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Japan-Korea Tensions Rise - 80 Year-Old Veteran Self-Immolates In Anti-Japan Protest
With China already stoking fears in The South China Sea (and now entering the currency war) and Japan re-militarizing (and having led the currency war for years) it appears tension within Asian nations is escalating. The latest egregious example of these tensions is evident, as Reuters reports, an 80-year old South Korean set himself on fire on Wednesday during a protest calling for Japan to apologize for forcing Korean girls and women to work in military brothels during World War Two, days ahead of the anniversary of the end of hostilities.
Warning: Graphic
The self-immolation occurred during a regular weekly demonstration outside the Japanese embassy ahead of the Aug. 15 anniversary marking 70 years since the end of Japan's colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula.
With the anniversary looming, Wednesday's protest was larger than usual, with about 2,000 demonstrators, including three of the 47 known surviving Korean "comfort women", as they were euphemistically called by Japan, organizers said.
Bystanders covered the man with protest banners to put out the flames and paramedics took him to hospital.
The man, identified as Choi Hyun-yeol by a civic group with which he was affiliated, was in critical condition with burns to his neck, face, and upper torso, a hospital professor said.
"The patient is old and has severe burns so his survival can't be guaranteed," the professor told reporters.
...
South Korea's ties with Japan have long been strained by what Seoul sees as Japanese leaders' reluctance to atone for the country's wartime past, including a full recognition of its role in forcing Korean girls and women to work in brothels.
* * *
With old war tensions mixing with new war tensions, Asia is quickly becoming yet another tinderbox in the centrally planned world.
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Expect much "WARNING: GRAPHIC" over the next few long time.
He should have just opened up to President Zero.
Hope and change and all that...
Swissy spoiled brat lit his late model sports car on fire in protest of not having a later model sports car. This guy's situation a little bit different I'm guessing.
Here's hoping the Ferguson assholes learn this kind of protest strategery...amirite?
lol at the video
do they know how to put a fire out?
hey i have a heavy think blanket, instead of smothering the fire and its oxygen supply, LETS FAN IT
It will get to that point in many parts of the world and many circumstances.
Sad to watch.
How brainwashed do you have to be to take your own life by fire?
How mislead people are without Jesus Christ in their life.
Turn to Christ- the only savior, the Son of God.
How brainwashed do you have to be to do absolutely nothing?
That's the real problem.
Prayer Alert?
Why did he wait nearly 70 yrs? He needed buddhism more than christianity. Or medication.
Dude is my co-pilot.
Always drunk and harassing the stewardesses
You mean like Robin Williams?
how ignorant do you have to be to not know that by a very wide majority, most religious people in south korea are christian.
how misled you are by your warped view of jesus christ.
christians are ashamed of people like you.
Christians don't set themselves on fire in protest, nitwit.
That particular manifestation is a calling card of Buddhists.
BUddhists self-immolate;
Christians pray while the lions eat them; and,
Muzzies go out and find someone else [a co-worker or neighbor might do just fine] to decapitate.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/26/woman-beheaded-okla...
I do not think brainwashed is the correct assumption here. Perhaps overly impassioned? The answer could lie in this man's past considering his age.
I do not understand why anyone would do such a thing but I have seen the severely burned and know what extreme pain and suffering they endure. Many die from bacterial infections. Most nurses from burn wards don't last long. The agonies of these patients tend to haunt them.
Miffed
Only the mentally ill set themselves on fire.
I rest my case.
Continue to Rest in Peace Norman Morrison
Norman Morrison (December 29, 1933 – November 2, 1965) was a Baltimore Quaker best known for his act of self-immolation at age 31 to protest United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
The Erie, Pennsylvania-born Morrison graduated from the College of Wooster in 1956. He was married and had two daughters and a son. On November 2, 1965, Morrison doused himself in kerosene and set himself on fire below Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's Pentagon office.
