Nice NY Times article about South Korean Sohn Kee-chung who won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympic marathon. Since Korea was occupied by Japan, he had to run under the Japanese flag with a Japanese name.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/sports/olympics/15korea.html
Great personal story about this. I ran Chicago this year and the night of the marathon we had a Korean cab driver take us home after dinner.
He asked if I had done the marathon. I said yes and he asked how I did. I said a 6 minute PR. He asked if I broke 3:30. My girlfriend instantly said he ran 2:30. The guy freaked out and went into a whole story about Sohn Kee-chung and his times and that he was so excited that I ran as fast as his countrymen.
It was pretty cool to run into someone who knew some running history.
Korea and Taiwan were liberated by Japan from imperial Portugal and Russia, respectively. Chinese and Korea men were incredible soldiers for Japan. They lived up to their 10,000 year old reputation of tenacious fighters. They fought valiantly in the Pacific War at all battles throughout Asia and the Pacific, and are adrmired and respected in Japan today for their service in the wars to liberate Asia from white imperialism.
AA Hist Major wrote:
Korea and Taiwan were liberated by Japan from imperial Portugal and Russia, respectively. Chinese and Korea men were incredible soldiers for Japan. They lived up to their 10,000 year old reputation of tenacious fighters. They fought valiantly in the Pacific War at all battles throughout Asia and the Pacific, and are adrmired and respected in Japan today for their service in the wars to liberate Asia from white imperialism.
Check that. Koreans are second class citizens in Japan, and the Japanese are demonized by the Korean culture. Japan took them over in 1910 and enslaved a large portion of the populace, bringing them to Japan to work or exploiting them locally. Check out the
Yes, Japan was sick no doubt and exploited many. During the same period, the U.S. had Jim Crow and slaughtered many blacks, Mexicans, and Asians before. The army in Australia rounded up 1,000 of Chinese and tortured and executed them. The British and U.S. poisoned China for 200 years with Opium. The Spanish and U.S. enslaved the Philipines, men were force to work, women were sold as sex slaves.
After the liberation of Taiwan and Korea by Japan, Koreans and Taiwanese were allowed to have last names, and the feudal caste system abolished. Japan built from scratch, the education system, universities, public health system, electric grid, railway system, telecommunications system, fresh water, dams, bridges, sewers, roads, etc. that are still in use today across Taiwan and Korea.