The 1971 Anjeong-ri race riot, Part 2

In my last post, I looked at Korean reports on the July 9, 1971 race riot which occurred in Anjeong-ri, outside Camp Humphreys. On July 16, Stars and Stripes published a long article about the incident:

KOREAN CROWD MILLS OUTSIDE
CAMP HUMPHREYS' CONCERTINA WIRE.

Black GIs on Rampage
Riot-Torn Anjong-Ni—Why It Happened

By M. SGT. JIM FREELAND and JIM LEA
S&S Korea Bureau

ANJONG-NI, Korea—A sign hangs on the rear wall of the security guard house at the Camp Humphreys main gate which lists the names of 12 bars.

Beside each is a pair of nails from which a small plaque is hung to tell American GIs who are the life's blood of this village of perhaps 2,000 population, 60 miles south of Seoul, the situation in each bar. A black plaque means the place is on limits; a yellow one means it is off limits.

Since 9:30 p.m. July 10, all the plaques have been yellow. The sign will remain that way for a very long time, Camp Humphreys commander, Col. John C. McWhorter, says.

A few minutes past 9 p.m. that Friday, 50 black soldiers from Camp Humphreys walked into Duffy's Tavern, one of the plushest of the bars which line a pathway GIs call "the alley," climbed up on the stage and told everyone to leave the club. In minutes, they had demolished it and moved on to three other clubs which, they say, discriminate against blacks. Those were demolished too. "They didn't stay around each place very long," McWhorter said.

"They hit one place, then moved to the next. Some news stories have said there were whites involved, but that is not true. This was between a group of black soldiers and Koreans."

More than 200 MPs and Korean National Police swarmed into the area and struggled to separate the combatants. McWhorter ordered the village put off limits and the MPs began moving Americans back up Anjong-Ni's single dusty street.

"We had about 80 men who were moving back toward the gate with a crowd of Koreans following them. The Koreans started throwing rocks and, to break up the crowd and protect the camp, we used tear gas grenades/' he said.

"Some shots were fired from .45 cal. pistols.

"No one was shot down here. There are rumors that some people were shot but that isn't true. All the shots were fired into the air to break up the crowds."

Four bars were extensively damaged. Four days after the riot, young Korean men loafed amidst the wreckage, playing go (Japanese chess), coming alert only when newsmen came in too look at the damage. Then, they hobbled about.

The bar owners are claiming 20 million won ($54,000) damage and the 8th Army Claims Office is accepting claims. If they are legitimate, they will be paid, an Army spokesman said.

The damage does not appear that extensive.

There were no houses damaged. One shop window was broken, apparently by a rock, and the Koreans reportedly were throwing the rocks.

By 11:30 p.m., most of the Americans were out of the village and safely behind concertina wire which had been stretched across the gate. About 10 U.S. dependents were moved out of the village and onto the compound.

"There was one man down here on leave with his wife. We brought them on the base Friday night and moved them out the next day," McWhorter said.

Saturday, U.S. MPs swept through the village twice in a door-to-door search for other Americans.

"There was a lot of anger out there, a lot of tension. The men who got caught in it went into hiding. They were afraid," McWhorter said.

One man, a Negro, was caught by villagers as he tried to make his way back to Camp Humphreys Saturday and was beaten. Police rescued him. Another man, who was injured Friday night, was found during a search and was taken back to the post dispensary.

"This man was not involved in the riot. He's one of my best EOT (equal opportunities and treatment) men, and he definitely was not involved in it.

"We don't know, yet, exactly who was involved. We're investigating, but no one has been charged yet. There were many people hurt, but just because a person was hurt doesn't mean that he was involved in it. Many were simply bystanders.

Anjong-Ni is not an unusual village.

Its single unpaved, pot-holed street is lined with vegetable stores, a hotel — which the manager says soon will boast a miniature golf course and a swimming pool—tailor and shoe shops which hawk the outlandish fashions of the young and souvenir stores which offer everything from peace beads to intricately etched Korean brassware.

The 12 bars which dot "the alley" are by GI bar standards in Korea, plush, but they are like GI gin mills anywhere. Camp Humphreys is Anjong-Ni's major industry. It is the reason the village was built and the people and the village could not exist without it.

Its future is now shrouded in a cloud which has put the economy of other towns, other people, in jeopardy: racial discrimination.

Duffy's, where Friday night's riot began, is a major source of the discrimination, blacks say.