Each day he fought against the war and loathed the moral dilemma of the war. A close friend of Morrison was John Roemer. He addressed the manner of Norman's death at a memorial service saying "In a society where it is normal for human beings to drop bombs on human targets, where it is normal to spend 50 percent of the individual's tax dollar on war, where it is normal... to have twelve time overkill capacity. Norman Morrison was not normal. He said 'Let it stop' ".
Same as it ever was....
Uh, any word on Mr. Morrison's opinion on the Hungarian uprising of 1956? The Korean conflict? The Suez Crisis of 1956? The Holomodor in Ukraine? All of the people shifted around in the former USSR? Oh and what about a little thing called World War 2? Would he object to a world where Das Reich still existed?
You know nothing. Asymmetry and lack of logic, the mirage of an oasis while we sink deeper into the garbage patch of discarded toys the filthy rich grew bored of. The fingernail-across-chalkboard effect, the very real attempt at retreating from the assault on our senses this skewed and distorted hall-of-mirrows our reality has been turned into where wrong is right and right is wrong. The contrast between those who are lanquishing and those who ostentiously strut around screaming hysterically. " I STOLE IT! IT IS MINE!"
You serve no purpose here other than dismissing the article as a nonstory. So why the fuck don't you leave? Try Greg Hunter's site.
lux·u·ri·ous ?l???ZHo?or??s,?l?k?SHo?or??s/ adjective adjective: luxurious extremely comfortable, elegant, or enjoyable, especially in a way that involves great expense."the bedrooms have luxurious marble bathrooms" synonyms: opulent, sumptuous, deluxe, rich, grand, palatial, splendid, magnificent, well appointed, extravagant, fancy, upscale, upmarket, five-star; More
informalplush, posh, classy, ritzy, swanky, swank
"a luxurious hotel" antonyms: poor, austere, spartan giving self-indulgent or sensuous pleasure.
synonyms: self-indulgent, sensual, pleasure-loving, pleasure-seeking, epicurean, hedonistic, sybaritic"a luxurious wallow in a scented bath"
"a luxurious lifestyle"
For all we know, his mother could have been a comfort girl. Horror from war never truely goes away, and can lead to other horrors much later.
"Most nurses from burn wards don't last long."
Oh boy, do I have a story to go with that.
I was once rejected by a burn nurse for "not having a very interesting job." Now, we'd never laid eyes on each other, this was via a personal ad I placed long before the internet, so it had nothing to do with how I looked, or anything I said, apart from answering her very first question over the phone: "what do you do for a living."
answer: I drive gas tankers.
Think about that for a moment. Burn nurse. Gas tankers.
What puzzled me was why it mattered in the first place? Why does what I do have to be interesting to you? What I do is a means to an end, not the end itself. Was she trying to gauge how much money I made? Why? Burn nurses make good money I'd imagine - almost as much as tanker drivers I'll bet.
Maybe she dated one too many tanker drivers, but that's hard to believe. There just aren't that many of us. The bar is set pretty high in that line of work - they don't let just anyone take 10,000 gallons of gasoline down a busy highway at 60MPH. She'd have been a damn busy burn nurse if they did, but alas, she never made the connection.
Oh well. I'm glad I never met her - who needs someone like that in their life - but coming from a so-called professional really took me aback. I dated plenty of professional women back in the day, and all of them took what I did seriously.
Sorry to go off on such a tangent, but "Burn Nurse" has the same effect on me as saying "Niagara Falls" to a vaudeville comedian...
slowly I turned.....
But seriously, what is it with nurses? The ones I dated were almost all head cases.
Wow, there is a lot in that post. You have read a lot in her response. Personally I have never cared what people have done for a living as long as they are happy and do their best. Unfortunately, the happy part has waned for me over the years but everyday before I go into the lab I meditate and pray God will guide me in my day to help my patients. A Centering before entering Chaos.
