Australia-Japan Community Network (AJCN) (EN): 2021

October 1, 2021
Sumiyo Egawa
The President of AJCN

I am delighted to announce that everyone can access the e-book (PDF), “The Truth about Japan-Korea Annexation: South Korea’s Groundless Accusations & Harassments of Japan.” The e-book has been uploaded on Google Drive and is a Free Download.

The e-book is the English version of Masanori Mizuma’s book, "The Truth about Japan-Korea Annexation (一目でわかる「日韓併合」時代の真実 ),” which covers the life of Korean people during the Annexation (1910-1945).

With the author's permission and generosity, the motivated AJCN members started with their patriotic’ action to challenge the South Korean biased view of the Japan-Korea Annexation, which impacted upon the diplomatic relations between Japan and Korea and had an adverse effect on Japanese and Korean peoples. In translating the original Japanese book into English, we realized the significance of the book's content and decided to reformat the manuscript into a e-book to facilitate this to a larger audience across the world.

We hope to convey the Annexation's authenticity worldwide, and the e-book may ease disputes between Japan and Korea. Publishing this e-book is not a commercialized business; it is entirely a non-profit volunteer project. It is free for all; we appreciate it if you could pass on this fantastic news to the people interested in the pivotal event on the Korean Peninsula at the turn of the 20the Century.

　　 The Original Book's Cover Page　　　　　　　The English Version Book's Cover Page

1. Purpose of publishing the English version

There are ongoing controversial conflicts between Japan and South Korea, such as the Comfort Women (a euphemism for prostitutes in the war-affected war zone during WWII, a.k.a Sex-Slaves) and Wartime Forced Korean Male Labourers. These are obviously, rooted in the Japan-Korea Annexation. The successive South Korean governments have misled Korean peoples and the world into believing their biased view of the Annexation. As a result, the Korean people nurtured their hostile idea of Japan and the Japanese, which regrettably also infiltrates into the tender minds of Korean children.

On the other hand, some Korean academics have recently begun to question the Korean government's view of the Annexation and have researched the status quo on the Korean Peninsula. They courageously came out with opposing views to their government's stance. One of those brave Korean academics, Lee Yong-hoon of the Seoul National University, postulates that Comfort Women were nothing but prostitutes. Any Korean who dissents against Anti-Japan propaganda would face harsh punishment and be labelled as Shin-nichi (pro-Japan) and treated as a national traitor. Consequently, Lee was labelled as a Shin-nichi.

Many Japanese were stunned to see photos where Lee kneeled on the ground and begged for forgiveness to these screaming and denouncing self-claiming Ex-Comfort Women in Sapio (October 2014 edition). However, five years later, on July 10, 2019, Lee and other five scholars published their million-seller book “Anti-Japan Tribalism.” Through the book, Lee, in a way, has retaliated to those ex-prostitutes who condemned and humiliated him in public. More recently, Professor Mark Ramseyer of the Harvard Law School has also postulated that Comfort Women were not Sex-Slaves, but prostitutes during WWII. In his paper, “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” Ramseyer articulately explained the condition with actual primary dates and sources. Yet, he has been under ferocious criticism from Korean and American scholars, who condemned Ramseyer as a historical revisionist and demanding withdrawal of his paper. Instead of criticizing Ramseyer as a historical revisionist, they ought to write their dissent, not just sign a petition for withdrawal of Ramseyer's paper. Their Cancel Culture behaviours lack academic professionalism and are utterly sheepish. Mizuma’s books, which AJCN has presented here as an e-book, will be the powerful support and endorsement to statements made by Lee and Ramseyer.

Anti-Japan propaganda movements have escalated onto the international stage. Anti-Japan activists have focused on erecting Comfort Women statues (a total of 40 approx.), which have sprung up like mushrooms, mainly in the USA, Europe and a few other countries. The situation of this action is portraited in the essay written by Thomas J. Ward and William D. Lay, the essay, “Park Statue Politics: World War Comfort Women Memorials in the United States.” Korean’s propaganda became phenomenal, and many diasporic Japanese across the world have started to take action against building Comfort Women statues outside the Korean Peninsula.

Australia has nothing to do with the Comfort Women issue. The AJCN, supported by locals, successfully blocked a group of Korean extremists’ attempt to erect a Comfort Woman statue in front of Strathfield railway station (a local railway station) in 2015. Naturally, the many Strathfield residents did not appreciate building a controversial statue of Comfort Woman on their doorstep.

Radical Koreans' tenacious Anti-Japan campaigns have not slowed down but worsened in the last decades. So much so, Koreans reached the point when they started criticizing the traditional Japanese flag, namely, the Rising Sun Flag, as the symbol of Japanese Imperial Militarism and equivalated it with the Nazi' Hakenkreuz, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (2006-2007 & 2012-2020), as Adolf Hitler.

Korea’s bizarre behaviour is not entirely the successive Korean governments’ responsibility; the Japanese governments' weak-knee diplomatic attitude towards Korea is also accountable. The Japanese public's negligence in this matter also has to count. Although Japanese academics have written significant volumes of Modern Japanese and Korean history, only a few have been translated into English or Korean, which has regrettably shaped the current situation. We anticipate that publishing this e-book will be the first step in sending a message to the world that the Annexation of Japan-Korea was not by a military invasion. It was the bilateral agreement of the Annexation Treaty between the Empires of Japan and Korea. Through the Treaty, Japan helped the utterly regressed Empire of Korea to form a modern, democratic and industrial nation that claimed the achievement, “The Miracle of Han River (1961-1997).”

The prudent evidence that Japan treated Korean people compassionately is the upsurge of the average life expectancy and population growth during the Annexation time. Life expectancy rose from 24 to 54 years, and population from 9,800,000 in 1906 to 21,120,000 in 1944.

2. Composition of the e-book (Part I, II and reference list)

Part I
Introduction of the historical background of the Korean Peninsula in the turn of the 20th Century and dissent of Korea' claim of “Seven Deprivations.”

Part II
Presents photographs, newspaper articles and other documents concerning the Annexation period. Photos with captions vividly depict the life of the Koreans, which would perplex Koreans and help others understand the authenticity of the relation between Japan and Korea during the Annexation period.