"We have no place here to relax. The bartenders don't like to serve us, the girls don't like to sit with us," they say.

These are the same complaints that other GIs in Japan, the Philippines, in other areas of Asia, have. They are difficult to prove.

In Friday night's riot, 14 Americans and Koreans were injured and were treated at U.S. military medical facilities. One Korean, a slim man nicknamed "Johnny," the manager of Duffy's, was evacuated to the 121st Evac. Hospital in Seoul for treatment of three stab wounds in the abdomen.

In town, people were saying Johnny was dead and a secret funeral had been held for him Monday.

Monday afternoon, Johnny was returned from Seoul and he was driven from the base to his home in a Pacific Stars and Stripes station wagon, one of the few U.S. forces vehicles allowed into the village that day. As we moved through the concertina wire at the gate, people in a crowd glared at us. The crowd had gathered a few moments earlier when base officials decided to allow Korean women through the gate to visit their boy friends.

Then someone recognized Johnny and word that he was not dead spread quickly down the street. In seconds, the hostility vanished and people ran alongside the car, shouting welcome home and smiling for the first time in four days.

As we took him home, Johnny told us about his club and about what happened.

"I was in the club about 9 p.m. and a bunch of black soldiers came in and told everybody to get out. I ran next door to call the police. We've had a lot of trouble here before and I knew, there was going to be trouble again."

"When I got back to the club, I couldn't get inside because the black soldiers had pushed everybody out. I could hear them tearing up the place. When they left, I followed them to the street. There were a lot of people around and suddenly someone stabbed me. I don't know who did it. There were too many people around."

"I don't know why they did it. Somebody said it was because there was fight between a black soldier and a white soldier at my club early in the evening. That's not true. There wasn't any fight before 9 p.m.

We asked point-blank if there was racial discrimination in Duffy's.

Johnny lowered his head and answered very quietly, "no."

"Is the service you give whites any different than that you give blacks?"

He ignored the question and waved out the window at a woman who was running beside the car, waving at him.

The manager of another bar gave at least one piece of concrete evidence of discrimination.

"A lot of it has to do with credit. Many of the bars use chit books. When a soldier doesn't have any money he can use the chits and pay on pay day. We had a bar owners meeting and some of us argued that the chit books are no good. They only cause problems."

He said other bar owners will extend credit to white soldiers, but not to blacks. He said his bar does not extend credit, to anyone.

Some people in town — and some on base — say that gangsters have been brought into town to keep the blacks out. They say the gangsters are being paid two million won ($5,400) for the job.

"All I know," an MP said, "is that since Friday a lot of girls have been leaving and a lot of men have been coming in."

"Those are rumors," McWhorter said. "We've heard that's being done and are investigating, but so far we haven't confirmed it."

The riot at Anjong-Ni Friday night has served one purpose: It has brought the black soldiers and white soldiers a little closer together.

Monday, when GIs were allowed to go back into the village with an MP escort to pick up their belongings, blacks were not allowed to go.

"No sweat, man," white GIs said time and again, "I'll get your stuff for you."

Anjong-Ni's bars now are faced with a choice: Either clean up their town and end discrimination or go broke.

"The village will stay off limits indefinitely," McWhorter said. "It will be off limits until each man who goes out the gate receives the same treatment as the next man."

---------

That article places the blame in a rather different place than the Korea Times articles did, specifically noting the credit system as a source of discrimination. Note also the way in which the off limits decree was being used to punish the Korean club owners.

One of the few books that delves into the racial tensions within USFK in the early 1970s is Katharine Moon's 'Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations.' She not only looks at media reports, but also uses internal USFK documents and interviews with Korean and American officials. (The information that follows is found on pages 67-74 of the book.)

One of the things she notes as contributing to tension at that time was the fact that, as part of the Nixon doctrine, 20,000 US troops were pulled out of Korea by the end of 1971. As a SOFA subcommittee put it in 1972,

The drawdown of U.S. forces introduced new elements of tension into traditionally friendly relationships. Accompanying base closures and restationing of U.S. forces resulted in widespread dislocations among Koreans living in villages adjacent to U.S. bases… and resulted in increased competition among bar owners, “business girls,” and merchants.