I did trauma for 7 years. I found near the end I was losing myself, my natural compassion and empathy. I was distancing for protection and didn't know how to let go. I made a choice to give up the excitement, retreat back into the lab. This was what was right for me. The other choice was to become hardened. Maybe this is what happened to the woman in the ad.
A few years ago a friend teased me to join an on line dating site. I lasted a few weeks but was completely shocked what I found. My friend wanted me to see what horror was out there and he won the bet. If I lose my husband I think I will join a nunnery.
Miffed
From what I've seen, online dating can indeed be a horror show. The old school approach via the papers was a bit different, especially the free press variety which catered to a younger audience - music reviews, concert listings, that sort of thing.
The essence of it was you had people with enough initiative to go through the process, which involved either writing back and forth, or talking on the phone before meeting. Instant gratification wasn't generally the motive - dating leading to a possible relationship was. That's why I was so surprised by her approach - first time I ran into it and it really put me off. Most of the time you'd at least have a conversation of sorts, maybe meet for coffee or even dinner if the conversation went well. I had no objection to women sounding you out to see if you had a career or at least were gainfully employed, but right out of the gate was a bit too crass for my tastes.
Some online dating sites do cater to the more serious people, but not having used them I can't really comment on their success. I wouldn't use them today for the simple reason that my situation has changed - I'm no longer in a line of work that makes it hard to meet people - on the contrary, today I probably meet more women than is good for me, being married and all.
I get what you're saying about the effect that nursing can have on your emotional outlook. I'm not sure that's what was at work in her case though. It seemed more like she was looking for someone in her own social class, and I didn't fit the bill. Not very insightful of her actually. I met a lot of people in the industrial workforce that were using it as a pathway to university or starting their own business. If she'd have gotten past "what do you do" to "what are your goals in life" she'd have discovered I was one of them. If you were hiring a university grad, all else being equal, would you take the candidate who rolled into university right out of high school on mom and dad's ticket, or someone who who worked oil rigs in the North Sea for two years to pay the freight?
OK, I'm over it now. Thanks for listening:)
Stop right now.
Christ taught all life is sacred, even for non-Jews and unbelievers. Do not judge others for what they do. Your time will come, as will mine. I find it sad that this man did this, but I will not judge him.
"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit." - Luke 6:43
He judged himself- I am merely observing and commenting on his brainwashed stupidity.
This issue has nothing to do with fruit.
This man did something awful to himself as millions if not billions have done on this planet today. I have a belief he was suffering in some way and was not merely a mindless automaton. In any case, we can respond in love, mocking derision, laughter or pity. The response is how ye shall know them.
Miffed
Mmmmm, it might, but not fruit from trees, fruit from cakes.
I'll venture a guess that one of those women was a relative. I'll go out on a limb and suggest she took her own life out of shame.
It's a better narrative than "he was just plain crazy" although something like that could certainly drive you mad.
I have a deep involvement with Japan. My wife is Japanese, my family lived there for 10 years, and most of us speak Japanese. I really love the place and the people, but I cannot understand the official position on war restitution or truth in their historical record, especially when so much in the present is riding on it.
Ordinary Japanese I've talked to don't feel this way. It's coming from their government, not the people. You don't save face by covering up a crime - the shame of doing so is as deep as the crime itself. So where is it coming from? Someone has an agenda, but it's not the people themselves.
The sad part is, the official reluctance to own up simply feeds the kind of jingoism on the part of Korea and China that they accuse Japan of committing. No one's hands are clean in this affair.
I think this video is representative of how most Japanese feel today. You don't need to know the language to get the meaning, especially towards the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwg2Hpf4ta8
"his brainwashed stupidity"
Irony cannot get more . . . . more . . . . ironic than that statement coming from you.
You seem to have a problem identifying the subject of the irony.
Still putting your faith in the imaginary benevolent virus, eh?
And stop staring at yourself in the mirror.
I admit that I could be wrong, can you?
You can't, I know you can't because a brain that has been brainwashed can accomodate no alternatives. This is the defintion of brainwashed.
