竹島問題の歴史

22.8.08

Steve Barber in Korean News

The Korean newspaper, "Joongang Ilbo," has posted HERE a picture of 44-year-old Canadian Steve Barber, who they say has lived in Korea for nine years and operates an English Web site on Dokdo (http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com/), which the article says provides a massive amount of evidence in support of Korea's claim on the islets.

Those of you who may not recognize the name "Steve Barber" may know him better as Toadface, Frogmouth, Wedgie, Zippertrout, or one of the other aliases he used to post under before getting caught. (See HERE.)

Steve had claimed that he had no affiliation with Koreans and did all the research on his own. Here is what he wrote back in 2006:

Kanganese, don’t lump me together with other Koreans on the Dokdo issue. I have done my studies on this subject on my own. My only connection with Koreans on this is for gathering maps and documents. Unlike Ponta and Pacifist I’m not an errand-boy for my local political organization such as Shimane Prefecture. I’m not Korean nor am I a part of a political movement like Ponta.
The following email was discovered on the anti-Japanese Web site "Killzap.cafe," a name that looks very similar to "Killjap.cafe":

From: steve barber [mailto:maemi30@hotmail.com]Sent: Thursday, August 31,
2006 1:01 AMTo: spar@paran.comSubject: RE:
Hanmaumy

From: steve barber [mailto:maemi30@hotmail.com]Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 1:01 AMTo: spar@paran.comSubject: RE: Hanmaumy

Dr Mr Cho:

I went onto Hanmaumy’s website and just by the visual images I saw I can say his website is the best I’ve ever seen !! I’m very impressed.

The problem is that it is all in Korean language. Koreans already believe Dokdo is Korean land so Hanmaumy is in a sense wasting his time. We must get this valuable information out to the global community. If the Dokdo issue ever goes to the ICJ it is absolutely necessary that all of the related information be available to the public in English.

Mr Cho I must stress these days there are more Japanese working with foreigners promoting Takeshima is Japanese and they are doing it in English while working with idiots like Gerry Bevers. Like after WW2 Korea isn’t getting its message out there about Dokdo.

That being said, Mr Lovmo’s site is up and running and I’ve been working on my own to try to gather information and translate it but to be honest my lack of ability in Korean language makes it impossible to gather images on some of these Korean National Archives Websites because they are totally in Korean.

We should use Mr Lovmo’s site because it is already quite popular and it has the greatest amount of exposure on the English/Foreign Internet.

Please me must work together to get the message out there. I will do my best. In addtion please tell Hanmaumy I am going to gather images from his website and translate as well as I can for Mark.

I would love to meet both of you someday.

Yours Truly:Steve

Korea's "Maeil Kyeongje" newspaper has also written an article about Steve Barber HERE, which says that Steve Barber's college major was computer studies, but that he came to teach English in Korea, where he became interested in the Dokdo issue two years ago.

It also says that his Korean is not very good, so his 34-year-old Korean wife has been translating into English the Japanese and Korean documents for him.

The article quoted Steve Barber as saying that his consistent position has been that Dokdo was Korean territory in the past, is Korean territory now, and must be Korean territory in the future. (Well, I guess he can no longer claim that he is a neutral party.)

Anyway, for someone who needs his Korean wife to translate the Japanese and Korean documents for him, Steve Barber seems pretty confident in his belief that Dokdo is historically Korean territory. Well, maybe if I were a 44-year-old man with a 34-year-old Korean wife, I might start supporting Korea's claim, as well.

Now that Yonhap has reported on Mark Lovmo, an elementary school teacher in Minnesota who needed a Korean friend to translate for him, and Steve Barber, an Canadian English teacher in Korea who needs his Korean wife to translate for him, I wonder who will be the next Korean-illiterate, Dokdo-loving foreigner that Yonhap News finds to interview?

Here are more Korean newspaper and news sites reporting the Steve Barber article:

5 comments:

  1. Gerry, your comments are pretty sad to me and I feel sorry for you when I read your article. It's obviously a cheesy attempt to discredit all the data I've compiled most if not all are recognized as credible. So this flimsy mud-slinging really erodes what little credibility you may have had before.

    Yes, I've posted on numerous websites, under numerous handles always with the same e-mail address attached. No big secret. Many other people do the same such as Matt your best friend who runs an anti-Korean website called Occidentism. In fact, I've always tried to separate my personal life from this issue, simply because it's a territorial dispute and not a personal issue at all. Even with posting my e-mail address to my website I get e-mails of garbled Japanese text and even one irate, cussing Korea who couldn't read English calling me derogatory Japanese names.

    My Korean wife translates some of my Korean data. Gerry I suggest you scare yourself up a Korean wife to do the same for you too, because you have made errors with your translations in the past. What's worse is you are so stubborn that even when a Korean points out your mistakes, you don't have the integrity to correct them.

    Anyway, now we can focus on who the phantom posters are on this blog. Are we supposed to give any credibility to this blog when everyone here posts under anonymous handles?

    I mean who the Hell are you guys anyway?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Steve,

    You look more handsome than I expected from the name of toadface!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous22/8/08 22:25

    This Garry is getting desperate.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wonder if the newspaper saw my post asking why they don't interview Steve Barber rather than Mark Lovmo.

    I have to hand it to Steve that he comes out and debates the issue (unlike Lovmo), and even though I often disagree with his positions and theories, he is at least willing to discuss the issue.

    I only have 2 handles that I know of, Matt and shakuhachi, both of which handles link back to occidentalism.org if you click on them. I never created multiple handles to drum up an image of support, which is what I think Gerry is referring to in your case, Steve.

    BTW, Occidentalism is not an anti-Korean site, and anti-Koreanism is not a real phenomenon along the lines of anti-semitism. By suggesting that Occidentalism is somehow racist you are trivializing real incidents of racism that occur on this planet.

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  5. Hellooooo,Steeeeeeve.nice to see you.
    You look nice...with Dokdo mark on the jaw, ...ops, is that beard?
    Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy discussions on Dokdo.

    ReplyDelete

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