Moon notes that while problems had always existed in the camptowns, Koreans were generally able to overlook them for the sake of their livelihoods. As their livelihoods became threatened, this began to change, and as this was happening, in the summer of 1971 fights between black and white soldiers began to spill over into the camptowns and involve Koreans. An investigation by the Joint SOFA Committee noted that most incidents took place in or near clubs in the camptowns:

A careful review of such incidents reveals that a large number, if not a majority, of such clashes arise from feelings by black servicemen that they are being discriminated against in some respect by either white servicemen or Korean service personnel working in various Korean clubs… More specifically, investigations reflect that black charges of discriminatory practices in Korean clubs relate to the performance of three functions by club proprietors and their managers and personnel. These are 1) alleged or real discrimination against black servicemen in the service or food or beverages on club premises; 2) alleged or real discrimination by bona fide hostesses working in the clubs against black servicemen in their entertainment or dancing functions on club premises; 3) alleged or real discrimination against black servicemen by club management in the selection of types of music played within the clubs.

The Psychological Operations unit of the Eighth Army found that

[t]his [increased Korean] involvement [in racial confrontations] normally assumes three forms of progression. First, the Koreans aggravate racial problems [existing on post] by discriminatory practices. Second, they are often the injured party during black/white confrontations, suffering physical and/or property damage. Third, they demonstrate, often violently, against U.S. troops in general and against blacks in particular… Discriminatory practices by the Koreans are usually of a passive nature rather than one of violence. In the clubs, such practices include poor service, unfriendliness, and sometimes refusal to even serve black soldiers. Among business girls, such practices take on two forms. Some of the business girls refuse to associate with blacks. Some also discriminate against Koreans who do associate with blacks and consider those Koreans to be of lower status than those who go only with white soldier[s]. Polarization has developed to the point that some girls are called ‘black’ because of their frequent association with blacks.

Moon mentions racial attitudes Koreans have towards those (Korean or foreign) who have darker skin, but describes “American racial ideology” as the “primary source of Korean’s racism towards African-Americans, both in Korea and in the United States.” Supporting this are quotations from US military personnel:

“Korean locals have been subjected to the attitudes of the white majority for so long that they practice discrimination without even being aware of what they’re doing.”

“[It is] undoubtedly true that in many instances club owners and the hostesses are discriminatory towards one group or the other… However, it must be recognized that we have created this condition through patronage habits and individual or group behavior. … In many instances, vociferous groups have forced Korean clubs to cater to only a certain group and exclude all others. … Korean business establishments willingly try to correct those undesirable practices over which they have control but are in a dilemma when they try to correct a situation which is created and controlled by the patrons. Korean businessmen, hostesses, and residents have been drawn into the midst of the current turmoil."

The influence of American racial attitudes seems clear enough from this photo from the Kyunghyang Sinmun:

Other than "BLACK, BLACK, BLACK" and "Go back to cotton field," it's hard to read the banners, though Moon writes that the one on the right reads "We don't need any ni--ers" [as did Stars and Stripes in another article at the time].

The one on the left may also say "we will show you our might" (or 'right', though the line below it in Korean seems to read "안정리 주민 일동" (All the citizens of Anjung-ri), which perhaps supports reading it as "might."

To be sure, "Go back to cotton field" is specifically American, and supports the idea that some of these attitudes were learned from white Americans in Korea.

This essay summarizes Moon's account of what happened in response to the race riots:

Congressman Ronald Dellums, himself an African-American, accused the Korean government and people of mistreating black servicemen. Dellums supported pulling U.S. troops out of Korea, stating that they did not need to be where they were not wanted.

In order to entice the American military to continue to stay on the Korean peninsula, the South Korean government initiated the Camptown Clean-up Campaign (1971-1976). This campaign had two major goals: the first was to regulate and control the spread of venereal diseases among kijich’on women, and the second was to press for behavioral and policy changes regarding discrimination against black military personnel. This included educating Korean club owners and employees as well as white American soldiers about racial discrimination. Club owners were also encouraged to post signs that read: “Serve All Customers Equally,” and “Don’t Discriminate—Participate.”

Moon's book is primarily about the Camptown Clean-up Campaign, and it looks at how it sought to manage the roles prostitutes played as 1) vectors of disease (and thus subjected them to increasing state control through mandatory STD tests) and 2) as, in some ways, ambassadors for Korea, since they were often the Koreans with whom soldiers had the closest connections.. On the one hand, the campaign involved active Korean government and US military involvement in controlling aspects of (and thereby abetting) prostitution, and on the other an attempt to end discrimination towards black soldiers by the Koreans who most often were in contact with them. The acknowledgement that this had become an intolerable problem only came with the riots that took place in Anjeong-ri 40 years ago tomorrow.

