dynasty, were designated as citizens of the Japanese empire by the\nJapanese government. They were not legally Koreans during the period in\nquestion. Although the status of their citizenship was not the same as citizens\nof Japan in terms of their ability to advance in government and to own property\nand businesses (with some important exceptions), they were considered to be\nJapanese until the Japanese government unilaterally declared them to be Koreans\nin 1945 without any legal process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a sense, when the Japanese government\nstripped Koreans of their citizenship and refused to give them any pensions or\nmedical or legal aid, it was acting on behalf of Japanese corporations that\nwanted to cut their liabilities for their actions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But if the demands for compensation\nincrease, the process will quickly become an issue within Japan itself. After\nall, there are many Koreans living in Japan who were also stripped of their\ncitizenship in the Japanese Empire in 1945 and who have not had the right to\ndemand compensation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For that matter, the Japanese government\nhas blocked efforts of Japanese to seek compensation for damages from Japanese\ncorporations for their actions during the Pacific War. If Koreans start getting\ncompensation, there is a risk that Japanese also will start to make such\ndemands. The expert on colonial-era forced labor William Underwood told me that\nit has been impossible so far for Japanese nationals to sue Japanese companies\nfor conscription either because all Japanese were subject to national\nconscription from 1939. All that could change and that the myth that\nreparations are an emotional dispute between the Korean and Japanese peoples\nwill crumble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But why was the ruling on compensation\nmade at this particular moment? After all, the forced labor issue has not drawn\nmuch attention in the Korean mainstream media. The overwhelming focus in the\nKorean media has been on a handful of surviving “comfort women,”\nwomen forced to perform sexual services for the Japanese military during the\nSecond World War. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps there is something else going on\nbehind the scenes concerning reparations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We know from various leaks in the media\nthat the Japanese government and Japanese corporations are engaged in\nnegotiations with North Korea behind the scenes concerning the normalization of\nrelations and future economic relations. Most likely those negotiations concern\nfuture contracts for the building of infrastructure, the rights to mine and\nexploit minerals in North Korea and permission for Japanese corporations to\nbuild and run factories in North Korea. All of these fields of activity are\npotentially extremely profitable for Japanese corporations, if destructive for\nNorth Koreans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One topic that certainly came up in\nthose secret negotiations is reparations for the war-time sufferings of Koreans\nwho live in North Korea. The Japanese government never recognized the\ngovernment of the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea after the war, and it\nhas never paid any reparations similar to the deal that the Republic of Korea\nreceived in 1965. North Korean negotiators know history well and they\nunderstand how Japanese politics works. They are probably demanding top dollar\nfor compensation for sufferings and making it the condition for access to the\nNorth Korean economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Abe administration most likely wants\nto make an agreement with North Korea in secret that is similar to the 1965\ntreaty and that offers a lump sum to be paid to Kim Jong-un and others, along\nwith some technology transfer and some investment opportunities. Considering\nthat North Korea has consistently demanded reparations for damages caused by\ncolonialism, whereas South Korea accepted a less confrontational “economic\ncooperation” paradigm, North Korea may reach a far more comprehensive\nagreement for reparations with Japan that South Korea made in 1965 \u2015 even if\nthe details are kept secret. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If North Korea gets a better deal than\nSouth Korea on reparations, the entire can of worms that Japanese conservatives\nthought they had sealed away forever in 1965 could be opened up again. The\nnegotiations about reparations taking place Pyongyang may have forced Seoul to\nopen the way for individual claims against Japanese corporations, and that move\ncould lead to numerous demands from North Korea, South Korea, China, and even\nwithin Japan itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n T-shirts and hats with skulls<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now let us look at the sudden\ncancelation of BTS’s performance on TV Asahi and how that tale was related in\nthe media in South Korea and in Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The cancelation was presented as an\nexpression of Japanese anger against the cultural insensitivity of Koreans for\nJapanese suffering in the Second World War. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On October 26, the newspaper Tokyo\nSports condemned BTS member Jimin for an “anti-Japanese act” because\nhe was filmed in a YouTube documentary a year ago wearing a T-shirt on Korean\nIndependence Day that featured a photograph of a mushroom cloud in the upper\nright-hand corner. This shirt was assumed to be anti-Japanese and this\noffensive behavior by a Korean boy band was quickly picked up by Zaitokukai, an\nanti-Korean group that then wrote multiple posts about BTS and staged an\nanti-Korean demonstration dedicated to this T-shirt. A series of other popular\nentertainment figures subsequently made comments about the T-shirt in question.