Eclipse Rising W. Coast Roadshow & Solidarity Tour

Zainichi Koreans in the United States!
An LA Zainichi Korean Community town hall meeting
A working collaboration between Zainichi Korean, Japanese American, and Korean American organizations in the United States
Please join us:
• Date: Saturday, November 21, 2009
• Time: 4:00 – 6:00pm
• Place: Little Tokyo Service Center’s Casa Heiwa
231 E. 3rd St. (between Los Angeles St. and San Pedro St.)
Los Angeles, CA

Presented by Eclipse Rising w/generous support of Little Tokyo Service Center

Eclipse Rising is a community organization of, by, and for Zainichi residents in the U.S., in and beyond the Bay Area, to recognize and celebrate the rich and unique history of Koreans in Japan, promote Zainichi community development, peace and reunification, and work for social justice for all minorities in Japan and around the world.

Background:
Eclipse Rising started in 2008 when some Bay Area residents of Zainichi Korean background decided it was time to finally start a community organization to reclaim Zainichi Korean history and elevate our voices as a key vehicle to shape our own destinies with dignity.

"Zainichi" literally translates to "resident of Japan." This term pertains to any so-called "foreign resident" in Japan, including Koreans who lived in Japan as a result of Japanese colonization of Korea between 1910 and 1945, and their descendents, who historically comprise the largest minority group of Japan. Although multiple generations of Koreans (4, 5 generations now) have been born and raised in Japan, basic rights (even access to public compulsory education) are/can be denied to Zainichi Koreans legally.

Our wish is that Korean and other ethnic minorities in Japan who still suffer many forms of discrimination to this day can live in harmony and craft a blueprint for a truly multicultural society.

Our organization was formed to recognize and build on the history and legacy of our ancestors, and to work toward social justice for all minorities in Japan. We also work to establish a stable and supportive community for Zainichi Koreans in the United States, an increasingly popular destination for Zainichi Koreans seeking a ‘home’ after generations of searching.

The name "Eclipse Rising" is meant to counter the imperialist Japanese flag with the "rising sun." The Eclipse, though through few occurrences, is able to cover the sun completely and change the perspective. We would like to view the eclipse as a symbol of Koreans in Japan rising up against oppression.

Find our group on Facebook & Connect with us today, or contact us to join our mailing list!

A Jainichi Scholar Scrutinizes the ‘Unresolved Past of Korea and Japan’

“A Contemporary History of Deadlocked Thought” by Yun Kon-cha, Translated by Park Jin-u et al., Changbi Publishers Inc., 625 pages, 27,000 won;

“Winter Forest” by Yun Kon-cha, Translated by Kim Eung-gyo, Hwanam Publishing Co., 134 pages, 6,300 won

“It seems it`s my duty to leave some meaningful marks by facing and struggling with an era that produced the so-called jainichi (Korean residents in Japan),” said Professor Yun Kon-cha of Kawakana University. Professor Yun is known as the author of “Trend of Modern Korean Thought” and “Modern Ideological Deadlocks in Korea and Japan.” He recently published two books in Seoul, “A Contemporary History of Deadlocked Thought” (Gyochak-doen sasang-eui hyeondae sa) and “Winter Forest” (Gyeoul sup). The former was originally published by Iwanami Shoten Publishers in Japan last year; the latter, simultaneously published in Korea and Japan, is Yun`s first poetry collection. For “Winter Forest,” Im Heon-yeong, a literary critic and professor, wrote an introduction under the heading “A Diasporean Intellectual`s Search for Self.” This can also be applied to “A Contemporary History of Deadlocked Thought.”

Yun`s search for self, though belated and seemingly sluggish, was dramatic and thoroughgoing. Through the vast research by Yun, who has studied enormous amounts of material, we may be able to experience an intellectual shock and an amazing extension of our views to encompass Japan and jainichi by moving our eyes to jainichi, from where his research began. This is directly linked to the problem of inaction in addressing the issue of “Japan`s imperial system and Joseon (Korea`s pre-modern state name)” and “the founding of a unified Korea,” which remains an unresolved question from the decolonization process between Korea and Japan.

The Japan that Yun talks about can be very different from the Japan we know. While in high school he was surprised to find his name written in Korean style in the roll book and “desperately pleaded that it be changed to the Japanese style.” He graduated from Kyoto University but could not find a job. “With nowhere else to go,” he enrolled for a graduate program at the University of Tokyo and earned a doctorate at the age of 38. It was about this time that he acknowledged he was jainichi. Thereafter he desperately clung to studying modern Japan, especially Japan after its defeat in World War II, and jainichi. These days he is more devoted to the study of Korean society. He met Hong Se-hwa, a pro-democracy activist known as “a taxi driver in Paris,” and his friends in Europe around the time of the democratization struggle of June 1987. Around that time his passport problems were solved so he began traveling to Korea frequently. Hence he began to see the world through Korea.

The original Japanese title of “A Contemporary History of Deadlocked Thought” may be translated into “Deadlocked Experience of Thought.” Therefore, it is not anyone else`s story but a chronicle of the author`s own experience of journeying back and forth between Japan, jainichi and Korea, each with a different ideological soil. The book grasps the paths trodden by Japan, Korea (South Korea) and Korean residents in Japan since the defeat/liberation of August 1945 to the present primarily “as the ideological experiences imprinted in history” by looking at them through the eyes of the Korean residents in Japan, who are the “products of Japan`s colonial rule over Korea, the living witnesses of history and the most acute embodiment of Japan`s brutal rule over other nations,” and “the historical existences manifesting the absurdity of modern Japan in the most miserable shape.”