There are other aspects of the US military presence in Korea at this time which are very interesting, but I'll have to delve into those when I have more time...

The 1971 Anjeong-ri race riot

On July 11, 1971, the Korea Times published the following story about an incident in Pyeongtaek which occurred July 9 (click to enlarge):


You can find discussions of such race riots on sites which have stories of former soldiers who served in Korea in the early 1970s (such as the second and fourth stories here, which mention incidents in the camptown outside ASCOM (near Bupyeong in Incheon)), but it's a chapter of history which is not well known. The one described above was the largest that occurred, and, I believe, the one which involved the most Koreans. I don't know if any other such race-related incidents led to demonstrations by Koreans.

The article briefly mentions that the black soldiers were "angered over what they claimed was racial discrimination by the Korean community," but quickly follows the story with piece about an incident in Busan which makes it appear to be a grudge match between black and white soldiers. Note that both the Korea Times and this this Kyunghyang Sinmun article from a day earlier put the number of injured Koreans at 50. A Korea Times article the next day gave a much smaller number:


Again, the black soldiers "meant to clash with white soldiers, but when the white GIs ran away, they assaulted the hall employees and destroyed the furniture," resulting in harm to "innocent Korean residents." Koreans are portrayed again as innocent victims, and no mention is made, as it was briefly in the first article, of "racial discrimination by the Korean community." A closer look at the photo accompanying the Kyunghyang Sinmun article might suggest that "racial discrimination" existed, however:


I'll discuss this more later, but it's pretty easy to read the lines "BLACK BLACK BLACK" and "Go back to cotton field" on the placards.

A Kyunghyang Sinmun article from July 13, 1971, published this photo of one of the clubs taken the "investigation into the rampage."


The shops soon re-opened, but the Korean residents now faced a new problem, as this July 14, 1971 Korea Times article reveals:


The article again brings up the "meant to clash with white soldiers" explanation, but undermines this by quoting an owner of one of the clubs as saying, "As soon as the black soldiers set foot inside, they began destroying everything in sight. It seemed to be planned in advance." It also brings up the effects of the "off limits" decree, with business owners worrying about the lack of customers.

The next day, the Korea Times published the following report about another disturbance:


Interesting that this incident in Dongducheon is reported as having started when "a Korean boy jeered at a Korean girl walking with an American soldier," something which helped set off a similar incident in 1995. A Donga Ilbo article from a day earlier had published this photo:


Both the Korea Times and Donga Ilbo (as well as the Kyunghyang Sinmun) describe 200 soldiers as being involved in the incident. A Stars and Stripes article published on the 16th refutes this:


"Highly exaggerated" press reports? Who could imagine such a thing?

Needless to say, the question of why these events - especially the race riots - occurred, and how they changed the way in which the Korean government and the US military dealt with relations in the camptowns, cannot be quickly answered. In the next post, I'll look at Stars and Stripes' coverage of the Anjeong-ri riot and Katherine Moon's analysis of these events.

Congratulations to Korea for (finally) getting to host the Winter Olympics. 2018 will no doubt be an interesting time to be here.

Everyone in Pyeongchang seems much happier than four years ago.

(Shouldn't they be in bed?)

With all the cheering and fireworks, I'd have thought there'd be no tears this time, but was wrong.

Hazy days

On Saturday I took the AREX downtown. I usually enjoy the view as the train crosses the Han River, and that day was no exception.


I obviously had to brighten the photo up a bit to be able to make out the Banghwa Bridge. At left is Deogyangsan, on top of which is the Haengju Sanseong. In the haze, the view reminds me of old (especially Chinese) landscape painting.


The view that followed, not so much.


The view (prior to the freeway) almost compensated for the horribly humid weather that day.

Busan Ilbo: Corrupt hagwons taking advantage of foreign teachers a problem

On July 2 the Busan Ilbo published the following article:

"Corrupt hagwons, foreign instructor's income tax, pension embezzled"

■Where did the tax paid every month go?

After receiving an E-2 (conversation instruction) visa, New Zealander A (33, female) entered into a 1 year employment contract with a language hagwon in Gimhae and taught English. A was aware that, on the pretext of paying her income tax for her, every month the hagwon deducted 50,000 from her monthly salary.

