Koreas to make historic train cross of Cold War line

From Reuters: Two passenger trains–one heading north and one heading south–will cross the last frontier of the Cold War later today. It will make the first time North and South Korea have been linked by rail in 56 years.

While the ‘train exchange’ is mostly symbolic (the trains are going only about 15 miles in either direction and will return the same day) it’s another sign that relations between the two Koreas are warming somewhat.

Beyond dreams of reunification, South Korea has a practical reason for attempting to re-establish rail links with the North. Seoul wants to establish direct freight service with China and Russia which would mean lower shipping costs for South Korean exports. (h/t HNN)

May 16th, 2007

Comfort Women update, AP: "Did the Japanese set up sex stations for U.S. troops, too?"

Following up on yesterday’s post about the Japanese Supreme Court hearing two cases involving forced labor and forced prostitution. In a ruling early yesterday, the court overturned a lower court ruling awarding five laborers compensation for forced labor on Japanese construction sites. Late Friday afternoon, the court denied two Chinese women compensation despite their claims of being kidnapped and coerced to work as prostitutes by the Japanese army.*

The court acknowledged that both the women and the workers had been forced by Japanese military and industry but that neither could sue for monetary damages, claiming that Chinese citizens forfeited their rights to compensation in a 1972 joint statement between China and Japan in which “Beijing renounced war reparations from Japan, a decision supporting the government’s position that postwar agreements cleared Japan of responsibility for future individual claims.”

The landmark ruling effectively puts the kibosh on a host of similar lawsuits brought against Japan’s government and some of its leading companies by Koreans, Chinese and others forced into prostitution or slave labor. The Chinese foreign ministry–quite rightly–denounced the verdict, describing the rulings as “’illegal and invalid’ and calling the court’s interpretation of the 1972 statement as ‘arbitrary.’”

Estimates of the number

April 28th, 2007

History and Memory: Japan, China, and "Comfort Women"

What a horrible euphemism: “comfort women.” Just needed to be said.

A recent article by Howard French in the IHT’s Letter from China series begins: Imagine a world where Germany denied the Holocaust, the United States denied the slaughter of Native Americans and Europe denied organizing its immensely profitable and centuries-long trans-Atlantic trade in African slaves.

Why would they bother? Presumably because they thought cleaning up these dark blots on their past would boost their self-esteem, enhance patriotism and raise their stock in the world.

Close your eyes, spin on your toes three times and reopen them to behold a world where precisely this sort of thing goes on: today’s East Asia.

There are many sore points in the relationship between China and Japan, but none so raw as World War II or, as it is known in China, the “War to Resist Japan.” This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Rape of Nanking and already more than a half-dozen movies are in the works with Woody Harrelson, and Oliver Stone, and the estate of Iris Chang among many others getting involved in different projects. When violence, sex, and nationalism come together it makes an explosive cocktail. Such

March 8th, 2007

Another front opens in the China-Korea history wars

Korean textbook writers have fired the latest salvo in the ongoing history wars between the ROK and the PRC. The textbooks have been revised to describe the Korean Bronze Age as starting 1000 years earlier than previous claims. The new textbooks date the beginning of the Bronze Age to about 2000 B.C.E. Further revisions state that “the Gojoseon Kingdom, believed to be the first in Korea’s history, was firmly established by Dangun in 2333 B.C.” Some believe the changes to be a direct response to claims made by China’s Northeastern Project that called the Goguryeo (Koguryo) Kingdom (37-668 AD), “a part of Chinese history.” These claims were also at one time posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s web site. I don’t see a truce coming any time soon.

February 25th, 2007

Morning Tea: 5000 years?…The greening of Yunnan…How the theme from ‘Shaft’ got involved in the DPRK talks

1.) Richard at The Peking Duck sticks his head in the dragon’s maw and asks: “How many years does Chinese civilization go back, and what criteria are applied to come up with the famous claim of ’5,000 years’?” Well, the comments came fast and furious and are well worth checking out. Sam, from The Useless Tree, posted his own, very thoughtful response, to Richard’s question.

2.) The Shanghaiist reports on a fellow named Du in Yunnan who, tired of looking at a dusty brown mountain and after being told by a feng shui master that the current condition of the mountain was hurting Mr. Du’s business, decided to paint the mountain green. If this isn’t a metaphor for China’s current environmental policies then I don’t know what else could be.

3. ) Finally (and it would really help if you were going “boom-chicka-wa-chicka-boom” in your head here):

Who’s that sexy negotiator with the crazy boyish grin?Hill!Who can take China and make them put the squeeze on old Kim Jong-il?Hill!Who’s the man with the nuclear smile who can take Bush’s policy back to President Bill’s?Hill!

Yes that’s right, AP reports (hat tip: FP Passport) that Christopher Hill has been quite the

February 14th, 2007
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