Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2002 20:11:25 -0500 From: the_dojang-request@martialartsresource.net Subject: The_Dojang digest, Vol 9 #330 - 5 msgs X-Mailer: Mailman v2.0.8 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Sender: the_dojang-admin@martialartsresource.net Errors-To: the_dojang-admin@martialartsresource.net X-BeenThere: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.8 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net X-Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net List-Help: List-Post: X-Subscribed-Address: kma@martialartsresource.com List-Subscribe: List-Id: The Internet's premier discussion forum on Korean Martial Arts. List-Unsubscribe: Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: Send The_Dojang mailing list submissions to the_dojang@martialartsresource.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/the_dojang or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to the_dojang-request@martialartsresource.net You can reach the person managing the list at the_dojang-admin@martialartsresource.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of The_Dojang digest..." <<------------------ The_Dojang mailing list ------------------>> Serving the Internet since June 1994. Copyright 1994-2002: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The Internet's premier discussion forum devoted to Korean Martial Arts. See the Korean Martial Arts (KMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of The_Dojang at http://MartialArtsResource.com Pil Seung! Today's Topics: 1. Let Freedom Ring! (Mary Braud) 2. Legacies of the Comfort Women (Ray Terry) 3. Foreigners and Foreign Culture in Korea (Ray Terry) 4. Canadian 4th of July (Teressa) 5. Hapkido books (michael tomlinson) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 16:46:39 -0500 From: Mary Braud To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Organization: Federal Express Subject: [The_Dojang] Let Freedom Ring! Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Here's a story I'm passing along in honor of July 4th. Let no one take for granted the personal freedoms we enjoy, or forget those who uphold them for us. Happy 4th of July!! One Nation, Under God... Mary Braud This is a letter from a woman in Orange County, CA (Ann Baker) who had an extraordinary encounter that made her realize what makes America special. It was printed on June 30, 2002 in The Orange Register. A Young Marine restores my faith It was our normal Thursday morning business meeting at our real-estate office. No big deal. Before the meeting we hung around the bagel table, as usual, with our coffee. He stood aside, looking a little shy and awkward and very young, a new face in a room full of extroverted salespeople. An average looking guy, maybe 5 feet 8 inches. A clean-cut, sweet-faced kid. I went over to chat with him. Maybe he was a new salesman? He said he was just back from Kabul, Afghanistan. A Marine. Our office (and a local school) had been supportive by sending letters to him and other troops, which he had posted on the American Embassy door in Kabul. He stood guard there for four months and was shot at daily. He had come to our office to thank us for our support, for all the letters during those scary times. I couldn't believe my ears. He wanted to thank us? We should be thanking him. But how? How can I ever show him my appreciation? At the end of the sales meeting, he stepped quietly forward, no incredible hulk. As a matter of fact, he looked for all the world 15 years old to me. (The older I get, the younger they look.) This young Marine, this clean faced boy, had no qualms stepping up to the plate and dodging bullets so that I might enjoy the freedom to live my peaceful life in the land of the free. No matter the risk. Suddenly the most stressful concerns of my life seemed as nothing, my complacency flew right out the window with his every word. Somewhere, somehow, he had taken the words honor, courage and commitment into his very soul and laid his life on the line daily for me and us. A man of principle. He wants to do it. Relishes it. And he came to thank us? For a few letters? I fought back the tears as he spoke so briefly and softly. He walked forward to our manager and placed a properly folded American flag in his hands. It had flown over the Embassy. He said thanks again. You could hear a pin drop. As I looked around I saw red faces everywhere fighting back the tears. In a heartbeat, my disillusionment with young people today quickly vanished. In ordinary homes, in ordinary towns, kids like him are growing up proud to be an American and willing to die for it. Wow. We'll frame the flag and put it in the lobby. He only came to my office once, for just a few minutes. But I realize I rubbed shoulders with greatness in the flesh and in the twinkling of an eye my life is forever changed. His name is Michael Mendez, a corporal in the USMC. We are a great nation. We know because the makings of it walked into my office that day. Ann Baker Huntington Beach [demime 0.98e removed an attachment of type text/x-vcard which had a name of mbraud.vcf] --__--__-- Message: 2 From: Ray Terry To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net (The_Dojang) Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2002 16:53:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [The_Dojang] Legacies of the Comfort Women Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net _Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II_, ed. by Margaret Stetz and Bonnie B. C. Oh. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, Inc. 2001. 