However, when she prepared to return home at the end of her contract, she received notice from the tax office that not a penny of income tax had been paid during the last year. The hagwon owner had intentionally not submitted A's income tax return to the tax office and kept the money she had paid. Her return home blocked, A's friend quickly lent her money to pay the 600,000 won in unpaid taxes so she could board a plane to New Zealand.

Contractually specified severance pay, airfare denied
ATEK, "Guarantee of rights" legislative petition movement

■ Stolen pension and severance pay

B (34), and American, had his pension and severance pay stolen. B worked as an English instructor at another hagwon in Busan, but after a year when he inquired at the National Pension Service, he learned the truth that the hagwon had not paid a penny of his monthly pension payment for 12 months. The hagwon had deliberately not submitted anything to the service. In addition, the hagwon did not provide B with the severance pay or airfare stipulated in the contract.

Recently the Association of Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK) has drawn attention with its campaign to petition for legislation which will have the information of foreigners who have entered the country on E-2 visas automatically registered with the National Tax Service, the National Pension Service, and the National Health Insurance Corporation. This strategy is due to the common practice of hagwons not giving foreign instructors what is rightfully owed to them.

In fact, according to the Busan Foundation for International Activities, during the first half of this year they have received over 20 complaints from foreigners in the Busan area victimized by corrupt hagwons.

By type, cases in which hagwons do not pay the pension contributions and health insurance premiums that they should split with the instructor and which result in the instructor not receiving medical benefits or returning home empty-handed often occur.

As well, there are many examples of hagwons deliberately not reporting income or not paying the severance pay or airfare stipulated in the contract. Hagwons abuse the fact that though foreign instructors can lodge complaints against them, because they are returning home and are pressed for time, they have no choice but to finally relinquish their rights, ATEK revealed.

ATEK's position is that for the sake of foreign instructor's rights there is a need for the immigration office to establish a legal system in which the personal and employment information of foreigners with E-2 visas is transmitted to the National Tax Service, the National Pension Service, and the National Health Insurance Corporation in order to automatically register those paying pension contributions and health insurance premiums.

ATEK spokesperson Gregory Dolezal stressed that, "Due to the tax evasion, the harm done by hagwons not reporting foreign teachers' income ultimately affects Koreans." "To also improve Korea's national image, legislation to hold corrupt hagwons in check is absolutely necessary."

Kudos to reporter Hwang Seok-ha for the fair report. Yes, one shouldn't have to congratulate journalists for writing fair reports, but that's how it is. The fact that the Busan Ilbo published the two most negative articles about foreign teachers this year makes this article even more of a pleasant surprise.

It's also nice to see ATEK pushing for changes to legislation, and in the Korean language media - something I'd always hoped they would do more of. I contacted Greg Dolezal to ask about the article and the campaign. This is his reply:

Yes, there is a campaign, but first we are collecting as much data as we can to demonstrate our point. We have a poll of roughly 500 respondents from an ATEK/KOTESOL/AFEK poll plus regional stats from the labor boards and our own case logs.

BFIA is just one source [of information], and the migrant labor board has had many more complaints. Most people teaching don't know about BFIA yet because services for teachers are limited outside of an emergency hotline. (Other migrant organizations often send English teachers away because they target laborers rather than white-collar migrants.)

The ideal situation is if the tax office, pension service, and national health support the idea and become advocates because they lose money and have to contend with the problems, too.

Finding a national assembly member to lead in this would be a major advantage. But, we need to raise awareness in the Korean public because ultimately that's the only way to finally succeed.

Anyone who wants to volunteer on this should contact us. There is a lot to do. We have great volunteers but it takes many focused people to accomplish a goal like this.

Lots of good news here. I hope ATEK does well with this. Also worth mentioning is that, compared to the more than 375 negative articles about foreign teachers in the press last year, during the first half this year there have been only 88 negative articles. Hopefully that trend continues, and hopefully we'll see more articles like the one above.

What's to be done about 'native speaker' bias?

A few weeks ago in the Korea Times, an opinion piece criticized Korea's idealization of native speakers:

It is evident that Seoul's policy to draw upon English language use in a communication is from what we could call a "native speaker-ism" mindset. This promotes the hegemony of only English-speaking countries. It assumes that knowledge of the forms and functions of English must be oriented to the usage in these countries.

It also reinforces the perception that all second-language speakers are incomplete or deficient in their communicative competence while striving for the target competence of idealized "native speakers." Consequently, billions of bilingual speakers of English, including Korean-English speakers, are always measured against the standard of a native English speaker and found to be "incomplete" and "deficient.”

