Michael's Dispatches
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- Published: Friday, 20 March 2015 16:48
20 March 2015
The comfort women statues are all part of a giant scam perpetrated by Koreans and Chinese. The ultimate goal is to cause frictions with our alliance with Japan, and to keep Japan weak. China is on the march. Korea is their puppet.
Please see this letter:
March 18, 2015
Mayor Derek Corrigan
City of Burnaby
4949 Canada Way
Burnaby, British Columbia, V5G, IM2
Honorable Mayor Corrigan,
It is my understanding the City of Burnaby is going to be considering approval of the installation of a Korean Comfort Woman Statue Monument within the limits of the City. To grant a permit for such a controversial international monument is certainly not in best interest for the City of Burnaby. It will be detrimental and damaging to the fine relationship of the city with Japanese companies and the many Canadian and Americans of Japanese ancestry residents in both the City of Burnaby and elsewhere in Canada or the United States.
To offer the objection from the perspective of a Japanese American Korean War Veteran, I would like to introduce myself. I have been a resident of Buena Park, California for 30 years and prior to that lived in nearby La Mirada for 23 years and have had a Land Surveying business in Fullerton for over 30 years. I am a second generation American of Japanese Ancestry born, raised and educated in Redlands, California.
As a young boy of 12 years of age, I was a victim of the mass World War II incarceration of over 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast of the United States. In 1950 during the Korean War, in spite of my incarceration by the United States Government in WWII, I volunteered for the U.S. Marine Corps to serve, fight and defend a country and a people I did not even know. I lost two very close friends in the Korean War, one of Mexican descent whom I first met in Kindergarten and to this day, 63 years later, still feel responsible for his death. Five sons of my first generation parents from Japan served in the U.S. military in Americas wars. Two in WWII with the much decorated Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team and three of us were in Korea during the war at the same time.
Although I strongly object to the proposed Korean Comfort Woman monument in any location in the United States, my objection to this monument in no way means I condone or defend the actions of Japan. With this letter I am merely defending the integrity of our Japanese American communities across our nation. An apology for this issue is due from Japan for any atrocities, if committed and not by governmental agencies in the U.S. or by individuals. This is strictly an issue between the two foreign countries.
After watching and hearing the speakers at a City of Buena Park hearing on TV, I heard many very young Koreans telling their stories of the atrocities with figures and statistics. In my opinion, they are comparable to younger generation Japanese Americans who speak of the horrible conditions in the internment camps and often exaggerate their stories to get their point across to viewers or an audience.
I would like to mention to you, long before World War II, a very large portion of Orange County, California was predominantly farms owned and operated by first and second generation Japanese Americans. They were farming long before any Korean people ever set foot in the area. It is not fair to blame our first generation parents who came here as far back as the late 1800’s for atrocities committed by Japan during World War II. There is a Japanese American farming industry museum on the grounds of the California State University in Fullerton and not one monument recognizing the Japanese American farming industry is erected on any city property in Orange County.
In my opinion, I do not feel that a monument for such a controversial issue is in the best interest of any City or anywhere else in Canada or the United States. It is a problem between two foreign countries and such a monument only intensifies the divided issue and only benefits one segment of people in your very diverse society. Will that mean you will be open to additional monuments in your city to commemorate the slavery of the blacks, the immigration of the Hispanics, the execution of the Jewish people during WWII and the illegal incarceration and stripping of the constitutional rights of Canadian and American citizens of Japanese ancestry during their internment in WW II?
The proposed monument is to commemorate a foreign issue and is not what I, nor well over 6,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry and the 255 who gave their lives served and died for in the Korean War. We fought and we died for the love of our country and the freedom of the people of the Republic of Korea, not so they could ultimately migrate to Canada or the United States and bring shame to our heritage. Japanese Americans have shed their blood in America’s wars from World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War and Desert Storm to gain the respect of our nation. To bring an unrelated issue between Japan and South Korea to local cities is detrimental to our Japanese American heritage and reputation earned with our blood and lives sacrificed for our country.
It is well known throughout the Japanese American communities, there is a hatred exercised here in the United States by the Korean people, against the Japanese in Japan, but this hatred has been brought to the United States against the Japanese Americans as well. I have to assume it is the same in Canada.
In 2007, I received an email from a non-Korean professor at a university in Seoul, Korea. He asked me why the university was still teaching hatred for the Japanese in Japan and asked why they even include the Japanese Americans in the United States. The Japanese Americans certainly do not deserve such disrespect or bigoted treatment. The Korean people should appreciate Canadians and Japanese Americans bravely served during the Korean War and helped them gain their freedom to come to America. Japanese Americans living in the City of Fullerton and Orange County and all Veterans of Japanese Ancestry are in complete agreement with my objection.
In 1997, I helped organize and was the president for the first four years of the Japanese American Korean War Veterans Organization. To try and help bridge that hatred gap between the Korean people and the Japanese Americans, our organization, with the permission of the Republic of Korea government built a Memorial near the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea listing each individual name of the 255 Japanese Americans killed in the Korean War. That Memorial is located at Imjin Gak, Paju City in South Korea. To allow the Comfort Woman monument for atrocities committed by a foreign country in any City will not help bring a resolution or local harmony. It will only destroy any positive benefit we may have gained in the past as a result of the Japanese American Korean War Veterans’ Memorial in Paju City, South Korea.
A display or publicizing a Korean Pre-World War II related Comfort Woman statue will serve no purpose in Burnaby, except to renew and prolong the insult to the heritage of the Japanese Americans in Canada and the United States who had absolutely nothing to do with actions attributed to Japan during and before World War II. The hatred shown by the Korean people towards the Japanese, including Japanese Americans will only be intensified by any Korean Comfort Woman Statue or other related objects.
The Japanese Americans as American Citizens were severely punished by the U.S. Government in World War II solely because of our heritage, consequently we certainly do not deserve a second opportunity to fight our way out of another racial humiliation.
I suggest your city merely pass a resolution in support of fair justice between Japan and Korea. This would place the City of Burnaby on record in aiding international efforts for justice. If this monument is built anywhere within your jurisdiction, it will only continue and increase the hatred currently being suffered by the Japanese Americans in Canada and the United States.
It is very important to understand that today, we have many new young generations of Korean and Japanese Americans who hold no animosity and are very good friends, including marriages. To renew a past hatred by erecting such an offensive monument will only help destroy those friendships that have developed over two generations. Please do not create an unnecessary concern for them.
My final comment is to bring to your attention that on Thursday, August 29, 2013, the City Council of the City of Buena Park, California, setting a precedence, voted to deny the implementation of the Comfort Woman Statue Monument in the City of Buena Park.
Sincerely,
(s)
Robert M. Wada
Sgt., U.S.Marine Corps. Korea,1951-‘52
· 4 years agoThat's what we need, dispassionate analysis of the issue.