230 pages. ISBN: 0-7656-0543-0. Reviewed by Thomas Clark Tufts University of Leeds _Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II_, a book of essays, was inspired by an international conference on "Comfort Women" held at Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. in 1996. The collection is a must read for scholars, activists, and Asianists interested not only in historical detail, but also in understanding the persisting, unresolved issues of World War II that cloud Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors and many of its former Allied enemies. The essence of the book is conveyed in the title, which emphasizes the 'legacies' of the comfort women, rather than their 'stories', some of which can be found in the existing literature by many of the authors of individual chapters. The book reflects the activist tone of the conference and the positive results that such activism has played in the international arena in the past decade. Since the end of World War II and the subsequent War Crimes Trials of the late 1940s, many of the war crimes of the Imperial Japanese army have been suppressed, for personal as well as political reasons, by both victims and victimizers. The essays in this book both explain and help the reader understand the reasons for such suppression. Each essay, from a differing perspective, presents an argument for the need for justice for the comfort women. Collectively, the essays compel the conclusion that restitution, in the form of monetary reparations, formal state apology, and official recognition by Japan of its responsibility for the systematic exploitation of women as sex slaves, is thoroughly justified and long overdue. The essays examine the institution of prostitution and attitudes toward sex generally prevalent in Japan and Asia but also provide evidence that such institutions and attitudes have not been exclusively Asian. However, Japanese apologists, and those Japanese in complete denial that these institutions constitute'war crimes' claim, and thus excuse, them as part of the culture of the East. The honest scholarship of the authors and their even-handed presentation of the facts, perhaps ironically, exposes the basis for such misguided interpretations; more importantly, though, the collective work of the book clearly articulates and condemns the Japanese government's outrageous denial of responsibility and its obstinate refusal to tackle the issue forthrightly. The book is divided into three sections: "Historical and Cultural Contexts,""Academic and Activist Responses," and "Artistic Responses." In "The Japanese Imperial System and the Korean'Comfort Women' of World War II", Bonnie B. C. Oh, describes the historical basis of the Imperial system and develops the issue of the Korean comfort women to its present-day status. " 'Comfort Women' and the Cultural Tradition of Prostitution in Japanese Erotic Art," by Linda Gertner Zatlin is a fascinating essay about the history of the art and culture of the "floating world" (Ukiyo-e). According to Zatlin, "the formalized system of prostitution, as much as the erotic visual art to which it gave birth, can be viewed as significant elements of the Japanese cultural preparation for its exportation of the brothel system and the conscription of 'comfort women' " (36). " 'Comfort Women' in the Dutch East Indies" by Yuki Tanaka describes sexual violence against women in what is now Indonesia. Importantly, Tanaka examines the exploitation of the existing prostitutes by Japanese troops, a fact that has helped to reinforce ultra-right-wing Japanese denials of 'war crimes', while revealing the Dutch military authorities' indifference to Indonesian "comfort women" during the post-war investigations into war crimes. Chunghee Sarah Soh's "Prostitutes Versus Sex Slaves: The Politics of Representing the 'Comfort Women'," illuminates the tensions resulting from contrasting perspectives--humanitarians versus nationalists who are committed to the notion that the women were just 'prostitutes'. She concludes that "[t]he resolution of the redress movement appears to hinge much on the definition of 'comfort women' as either prostitutes or sex slaves, because of the importance of its symbolism for Japan's national identity and for the social meaning of the sufferings endured by the survivors." (84) Margaret Stetz's "Wartime Sexual Violence Against Women: A Feminist Response," is the first essay in the section on academic and activist responses. The author argues strongly for the use of the term "legacy" in the title of this volume in noting, for example, that "[m]ost recently, feminist pressure world wide has resulted in a changed legal concept of rape as a war crime - a development that, for the first time ever, holds out hope for the prosecution and punishment by international tribunals of those who commit sexual violence, or order it to occur" (92). Stetz credits feminists in particular with placing the comfort women issue on the global stage: "Through feminist efforts, the stories of women raped during war are being broadcast globally, and are becoming the stuff of international legal action and of historical narratives, forcing the rewriting of war to highlight crimes based on gender." (95) In "' Such an Unthinkable Thing': Asian American Transnational Feminism and the 'Comfort Women' of World War II Conference," Pamela Thoma both describes the conference structure and focuses on its role in ensuring "that those attending...would have a certain amount of shared information and be familiar with the discourse of Asian American transnational feminist coalition politics." (120) Thoma has an occasional tendency to lapse into jargon, which can make her piece difficult reading at times. Specialized terminology used in the essay, however, is defined in the extensive endnotes. "Urgent