Some fair enough points there, especially since most of the people Koreans are likely to speak English with would be non-native speakers.

Benjamin Wagner's response to this piece, titled "What's to be done about 'native speaker' bias?" was published in the Korea Times today:

In her recent Korea Times article, "I am an English speaker, too," Ms. Ahn Hye-jeong, a Monash University English instructor and a doctoral candidate, presents a compelling argument against the idealization of "native speaker" teachers of English.

She argues that the "chauvinistic views" and "native speaker-ism mindset" of Korean policymakers has resulted in the promulgation of a dubious criterion whereby "Korean English speakers, are always measured against the standard of a native English speaker and found to be "incomplete" and "deficient."

Expanding on ideas he put forward in his presentation at the Canadian Embassy a few months ago, he points out the ways in which Korean ideas about race affect both Korean and non-Korean English teachers:

In a society where race serves as an indicator of linguistic competence, opportunities for Korean English teachers only tend to open up where their race acts as a guarantor of their ethical competence since the same racial bias that accords non-Koreans special status as native speakers also marks them as morally suspect.

Be sure to read the entire piece.

Korea Times article on Adoption bill has a certain focus...

The Korea Times also reported on international adoption today:

From July next year, foreigners will be restricted from adopting a Korean child, unless the government fails to find his or her foster family here.

Under the Special Law on Adoption and its Procedures passed the National Assembly Wednesday, the government will be responsible for reducing the number of babies and children adopted by parents abroad. [..']

“It puts the top priority on the welfare of adopted children,” said Rep. Choi Young-hee, a lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party who proposed the bill.

She argued that those adopted abroad are more vulnerable to identity crisis and abuses by foster parents.

If I wanted to be snarky, I could say that Choi has been busy the past few years pushing legislation to protect Korean children from foreigners (and again, and using incorrect statistics and "I read about this somewhere" to justify it), but that would be unfair, considering statements she's made like this. Still, saying that those adopted abroad are more vulnerable to identity crisis and abuses would indicate that they wouldn't face such problems in Korea (as if children dumped in an orphanage (especially if their parents are still alive) don't have questions about their identity or place in the world). Not everyone is on board, however:

Critics, however, say that more children will be sent to orphanages or temporary shelters as a result of the measure.

Government statistics show that of 8,590 abandoned babies and children in need of care last year, only 1,462 were adopted domestically while 1,013 were taken home by foreigners.

What of the other 6,115 children? Having volunteered at an orphanage, had a co-worker who worked at an orphanage (who had tons of negative stories), and having a friend who grew up in one, I'd have to say the critics are right. I worked with preschoolers and they were especially rough kids. I still remember one cutie-pie 5 year-old girl who got annoyed at a boy, grabbed his head, and slammed it into the wall. While overseas adoption isn't the best solution by any stretch of the imagination, it's likely better than being raised in an orphanage.

The new legislation was enacted as part of government’s efforts to shed its notorious reputation as an “orphan exporter” and give more rights to adoptive children.

One wonders if the nation's image has taken precedence over the rights of children here. How does ensuring more children will end up in orphanages give them more rights?

The answer to this is not to be found in that Korea Times article, in part because they didn't report most of the story found in Korean language stories, such as this Yonhap piece and this Medical Today article.

Parts of the bill include creating an 'adoption deliberation system' which will allow birth parents a week after birth to decide on adoption,a system introduced to deal with problems arising from single mothers who, in a psychologically unsteady state, chose adoption before giving birth but then changed their minds.

Also mentioned are things like a guarantee of access to adoption-related information for international adoptees, a 'family court permission system' for those who have passed through a procedure to get permission from state institutions, preventing those with sexual, drug or domestic violence records from adopting, and making effort to curtail international adoption.

Those aspects of the bills, and others mentioned, make the bill sound like it will be helpful. But what is mentioned above is all that there is to be found about curtailing international adoption in the Korean language press (via Naver search at least). Perhaps its because the KT takes an interest in international issues that other papers do not. Or perhaps the sentence "She argued that those adopted abroad are more vulnerable to identity crisis and abuses by foster parents" simply materialized out of thin air (note that it's not a quotation). It wouldn't be the first time.



The Korea Times also reported today that we can look forward to having our fingerprints scanned at immigration offices from today, a precursor to all visitors being scanned at airports. Because, hey, if the U.S. and Japan are doing it...