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was then that Asahi suddenly\ncancelled BTS’s performance on its show “Music Station.” NHK and Fuji\nTV also stated that they would cancel broadcasts of BTS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The T-shirt, worn on liberation day,\nfeatures the words “Patriotism, our history, liberation, Korea”\nrepeatedly and shows the atomic bomb to the right. Personally, I think it is\ninappropriate to link the image of the atomic bomb dropped by the United States\non Japan with the fight for liberation in Korea, but among T-shirts related to\nKorean liberation that I have seen, this one is relatively tame. I doubt anyone\nwould have found the shirt offensive unless they were told to see it as such. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps Jimin did not think all that\nseriously about what the mushroom cloud on the T-shirt signified. But the\ncriticisms in the Japanese media said nothing about the need to increase the\nunderstanding of history of young people \u2015 a problem that is at least as\nserious in Japan as it is in Korea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the T-shirt suggests that the\nactions of Japan in the Second World War were sufficiently evil as to warrant\nthe use of atomic weapons. Such an opinion is deeply problematic in my opinion,\nbut it is widespread in the older generation in South Korea and the United\nStates. But it is far from clear that the T-shirt had that significance for\nJimin. If we want to know what young Koreans think the significance of the use\nof nuclear weapons by the U.S. was, we should ask them directly. TV Asahi never\ndid so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other interpretations of the T-shirt are\nquite possible. Perhaps it was intended to be ambiguous. The T-shirt can be\ninterpreted as a condemnation of the Pacific War as a whole, or even as a\ntribute to the large number of Koreans who were also killed by the atomic bombs\ndropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima \u2015 many of whom were there because they were\nbrought as forced labor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The other offense of BTS that was raised\nin the Japanese and international press was the photograph of a one of its\nmembers posing with a military hat that features the skull insignia of the SS\nin one of a series of photographs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This photograph was also condemned in\nthe media almost immediately after the “controversy” about the atomic\nbomb. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action\nat the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles condemned BTS for “mocking\nthe past” and went on to say that: “It goes without saying that this\ngroup, which was invited to speak at the U.N., owes the people of Japan and the\nvictims of Nazism an apology.” Rabbi Cooper had nothing to say about the\npraise of finance minister Aso Taro for Hitler, or the popularity of Nazi\nimages in Japanese popular culture, or the broad reception of anti-Semitic\nwritings in Japan that go far beyond anything to be found in South Korea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is absolutely no evidence that BTS\nhas an anti-Semitic agenda. But the members were clearly, and offensively,\nignorant of the Holocaust and insensitive to the feelings of those who\nsuffered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Their actions were wrong and they\napologized. But such use of images of Nazi origin in Japan, or elsewhere, are\nextremely common. And many so-called conservatives in the United States and\nEurope have displayed a deep fascination with the Nazi movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I played cowboys and Indians as a little\nboy in the Mid West. One team played the Caucasian “cowboys” who\nchased the native American “Indians.” I did not know that I was\nindulging in a celebration of the genocide of the native Americans in the 19th\ncentury \u2015 although that interpretation is not inaccurate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The show must go on<\/p>\n\n\n\n BTS made an extensive apology for the\nvarious offenses and the tour went forward as planned. Although threats of\nviolence and online criticisms continued in Japan, including a bomb threat in\nNagoya, the BTS concert at Tokyo Dome brought in over 50,000 fans, and an\nanti-Korean demonstration of two people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n BTS is not made up of professors of\nhistory. I wish that there was not such a strong anti-intellectual trend in\ncontemporary society, but we cannot blame that on BTS. Nevertheless, the band’s\nsongs suggest a sophisticated sensitivity to the condition of youth that might\nstill help Koreans and Japanese to love themselves, and each other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Korea Times \u201cThe ‘crimes’ of BTS and the hidden issues behind reparations\u201d November 24, 2018 Emanuel Pastreich The November tour of Japan planned for rising Korean boy band BTS displayed the potential to become a massive commercial and economic success that would go beyond even Psy’s “Gangnam Style” in Japan, and around the world. The … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9296425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[651],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9296425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}