You dear sir are throughly and irreversibly brainwashed.
Okay, I multi edit my post not to sound as yours and, bam, you say it anyway. Sheesh, why do I always waste time being so damn thoughtful and contemplative. I need to find my flippant inner asshole.
Miffed;-)
Hahahahaha.
It's fight club remember, not a tickle fight.
Ok, I see you are trying to teach me in my quest. ;-)
I shall now dispense all ridiculous fantasies such as you two holding hands at the end of this thread and just enjoy the blood spatter and evisceration.
Miffed;-)
I hold absolutely no ill will against Seek_Truth as a person. I have zero doubt he/she is a throughly decent individual. It's difficult to carry on a heated debate without glancing blows to the actual person you are arguing with though.
I am also impossible to offend, maybe one of the few people on earth who is incapable of taking anything personally. The reason being is because we are all f_ck wits, stumbling around with only a tiny fraction of the overall picture at our disposal. So if someone says I am a complete and utter f_cking moron, you know what, they are right. But so is everybody else :)
Niceto meet a fellow similar to me. It takes a great deal to actually offend me, don't think I've ever been. come to think of it. Which makes most to consider me an ashole because I really don't care if I offend them.
I've analysed to the nth degree this phenomenon of "offense" that so defines human interaction. Again, I put it down to nothing more than cultural programming. We learn to mimic the adults around us from an early age. We have been programmed to react in a very specific way when certain things are said. The exact things that offend ebb and flow with the time. Reactions include redness of face, anger, crying, yelling, hushed tones of retribution for making a perceived offensive utterance. It's all yet another display of the complex interactions that make up human society. The anthropological reasons for offense is beyong my pay grade of understanding, there may even be no specific reason other than a manifestation of our ego.
Words are nothing more than atoms and molecules banging together in the air. I asked myself at a very young age: "Why should I display all the preprogrammed emotions and physical reactions when molecules banging together at a specific frequency and wavelength reach my ears. It's stupid".
So from that moment in time I ceased being offended. I attend to the words emanating from a human as passively as I may attend to the droplets of water from a water fall. The droplest are there, they are part of the physical world, but I have no need to physically or emotionally react to them.
On religion, there is a very good anthropological use or reason for "offense" as it is a prerequisite to the very relgion surviving. We have been so utterly and overwhelmingly programmed to never criticise religion (the modern version is anti-semitism). If society tolerated criticism of religion then it would have been relegated to the annals of history centuries ago. There is only so far you can take ludicrously dumb stories in a population that is becoming more and more educated. It's all truly fascinating.
I know you don't...honestly. ;-) I'm just laughing at the whole interaction and being kind of a dickhead myself. But I do like to taunt those who seem to have it all figured out ( and a few that haven't sometimes). What does it cost me but another turn on the spit? Who knows? Perhaps I will be in good company.
I am glad I haven't offended you and hopefully not Seek_Truth as well. Dogmatic proclamations do tempt me so it hard to find restraint!
Miffed;-)
Gawd no, never even come close. I actually hold the scientific community which I assume you to be a part of, in the highest regard. Never have a I met such an honest and passionate group of humans. I know, I know, not all scientists are perfect of course but as a group I have found scientists to hold a passion for what they do seldom seen in most other groups whose preoccupation seems to be money and greed.
Glad you made it back safely from your operation by the way.
Where is he. I haven't seen him...like ever.
I tried to reach out. He doesn't talk much.
Oh, for fuck sake. Is that all you've got to say? Try reading another book, for a change. The church. The fucking church. My mother was raised by the goddam church as an orphan. This catholic orphanage spit out a woman so damaged, she never stepped foot into a church again other than for her son's wedding. She never said a prayer. She never spoke of god until she was nearing the end. And as crazy as that sounds, she wanted to confess to a priest in the ER before she died. The misery inside these institutions was never spoken out loud; donations would end. And when teh children could not take it any more, could not stand another second of the hypocrisy of the message, they burned those fuckers down.