Bus conductress update

As I mentioned in this post about bus conductresses, the main character in Yeongja's Heyday, the most popular film of 1975, worked as a bus conductress at one point before losing her arm in an accident. These screenshots should give some idea of how precarious and dangerous the job could be:



Imagine doing that job in Seoul traffic in the 1970s...

More trains to be in service on Line 9 by year's end

I was waiting at Gayang Station on Line 9 last week when a train inched into the station. Its speed and the fact that the announcement board said not to board the train made me curious, and this is what it looked like inside:




The sign reads "Train on trial run - do not board." A look at the Wikipedia entry for Line 9 revealed this welcome bit of information:

Currently [sic] there are 36 trains with four cars each. The express train comes every 20 minutes and the all-stop train comes every 6.7 minutes. Due to the number of riders exceeding 250,000 per day, 12 additional four car trains have been ordered and are expected to be in service starting October, 2011. This would mean the express train comes every 7~10 minutes and the all-stop train comes every 5 minutes.

This Munhwa Ilbo article is listed as a source, which makes clear that, when the 12 new trains are put into service in October, there will be 36 trains in total, meaning there must be 24 trains at the moment (most likely 8 express and 16 all-stop trains). It also notes that the new trains would arrive in July 2011, 16 months after the order was placed for them (ie March 2010). I imagine they've arrived early, and that the train above is one of them.

The increase in the number of trains is welcome news. The express trains are jam-packed to the point they can no longer take on passengers (after two stops!) in the mornings, and are little better in the evenings. One reason for this is that the trains are only four cars long, but the stations have room for trains with eight cars. I'd wondered if this was a bid by the company to save money, seeing as it initially planned, if I remember correctly, to charge a fare of 1,300 won, but was forced by the city to charge 900 won (it's vaguely mentioned here). Perhaps this isn't the case, however. I think increasing the number of trains, rather than the number of cars, is the best way to go. The trains come infrequently compared to other subway lines (all-stop trains leave Gimpo Airport Station every 10 minutes, with express trains leaving every 20 minutes). Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the change, though as far as going downtown is concerned, the AREX line will always be faster, especially when the transfer at Gongdeok station opens at the end of this year. The two lines together have made the Gangseo-gu area feel much closer to downtown, and have affected housing prices as well.

One nice thing about the Line 9 trains is being able to look out the front window...

(Note much space is available for more cars.)

On the AETACK

On November 11, 1997, Stars and Stripes published the following article about AETACK .


AETACK's online postings can be found in Google Groups here. It's rather impressive that you can still read it after all this time.

The Korea Times article that is referred to above may be this one, from November 6, 1997:

Korea's International Image Faces Abuse in Cyberspace

Korea's international image has recently faced abuse on the Internet and in computer games sold in the U.S. A group calling themselves the American English Teachers Attacking Corrupt Koreans (AETACK) have sent random inflammatory anti-Korean electronic mail to subscribers on the Internet.

In one poison missive sent to members of America On Line entitled"No Visa Waiver For Korea," the message said "(We) feel that Korea does not deserve this privilege because of its behavior toward us and other foreign workers," adding that "the Korean economy is sinking into debt oblivion so they don't have much money to spend...there is also the threat of opening the door to Korean Mafia-style criminals who are acknowledged to be a problem by the FBI."

The group, apparently based in Korea, has become also the center of controversy for anonymously posting similar messages on opinion boards on the Internet.

One letter on the site of a local English newspaper said, "Some members may take other views. The common thread that holds this loose knit organization together is our shared desire to improve the working conditions of ESL teachers in Korea."

In another posting, Jeffrey M. Whitbread of Puchon, Kyonggi-do wrote in reply, "(AETACK is) using this as an excuse to bash Korea and make derogatory statements about Koreans, nothing more."

Another unidentified Korean-American also added, "(AETACK) crosses any lines, race or sex, and has a kinship with the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads... (those) who feel they have a legitimate cause but who are on the order of magnitude worse than whatever evils they are trying to eradicate."

The giant software company, Microsoft, was also recently condemned for creating and selling a computer game which depicts Koreans as a primitive race who go about without any clothing and live in makeshift homes made of coconut leaves.

Kim Chae-min, head of Microsoft Korea, asked for greater tolerance of the Korean public since it was a game and not any form of historical documentation.

Microsoft had earlier caused a public outcry in Korea for identifying the island of Tok-do, off the east coast, as Japanese territory on one of its CD-ROM products.

