竹島問題の歴史

22.6.09

"Seoul Podcast" Discusses Dokdo

"Seoul Podcast" is a podcast Web site that does podcasts by and for foreigners living in Korea. The most recent podcast is an interesting one on Dokdo entitled "Seoul Podcast #59: Wagugin Parade on Dokdo," in which one speaker answers questions about his recent Korean government-sponsored trip to Ulleungdo and Dokdo. ("Wagugin" means "foreigner.") It is a long Podcast that includes other topics, so you have to wait awhile to get to the part on Dokdo, but, fortunately, the podcast up to the Dokdo portion is entertaining.

The people in the discussion group seem quite intelligent, but they also seem pretty ignorant on Korean history and Korea-Japan relations. For example, one of the members of the group claimed, among other things, that Japan never compensated Korea for Korea's colonial period and has never apoligized to Korea for the colonial period and the comfort women, nor has it apologized to other nations for the war.

They do not seem to know that Korea has a bad habit of demanding apologies that they then ignore or forget about after they get them. When someone points to the past apologies as evidence that Japan has apologized, Koreans usually say something like, "Oh, well, that was not a 'sincere' apology." That is why Japan is asked for a new apology everytime Korea gets a new president, even when the new president had said he would not ask for an apology.

Nevertheless, I still recommend that people listen to the podcast. It is entertaining.

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