Get out of the way you son of bitch. This isn't a man or woman on the stage at this moment in time worthy of telling Good Men to Do Nothing. You prick. I'd like to slap you.
Why set yourself on fire?
If you pick the right time in history, the Christian Inquisitors will do it for you and burn you at the stake 'al bonzo'...
Why do that, if you want attention just do the Jenner manuever and cut your shlong off.
I understand that Japanese-Korean tensions are very old over there, and that countries in Asia can and do hold grudges...
But, the time has come for these two countries to grow up, make amends to each other, detox their relationship and move on.
*Sheesh*
No things are too placid now. We must dredge up historical atrocities, banter them about and let loose the historical revisionists for good measure. Then, when an official apology is made, everything is put to rest as resolved. Adding money with the act of apology speeds the closure for some reason.
So when do we get an apology from Japan for Fukushima?
Miffed;-)
The Jewish folk recently took a can opener to the Swiss banks.
The ‘Holocaust fund’….
"So when do we get an apology from Japan for Fukushima?"
About the same time we get an apology from General Electric, I suppose.
And a few other players besides:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/03/the-giant-lie-about-fukushima/
in b4 CIA meme makers and propaganda pushers.
"The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the "agentur" of the "Illuminati" between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion…We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view. This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time." 4
I have no desire to see somebody set themselves on fire so I'll skip the video, but I'll repeat what I asked in the past; I can't comprehend what on earth people who do this sort of thing are trying to achieve. Is it that they feel helpless to do anything? If you're going to take yourself out why not take a few of the people out who are at the root of the problem?
They have given up hope. It is as simple as that.
We all read too much into things. The answers are right in front of us all.
Asked the same thing myself but at the point you are willing to set yourself on fire you are probably not thinking that clearly.
Using violence only justifies a more violent response. I think you see enough of that recently to see that violence doesn't solve issues.
crispy critter... don't think the Japs give a fuck about what they did in WW2 ask the chinese
They damned sure didn't at the time.
......and the beat goes on.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46wE9uI4_pg
"mom we're going over to Habibis house for a movie and a bar-b-q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udOvVcIgUp0
Yep those darned Imperiist Japanese, er ..... yeah......
Sum ting wong
Things are really fraying around the edges. War, the economy, currencies, disasters, water issues and there seems to be a worldwide refugee crisis brewing.... because things are awesome. There are even refugees fleeing into Greece of all places. Venezuelans, Mexicans, Central Americans, South Americans, Syrians and the Sudanese are all on the move.
Obama’s “Asia Pivot” and TPP have failed. Japan has a long history of abuse and atrocities in Korea and China. In addition, Abe and “Abenomics” have been a disaster for Japan. Painful as it is for the US, Japanese citizens want to close down Okinawa and get the US out. Obviously, in any war with China, Japan will be decimated by Chinese nuclear weapons. Japan has been the “proverbial” testing ground for [US] nuclear weapons.
They don’t build ‘em like that anymore.
This whiffs of propaganda made in the USA to destabilize Asia where America's 3 biggest financial competitors (China, Japan, S Korea) are located.
I still think that -- on balance -- USA has more to gain by maintaining status-quo in Asia (and rest of world, for that matter) than in purposely destabilizing it. Yes, there's *potential* for gain from destabilization BUT there's more...muuch more... to lose. America already has dominant position in world, albeit it's slip, slip, sliding away. When you're dominant, you don't go around deliberately stirring up trouble -- chaos could be bad for business. Unless you're an arms manufacturer, of course :-)
My sympathies to the 80-year old Korean man. He would have been 10 when the Japanese were booted out of his homeland. Mindless nationalism can be a bi-atch but so many cling to it, especially in an uncertain, confusing world.
Sometimes fuel is thrown on a bytander and he is lit. The newspapers dont print that part of the story.
Mi tu Hot Ow!
