A New Insight into Japan's History: A Lesson to be Offered in Japanese Schools

Today, I would like to take up "A lesson to be offered in Japanese schools", in which Mr. Haruki Murata (see his biography below) presents his insight into Japan's history focused on a topic "Japan is a colony of  South Korea".

In 1897,  the Greater Korean empire (대한제국, 大韓帝國) was born after securing its independence.

After Japan won victory over Russia in 1905 (Japan-Russia war from 1904 to1905), Japan concluded the second treaty with Korea on November 17, 1905, thereby making the Greater Korea empire a protectorate of the Empire of Japan.

Do you know what "Protectorate" means? It is quite simple. It is what Japan is now without any doubts. Did you get it clearly? The present Japan is a protectorate. (The audience is laughing over his sarcasm.)

There are three protectorates in the world today. Monaco is the one well-known for Queen Grace Patricia Kelly among the old generation. It is a protectorate of France. And, Andorra is the second protected jointly by Spain and France. The third one is Japan. (The audience is laughing over his sarcasm.)

In 1910, Japan should have kept the Greater Korean empire as a protectorate but not as the annexed Korea. I just don't like to criticise what our ancestors have done, knowing all the results so clear to us now. However, our ancestors were desperate, not knowing what to come next. Considering what's known to us now, I don't think we should say they were stupid. Leftists have a habit of criticising our ancestors. Particularly those conservatives being knowledgeable of historical events opt to say "that general is stupid!" or something like this as if to say they are smart.

However, one thing I would like to say is that the annexation of Korea by Japan should not have been done at all but we should have kept it as our protectorate. Since the annexation made Korea a part of Japan and subsequently gave Korea and the Korean people the equal rights, a tragedy of Japan has begun.

On August 29, 1910,  the emperor of the Greater Korean empire declared that our loyal subjects had no means to survive other than to depend on the Empire of Japan while the Emperor of Japan promulgated rescript that all the Koreans of the Greater Korea empire had become naturalized as the citizens of Japan as of today.

As of August 29, 1910, 126,000 Japanese nationals were residing on the Korean peninsula while there were 800 Koreans in Japan. In 1933, there were 520,000 Japanese on the Korean peninsula and 420,000 Koreans in Japan. By the tine WWII was over, we had 2 million Koreans in Japan. 1.3 million left Japan but 630,000 remained in Japan.  We still have a lot of Koreans in Japan.  Don't you think Japan colonized the Korean peninsula? No.

As a result, Japan has been colonized by the Koreans while Japan did not colonize the Korean peninsula. If the bill to grant the voting rights to the foreign residents in Japan is approved in the National Diet of Japan, Japan will be fully colonized for sure. And, then they will take it as having completed a revenge against Japan, considering their irrational thinking that Korea was colonized by Japan and suffered so much damage.

Brief Biography of Mr. Haruki Murata: He is a Japanese political activist protesting against a bill to grant the voting rights to the foreign residents in Japan and is actively engaged in the activities to rescue those Japanese abducted by North Korea. He joined "Shield Society" organized by Mr. Yukio Mishima, well-known nationalist. Watch this video in which Mr. Yukio Mishima (who committed Harakiri on November 25, 1970 at Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japanese Self-Defense Forces-once used as a court for International Military Tribunal for the Far East from 1946 to 1948.) is being interviewed by Canadian TV.

Note:

To Readers of my blog,

1. The above is only a tentative translation of Mr. Haruki Murata's lecture. Whenever you may find some subtle misinterpretations, please send me your comments.

2. By "The present Japan is a protectorate." , I assume that he implicitly means to say Japan has been a protectorate of the United States of America, thus making the audience laugh over  his sarcasm.

3. "considering their irrational thinking that Korea was colonized by Japan and suffered so much damage. " has been added to what Mr. Haruki Murata actually mentioned in his lecture. Otherwise, that particular sentence would not make any sense at all when translated into English.

4. I added " New" to a title "A New Insight into Japan's History: A Lesson to be Offered in Japanese Schools" because I assumed that what's discussed in the article would be new to the most of the readers. In fact, what Mr. Haruki Murata lectured is nothing new but has been the assertion here.

5. The above is subject to change whenever I find it necessary to improve my tentative translation.