Kriegsdienstverweigerung in Südkorea

15. Mai 2015 - CO day    (CO=Conscentious Objectors=Kriegsdienstverweigerer)

Auf der südlichsten Insel Südkoreas, auf Chejudo, findet am 15. Mai 2015 ein Peace Seminar zur Kriegsdienstverweigerung statt. 

Beteiligt sind:
World Without War  (Jeonbak Gilsu)
Catholic Workers  (Sunny)
The Frontiers  (Dr. SONG Kang-ho)
Koreanische Mennonitenkirche  (KIM Kyoung-Jung)

Kriegsdienstverweigerung in Südkorea

15. Mai 2015 - CO day    (CO=Conscentious Objectors=Kriegsdienstverweigerer)

Siehe auch:  

• Petition von AI, Connection, War Resisters und World Without War
• A Life Sentence from birth
• Authorities wrecking lives by jailing co
• AI Publikation: Sentenced to Life. Conscientious Objectors in South Korea

South Korea: Conscientious objection is not a crime

Who are the conscientious objectors in South Korea?
Young men who object to military service for reasons of conscience.

South Korea: the world’s top jailer of conscientious objectors
South Korea imprisons more people for their conscientious objection than the rest of the world put together. The country has held at least 10,000 conscientious objectors in prison since 2000 for their refusal of military service, the LARGEST number in the world.

Die Verfassung Japans.  Artikel 9 der Friedensverfassung
Source:  The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 15, 2015, April 13, 2015
Als pdf-Datei zum Download  (mit allen Links!)
Vergleiche auch:  Confessions of a foreign correspondent  |  Japan's prickly revisionists  |  Kido Eiichi

Testy Team Abe Pressures Media in Japan

Jeff Kingston
April 16, 2015

In an April 2, 2015 essay in the Number One Shimbun published by the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan, veteran German journalist Carsten Germis shares his experiences of being harassed by the Japanese government basically for doing his job. In his view, the Abe government is overly sensitive to criticism and responds aggressively in trying to suppress such views. Team Abe has been especially sensitive to criticism about what Germis terms, “a move by the right to whitewash history.” Germis served in Tokyo from 2010-15, but I only met him once very briefly and have not read his articles in German, so am not in a position to judge the content or analysis, but his allegations of government meddling with the press are serious.

16. April 2014  -  16. April 2015

Der Untergang der Ferry SEWOL bei Jindo, Südkorea
Source:  The Guardian, Associated Press in Seoul, Thursday 2 April 2015
Siehe auch hier
Hier ein Video in Erinnerung an den 16. April 2014 (7.4.2015, Facebook)
Und hier eine kleine Slideshow mit Fotos aus Facebook.
Die Petition der Familien
Die Ev. Mission in Solidarität (EMS) hat einige empfehlenswerte Beiträge zum 16.4. unter ALTUELLES von der Startseite aus.
Was man weiß vom Untergang der Sewol-Fähre

Families of South Korea ferry victims shave heads in compensation protest

Relatives demonstrate over government plans to start compensation process instead of launching fresh investigation into tragedy

Victims’ relatives shave their heads in protest, in Seoul, South Korea. Photograph: AP

Associated Press in Seoul, Thursday 2 April 2015

Dozens of relatives of victims of a South Korean ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people almost a year ago have shaved their heads in protest over government plans to provide compensation instead of a more thorough investigation.

The State Secrets Protection Bill (2013)

Censorship?  Self-censorship?
検閲? 自己検閲?

Thomas Ash and his documentary "A2-B-C" 
March 14, 2015
 
検閲? 自己検閲?
配給会社都合により、急遽「A2-B-C」上映中止せざるを得なくなってしまいました。

The Japanese distributor of 'A2-B-C' (WEBSITE), my documentary about children living in Fukushima, is cancelling all domestic screenings of the film.  They are also canceling the contract to distribute the film in Japan, despite there being more than two years remaining on the agreement.

It is not clear to me how much of this decision is the result of actual censorship and how much is self-censorship.  My feeling is that it is self-censorship based on the fear of a potential censorship problem at some point in the future.  If this is the case, then it is an example of the terrifying and wide-reaching effect of the Secrecy Law (INFO).  This law does not even need to be enforced for its effect to be felt: its mere existence causes people to engage in self-censorship, imposing on themselves the very crackdown that the drafters of the legislation had surely envisioned.

"Trostfrauen", "Comfort Women"

Erklärung über die Behandlung der "Trostfrauen"-Frage in Schulbüchern

Posted By Reinhard Zöllner On 10.2.2015
(For English version scroll down)

Als Historiker und Japanologen drücken wir unsere Bestürzung darüber aus, daß die japanische Regierung seit kurzem versucht, Feststellungen in Geschichtslehrbüchern in Japan und anderswo über die euphemistisch so genannten “Trostfrauen” zu unterdrücken, die während des Zweiten Weltkriegs im Dienst der japanischen Armee unter einem brutalen System sexueller Ausbeutung gelitten haben.

Historiker debattieren darüber, ob die Zahl der ausgebeuteten Frauen im Bereich von Zehntausenden oder Hundertausenden lag und welche Rolle das Militär bei ihrer Rekrutierung genau spielte. Doch die sorgfältigen Recherchen des Historikers Yoshimi Yoshiaki in japanischen Regierungsarchiven und die Zeugnisse von Überlebenden aus ganz Asien haben jeden Zweifel an den grundsätzlichen Zügen eines Systems, das staatlich geförderter sexueller Sklaverei gleichkam, beseitigt.

Als Teil ihrer Bemühungen, die patriotische Erziehung zu fördern, stellt die gegenwärtige Regierung von Ministerpräsident Shinzō Abe die gültige Geschichte der Trostfrauen buchstäblich infrage

The State Secrets Protection Bill (2013)
The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 5, No. 1, February 2, 2015.
Hier geht's zur pdf-Datei
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus.

Sink the Asahi! The ‘Comfort Women’ Controversy and the Neo-nationalist Attack

How did Japan’s 135-year-old liberal flagship end up in the crosshairs of neo-nationalists?
David McNeill and Justin McCurry

Before last year it is doubtful that many Japanese knew the location of Glendale, California – an L.A. suburb with a population of 200,000 known for its large Asian population and the Big Boy fast-food chain. That’s changed, thanks to an unimposing bronze statue of a young woman installed last year in a local park that has become a microcosm of the toxic history war between Japan and South Korea.



The statue was meant to commemorate the suffering of women herded into wartime Japanese brothels – and to symbolize justice denied. Since the unveiling, however, the city has been targeted by diplomatic protests, hundreds of angry letters and a lawsuit demanding its removal. Japanese nationalist politicians even say the statue has triggered discrimination against Japanese schoolchildren in America.

The dispute took a farcical turn on Oct. 21 last year when Glendale City Council heard testimony from long-winded rightist video blogger Tony Marano. Marano travelled hundreds of miles from his home and took a break from warning against nefarious communists, Koreans who “eat dogs off the street” and President Obama’s plot to turn America into a Muslim nation, to pick up the cudgel against the hated memorial.