Sounds like the similar rhyme from Israel, Tibet to Japan many are protesting by self immolation for the crushing oppression of governments and peoples. As a Korean, I heard the old stories when the Japanese occupied. It was brutal to say the least. The older Koreans will not forget, how could you when your oppressors force you to adopt a new language, culture, and way of life. Let's not forget good ol North Korean on top of soon to be shitstorm in Southeast Asian region. I wonder if China will react to the weakening relationship of Japan and Korea.
I salute to this elderly veteran. He has the guts to do something others won't dare. And he is not doing it for his own good.
"an 80-year old South Korean set himself on fire on Wednesday during a protest calling for Japan to apologize for forcing Korean girls and women to work in military brothels during World War Two" The Chinese had it right. Start burning Japanese multinationals businesses, imported cars, etc in protest. The Chinese had it a lot worse in WWII. The Japanese just sliced up pregnant Chinese woman because the Japanese viewed them as being sub-human.
Cue Brian Johnson!
"...FIRRRRE!!!"
The most important thing to take from this is that humans DO act cruelly toward other humans - and that has been true for millions of years. It will NOT change. The Germans were no better in WWII - the Russians just as bad. The Vietnamese were full of atrocities. Cambodia was bad. Iraq fought Iran with chemical weapons. ISIS is still a youngster. When the U.S. collapses it will be no better.
Alluding to the regular religious god botherers above if religion and it's priests, ministers, bishops etc were subject to KPI's in the same fashion as a company, they'd all be booted out and replaced with higher achievers.
If the purpose of organised religion is to influence people to be good, overall, it might be fair to judge the effort as piss poor. It works on the uneducatred plebs and probably has an overall positive impact on them by scaring the living bejezus out of them with eternal fire and the like. It has never worked on the psychopathic, narcissistic, sociopathetic leaders of the world.
Hang on, I've just made a earth shattering discovery. Religion was invented by the psychopathic, narcissistic, sociopathetic leaders of the world to control the plebs.
Good.
As all Americans know, North Korea and South are islands belonging to Japan.
So nothing to comment here, is a regional thing of them.
Japan and the Philippines belong to the United States.
It's all right there ...
Hehe ...
As MOST americans know...
some of us are just ignant.
What a scam this "comfort women" story is. The Japanese Army didn't run the brothels, they were run by Korean collaborators. The girls weren't slaves, they were paid. Recruitment was never a problem because it was wartime, there were lots of desperate families, so why would you need slaves? The numbers of "former comfort women" multiplied when PM Bak started offering payments to any comfort women who would come forward -- and no questions were asked. The Koreans are building statues to the comfort women all over the world, blighting neighborhoods in California among others. Just a made-up stick to beat the Japanese with.
You, I'm sorry, it is an imbecile.
Read some historical testimonies of women used by the Japanese and you also kill.
Will do a favor ZH.
Historical monuments?
Show also show how many there are of Jews.
Or you are a Troll or, very uneducated.
If I'm sorry sincerity.
: - /
Just how old are you kid? Where the hell did you learn your history?
Is this really news?
When humans light themselves on fire in the USSA (because of Draconian child support laws) it doesn't even make the big city newspapers, let alone national news or ZH.
http://freekeene.com/2011/06/16/thomas-james-ball-self-immolated-in-prot...
Japan is a crony to west and west has given its currency a high status. So Japan can print a ton(trillion) of yen and give to each crying babby
Sad to see.
There may have been some cases where women have been taken advantage of, sent to work on host clubs, etc.; but - some cases were voluntary. We even have KOR Women making claims that many were Hostesses on Voluntary Bases - they were calling them "Sluts".
I'm surprised no one has Self-Immolated due to the Acts of US Soldiers' Foul Play. They've been around for over 60 Years.
That being said - coersion into the Sex Industry happens Today. Many Places. It doesn't have to be Soldiers in a War Effort. It could be Anyone with Power and/or Money.
whores for the troops! the horror!