Matters: Redress for the Surviving 'Comfort Women'" by Dongwoo Lee Hahm, draws attention to the rapidly decreasing number of living comfort women, and therefore the urgency for action. Grant K. Goodman, who served with the Allied Translation and Interpreter Section (ATIS) at MacArthur's headquarters in the Philippines contributes "My Own Gaiatsu: A Document from 1945 Provides Proof." In this piece he describes how publicity about Chuo University's Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki's finding of documents in the Defense Agency archives that demonstrated the Japanese military's direct involvement in the organization and utilization of brothels led him to recall his own translation work on captured documents in 1945. Professor Goodman discovered he still had a copy of his own Research Report No. 120, and turned it over to Miura Junji of Kyodo News Agency's Washington bureau, who used the report as the basis of many articles in the Japanese press in the early 1990s. The final piece, John Y. Lee's "Placing Japanese War Criminals on the U.S. Justice Department's 'Watch List' of 3 December 1996: the Legal and Political Background" focuses on "[t]he various legal determinations arising from the 'International Commission of Jurists Mission Report on 'Comfort Women' and the 'UN Special Rapporteur's Report on Violence against Women' " (166). Lee shows how these determinations have provided the Justice Department with solid legal support for the Watch List," which specifically excludes "those Japanese who aided in the operation and sexual slavery system from entering the United States." Chapters 10 thru 14, which treat "artistic responses," offer an interesting culmination to the book and further explain the choice of the term "legacy" in the volume's title. Dai Sil Kim-Gibson's account of her making of a documentary film about the Korean comfort women, which was shown on PBS, and Christine Choy's account of filming "In the Name of the Emperor" each reveal much about the present conditions of the Korean comfort women, as well as national attitudes about resurrecting the past. Choy, for example, was denied access to film in Nanjing by the government of the PRC, and was prohibited from doing research or interviewing Chinese citizens who were actual witnesses to, or were victims of, the Nanjing incident in 1937. The government feared instigating "bad relations" with Japan at a time when they were encouraging Japanese business investment. As a result, Choy interviewed former Japanese soldiers, now old men living in Japan, who had participated in the "Rape of Nanking" and other atrocities in China. The editors introduce the Japanese artist Tomiyama Taeko, a 'living treasure of Japan' and describe a collection of her works entitled "A Memory of the Sea," that uses three illustrations to connect the 'legacy' theme of the book to her work. Jill Medvedow describes an abstract exhibit of Mona Higuchi's dedicated to the comfort women and displayed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in which a bamboo frame with glittering golden squares was suspended in cages. Finally, "To Give a Voice" is Therese Park's description of the events and research that inspired her to write A Gift from the Emperor (Spinsters' Ink, 1997), a novel about a fictional Korean girl's travails as a war time sex slave. The legacy of the comfort women of World War II is currently much in evidence as international legal action against gender-based war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda proceeds. Their struggle for justice, as delineated in this volume, encourages hope of a better outlook for women in the historical narratives of future wars yet to be written. Citation: Tufts, Thomas Clark 2002 Review of _Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II_, ed. by Margaret Stetz and Bonnie B. C. Oh (2001) Korean Studies Review_ 2002, no. 8 Electronic file: http://www.koreaweb.ws/ks/ksr/ksr02-08.htm --__--__-- Message: 3 From: Ray Terry To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net (The_Dojang) Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2002 16:55:15 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [The_Dojang] Foreigners and Foreign Culture in Korea Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net _Bug_ Vol.5: Foreigners and Foreign Culture in Korea_,ed. by J. Scott Burgeson. Seoul: The Nalari Press. 2001. 178 pages. ISBN: 566-61-2419. 5000 won. Reviewed by Bernhard Seliger Hanguk University of Foreign Studies It is always difficult to do justice in a review to a variety of articles written by several authors. However, _Bug_ is somewhat different in that a driving force behind it aims at making it an magazine with a coherent view of 'cultural criticism'. _Bug_ 5 is the fifth issue of an alternative magazine that is in essence a one-man enterprise, created and edited by Scott Burgeson, an outlet for his thoughts and an expression of his idea of cultural criticism. The student-of-English-literature-turned-reporter-turned-magazine-editor, making his home in a y=99gwan in Seoul, developed a keen interest in less well-explored facts about Korea, as this recent volume, also translated into Korean as _Palch'ikhan hangukhak_ ("Nasty Korean Studies"), shows. In _Bug_, together with a few co-authors, he attempts to give a non-conformist, 'underground' view of a wide field of cultural topics. Like all previous issues, _Bug_ 5 has a main theme, and this time it is "foreigners and foreign culture in Korea." Innumerable articles have been written on foreigners in Korea; nonetheless, _Bug_ 5 manages to contribute a fresh perspective. Writers on this topic generally concentrate on cultural clashes between foreigners and Koreans (and