The “thought” discussed by Yun refers to the “desperate and repeated question as to how to live.” And what is most important in his quest of thought is “pursuing the greatest absurdity and task of the era.” He thinks the three pillars constituting the identity of Japanese people are “worship of the West, the imperial ideology, and disdain of Asia.” The worship of the West and disdain of Asia are the two sides of a coin, which are rooted in discrimination and prejudice against the heterogeneous others. The imperial system, “forming the nucleus of Japanese nationalism asserting uniqueness and superiority and performing the oppressive and exclusive function internally and externally,” was the mechanism that made these thoughts possible. Under this mechanism Korea and the Korean people were imprinted in the minds of the Japanese with the gloomiest and the most negative images. In this regard, Japanese imperialism and Korean issues are mutually interrelated and form the core of modern Japanese thought.

Japan should have jettisoned its emperor system and established a republican democracy when it lost the war. However, the United States applied ambiguous terms in the surrender process and colluded with the Japanese ruling forces. The occupying power thus allowed Japan to maintain its monarchial system for its convenience in governing Japan as a bridgehead for its Cold War strategy in the Far East. It suppressed by force Korean residents and the Japanese Communist Party, who opposed the system most strongly, and revived the prewar elite forces including Nobusuke Kishi. Such a “reverse course” taken by postwar Japan exactly corresponded with a series of events that occurred in the southern half of the Korean peninsula under U.S. occupation, such as the annihilation of leftists, the civilian struggles in Daegu on October 1, 1946 and in Jeju Island on April 3, 1948, the bloody suppression of the uprising in Yeosu and Suncheon, and the taking of power by Rhee Syngman and pro-Japanese forces. A broad scope of cross-examination simultaneously delving into these crucial events in Japan and Korea is the biggest strength of this book. Perhaps it has an effect of triple vision expansion.

Korea`s biggest ideological challenge is building a unified country. This aborted task is closely linked to Japan`s original sin of colonial occupation leading to Korea`s territorial division and the U.S.-Japan alliance, which the postwar Japanese intellectuals thoroughly ignored. Shigeru Nanbara who led the “democratization” of postwar Japan and even Masao Maruyama who is known as “a leader and victor of postwar democracy” turned a blind eye to the problems of Korea and Koreans. Yoshimi Takeuchi, who was sympathetic to jainichi issues, talked only about Japan`s invasion of China and evaded the issues of Korea and Korean residents in Japan. Their self-centered “great power chauvinism” is apparent in taking issue with the so-called 15-year war from Japan`s invasion of Manchuria to its defeat but brushing aside its reckless assault upon Korea since the Sino-Japanese War. Yun points out that even Professor Haruki Wada whom he highly regards reveals his limitations by failing to criticize the emperor system straightforwardly.

From the Japanese intellectuals who simply define nation and nation state as “fallacy” and emphasize non-violence, tolerance, coexistence and reconciliation, Yun peeps at “an effort to free themselves from pressures of colonialism and nationalist issues” and also finds “the common illusion to shelve their responsibility as the wrongdoers.” Progressive intellectuals of the two countries once achieved a happy alliance during the democracy movement in Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. However, as reaffirmed afterwards through the history textbook controversies, comfort women issues, the rise of Korean “new rightists” and rapport by Japanese conservatives, “Japan basically has neither apologized nor compensated for its invasion and rule over Korea and the division of Korea, so the past history remains little liquidated.” Still worse, there seems to be little hope that this state of affairs will ever change in the future.

As for the argument by Park Yu-ha who has drawn applause from Japanese conservative intellectuals for her book “For Reconciliation,” Yun criticized it as “pseudo-rightist sentimentalism” showing no sympathy toward the national division of Korea and consequent sufferings. “Her logic is rough and shows a great deal of misunderstanding and distortion of historical facts,” he said.

Yun warned against hasty reconciliation, arguing that Park`s opinion welcomed by the Asahi Shimbun should probably be little different than the right-wing fascist Katsumi Sato`s view that “rejecting apologies should be the first step toward reconciliation.” The ultimate solution he suggests is that Korea should continue to demand Japan`s self-reflection and apology but without expecting its demand to be met. He says Korea should instead find the correct path to reunification and national prosperity on its own.

[ July 25, 2009 ]

今熱い！サンフランシスコ・ベイエリア発
Eclipse Rising 講演・レセプション

LA在住の在日コリアン求む！ （その他の方々も歓迎！）　
将来に働きかける次世代の‘草の根’の熱い声をお届けします!
　　　　

主催者：Eclipse Rising
　　　　支援団体：Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC)

日時：2009年11月21日(土) 午後4時〜6時

場所：Little Tokyo Service CenterのCASA HEIWA　　
231 E. 3rd St. (Los Angeles and San Pedro St.の間)

Los Angeles, CA 90013 (213) 473-3030

言語：日本語/English (通訳有)
連絡：eclipserising@gmail.com

Eclipse Rising はサンフランシスコ・ベイエリアを拠点とした在日コリアン団体でトランスナショナルな在日コミュニティの基盤を築き、在日特有の歴史性やアイデンティティの視点から、日本社会の公正そして朝鮮半島の平和的な統一を目指し2008年に発足。団体名のEclipse Risingは、日食が太陽を覆い隠す様に、抑圧の象徴である”Rising Sun”に対抗して立ち上がる在日コリアンをイメージして命名されました。Eclipse Risingは在日コリアン個人のリーダーシップを育み、在日の多様性を尊重し、 日本や米国、さらに世界のマイノリティーと連帯して差別と闘う活動を展開しています。

連絡先:
Email: eclipserising@gmail.com
Blog: www.eclipserising.blogspot.com
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