Cancel Culture: The 100-Won Coin's Image is to be Redone

Before you add any further comments, I would like to remind that the tension between Korea and Japan is still bitter at best. Unless you are a Japanese or Korean or have someone in the family related, this is something that one can never comprehend or relate to.

The current Korean government is essentially anti Japanese and have continued to drum up negative behaviour. This is reflected in today's young generation. In fact a couple of years ago, Nippon steel assets in Korea were seized and set away as wartime compensation. That's nothing more than highway robbery.

What hope does a country have when the public thinks it's perfectly acceptable to seize assets from other foreign countries and blame it on issues from a couple of generations ago?

 

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It seems like European countries have done better at getting past WWII issues than East Asian countries. I know that’s a very broad generalization. We are very fortunate here in North America. I wonder what things would have been like politically if the US had occupied Canadian territory in an exploitative manner, or vice versa, within people’s living memory.

The point about property confiscation surprised me, particularly when involving descendants of supposed collaborators as opposed to the collaborators themselves. It doesn’t say much for their legal system.

 

The confiscation of property owned by a foreign company is a dark portent.

This is typical of governments that fashion themselves as ostensibly "revoluntionary," which the Moon government seems to want to do. However, this IS South Korea, so he'll have a LOT of opposition from the Right if he tried to go much further. But it's quite extreme, and I don't think even Syngman Rhee (anti-Japan liberation aristocrat 1st President) went as far as that.

This touches on the essential TRADITIONAL political division in South Korea, and may give some background to the "de-listing" of Jang Woo-seong's portrait of Admiral Yi and the change to the 100-Won design:

1) The Right: Supposedly "pro-business," but just as willing to tax the hell out them as the Left. They are basically corporatist (our tribe 'uber alles'). Usually virulently anti-communist and anti-North Korea. They wave U.S. flags and Korean flags at gatherings, but that doesn't necessarily mean "we love the USA" (although many are quite pro-USA), rather their flying the U.S. flag is more of a symbolic statement meaning: "We're the Right (and we're not god**mned communists)." They often believe in unification with North Korea, especially on South Korea's terms, either peacefully or through force of arms (although this last one is rather dated by now). They're not the same as the American Right, who "do not celebrate the poor;" rather the Korean Right are not against social programs for the disadvantaged ...and they're not even against huge government spending (big government), especially if it means corporate welfare, and especially if used as influence peddling. Usually it seems the Right have family backgrounds that include elders who, during the period of "Korea under Japanese Rule," were business people, officials, policeman, soldiers, some poor, some professional classes, professors at universities, and especially landowners. These elders very often spoke Japanese, and even quite well. These people often carried on these occupations decades after liberation (1945). They sometimes have family members who were massacred, imprisoned or subject to kangaroo courts by the communists in the Korean War (often a source of their grievance against the Left). Some elders were members of right-wing "thug" groupings. They were often the beneficiaries of the economic progress (or at least sing its praises) of the Korean presidents from the military in the 1960s to 1980s (Park Chunghee, Chun Do-hwan).

2) The Left: Supposedly they are the "left wing" of Korean politics, but don't have as their main emphasis supporting the poor, or the traditionally marginalized (women's rights, gay rights, minority rights). They are basically corporatist (our tribe 'uber alles'). Usually anti-American, or at least hold quite a bit of suspicion of the USA. They often believe in a peaceful unification with North Korea, and maybe even on the North's terms. Often associated with student activism at the universities in the 1980s to 2000s. Some Left-wing politicians believe in running tight government budgets, but are not against against huge government spending (big government), especially if it means corporate welfare, and especially if used as influence peddling. Usually, family backgrounds are in the working class, the poor, some of them were farmers who had to traditionally rent land to stay alive, or smallholders of land. Their elders were taught Japanese during the colonial period, but "speaking Japanese" doesn't seem popular with them. They sometimes have family members who were massacred, imprisoned or subject to President Syngman Rhee's prisons in the Korean War (a source of their grievance against the Right). A big touchstone is traditional labor activism/unionism, and some of the elders were involved in anti-government "Red Peasant Unions" after 1945. Some elders were involved in the numerous rural uprisings, fighting right-wing groups, during the U.S. Occupation of southern Korea (1945-1948) and during the Korean War. They sometimes are from regions of Korea (intentionally?) left out of the economic progress seen under the "military presidents" (Park, Chun) and bemoan the autocratic rule of these leaders.