this aspect is also present, beginning with a hilarious glossary of essential Korean terms for beginners like 'ajumma' and 'ajosshi'), but here the focus is rather on foreign communities in Korea and their culture, not only that brought from home, but that developed within Korea. Four case studies treat examples of foreign culture in Korea--Texas Street in Pusan, Itaewon, the Filipino community in Taehangno and Inchon's Chinatown; several mini-interviews in each provide insight into foreigners' lives within the country. However, a number of other items are included as well: a lengthy interview with longtime resident Ken Kaliher, including some of his early photos of Korea, give the reader a glimpse at the transformation of Korean society in the last 30 years. Another piece draws a portrait of U.S. Kim, a well-known custom tailor, and through him conveys typical features of foreigners' life in Seoul. A rather conventional assessment of major fast-food chains uses the time-honored approach of high school magazines and rates each on such items as music, food and how 'green' (environmentally friendly) it is. Accompanied by a long, pointless dialogue about the advantages and disadvantages of each chain, this piece leaves the reader disappointed. On the other hand, a witty review on books on Korea written by foreigners is highly interesting. Equally interesting is a story about North Korean film festivals and an interview with German-born filmmaker Oliver Griem, living in South Korea, both of which inevitably lead to a comparison of two film cultures worlds apart. Other items include bits of a novel, manhwa style comics, reports on cultural events, etc. The quality of the pieces certainly varies widely, and - as so often - beauty is in the eye of the beholder, thus many articles might be appreciated in widely differing ways by different readers. My favorite was the aforementioned review of books on Korea, the one I liked least a satire entitled 'The Most Famous Foreigner Who Ever Came to Korea" that ridicules Christianity in the country. The relationship between the frequent use of profanity in some articles and the perspective of cultural criticism is not clear to me, but I am sure there must be an explanation. Except for this gratuitous use of obscenities and a sometimes heavy dose of amour propre from the editor, _Bug_ 5 is well worth purchasing and makes for entertaining reading with its refreshing and iconoclastic take on Korean Studies. As Burgeson advises, 'keep on Bugging'. Citation: Seliger, Bernhard 2002 Review of _Bug_ Vol.5: Foreigners and Foreign Culture in Korea_, ed. by J. Scott Burgeson (2001) Korean Studies Review_ 2002, no. 9 Electronic file: http://www.koreaweb.ws/ks/ksr/ksr02-09.htm --__--__-- Message: 4 Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2002 16:41:08 -0700 (PDT) From: Teressa To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Subject: [The_Dojang] Canadian 4th of July Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Michael, We Canadians have our own special holiday, Canada Day. We celebrate it July 1st, with fireworks and general celebration. Thousands gather, especially in Ottawa, our National Capital. Lots of music and dancing to be had. Especially ethnic dancing celebrating all our cultures. Buskers have a great day. We do eat beavertails. My favorite is cinnamon and sugar with lemon juice squirted on top. Of course, its only a puffed pastry in the shape of a beavertail... I celebrated on the UN compound near Itaewon in Seoul, along with about 1500 other Canadians and guests. Canadian beer imported for the occasion fuelled the events. Lots of red was worn. Hockey sticks were employed. We know all about July 4th, can't help it, cause its on TV. But we've already partied hard! Happy July 4th, Miguk (American) brothers. Teressa Sign up for SBC Yahoo! Dial - First Month Free http://sbc.yahoo.com --__--__-- Message: 5 From: "michael tomlinson" To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 23:59:17 +0000 Subject: [The_Dojang] Hapkido books Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Bruce writes: But I still hold that I (and maybe Micheal) would like to see a book on Hapkido biomechanics written by a traditional Hapkido practitioner speaking to such things as what I have come to identify as the "Four Deportments" (Misalignment, Un-balancing, Un-timing and Refinement), appropriate use of muscle vs leverage, angles of attack and defense, biomechanic relationships between armed and un-armed techniques and so forth. >> I would like to see one like this also done by someone that keeps in the maiming and bone breaking versions of the angles,, I don't mean to sound like a violent maniac, but I have seen way too many homogenized Aikido, Judo, and Hapkido books with luke warm takedowns and joint locking throws.. the layout in the book "Aikido and the dynamic sphere", does have some good teaching illustrations though,, easy to assimilate into the 3-dimensional world after viewing it. I also think the old Michael Ecanis weapon disarming books are very good too. Michael Tomlinson _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com --__--__-- _______________________________________________ The_Dojang mailing list The_Dojang@martialartsresource.net http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/the_dojang http://the-dojang.net It's a great day for Taekwondo! Support the USTU by joining today. US Taekwondo Union, 1 Olympic Plaza, Ste 104C, Colorado Spgs, CO 80909 719-866-4632 FAX 719-866-4642 ustutkd1@aol.com http://www.ustu.org Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2002: Ray Terry and http://MartialArtsResource.com Standard disclaimers apply. Remember 9-11! End of The_Dojang Digest