AETACK = KKK. Thanks Korea Times. Too bad a little bit of sugar wasn't used to make the "shared desire to improve the working conditions of ESL teachers in Korea" aspect go down better. Obviously their tone guaranteed a 'circle the wagons' response, not that it takes much to get that, wherever one is. And obviously no one took their complaints about Microsoft further than an 'outcry'...

"I really like freedom"

Planet Hollywood (From here)

A May 20, 1994 article tells us that

Superstar Bruce Willis and his band "The Accelerators" will perform at the U.S. Army Base in Seoul, Korea for 3,000 American troops on Thursday, May 26. The performance, a special request from the U.S.O., will be part of an effort to boost moral for the troops in Korea. Willis will make a private visit to American and South Korean soldiers in Korea's demilitarized zone.

Willis is in Korea to break ground for Planet Hollywood Seoul, which will be opening at the end of the year. After Seoul, Willis is on route to Hong Kong for the Grand Opening of Planet Hollywood Hong Kong, which will be the first Planet Hollywood in Asia.

A photo of Willis hanging out with Park Jung-hun during this visit is here. I'm not sure when the restaurant opened, exactly, but almost exactly a year later Willis returned with Jean-Claude Van Damme, Don Johnson and Cindy Crawford.

(From here)

It opened during a time of growing affluence, as this article notes, but apparently "closed within months." As this post describing a September 1995 visit to Seoul put it,

I wasn't surprised to hear that it later went out of business. It was so far from anything, that you couldn't even say it was close to nothing.

I'm not really sure where it was, but you can apparently buy paraphernalia from it like shot glasses online. Obviously, there is a reason for a post about Hollywood stars (something I care little about) visiting Seoul, namely this May 26, 1995 Stars and Stripes piece about Willis and Johnson's visit:

Stars pay visit to DMZ, troops
CAMP BONIFAS — Movie actors Bruce Willis and Don Johnson this week visited the U.N. truce village of Panmunjom and American troops stationed nearby.

U.S. Army helicopters brought the two stars and an entourage of about 40 people to camp. They were taken on a tour of nearby Panmunjom which straddles the Korean War ceasefire line just north of Bonifas.

"It gives me an odd feeling standing here," Johnson said, "because I really like freedom."

As a solemn-faced North Korean guard outside leaned close to a window to peer at the crowd inside the building, Willis struck a tough-guy pose, balled fists at his sides, and quipped, "Gimme a reason. Just gimme a reason."

Back at Bonifas, they posed for scores of photos with the troops. Then, as a crowd of about 200 security force soldiers enjoyed music of Willis' rock'n'roll band, Johnson, in an interview, called the DMZ visit "one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life."

"I really like freedom." "Just gimme a reason." What would we do without celebrities to guide us with their wise words? And why didn't Willis follow up on this with a movie in which he single-handedly reunifies Korea?

The return of the bus conductress

This photo appeared on the Korea Times' site yesterday:

Please use buses: Women who worked as bus conductors in the 1970s wave to passengers in their old uniforms at a bus stop in central Seoul, during an event organized by Seoul City to promote the use of public transportation, Wednesday.

They seem quite cheerful, which stands in contrast to the description of their job found on this page about extinct jobs:

In the 1960s, the major means of transportation was by bus. The buses of those days had only one hand-operated door in the middle, while the bus of today has two automatic doors for entrance and exit. Therefore, people back then got on and off through the same door.

The conductress system was introduced in 1961. The average age of conductress was only 17 and most of them were country girls who came to the city to earn money to support their families. Bus conductress collected bus fares, and pushed passengers into the bus, and dragged passengers trying to get off the bus. In particular, when a bus was jam-packed during rush hour, conductress had to be as strong as Hercules in order to push the passengers on. They also opened and shut the door and called "Oraii!!" to the bus driver striking the bus as soon as all the passengers had got on. If the bus was too crowded, it used to run on with the door open. Sometimes, this caused unexpected accidents. Bus conductress used to fall off from the bus and get injured, or even die in the worst cases.

The conductresses were superwomen. They worked from 4 a.m. to 12 p.m. They had no break time, because they had to clean the bus and run trivial errands for the driver. Bus companies provided them with room and board, but it was terrible. Their lodgings were really narrow and had no proper shower stall. An avalanche of protests was heard after a bus company frisked conductresses on suspicion of their stealing money. The number of applicants decreased in the beginning of the 1980s, and the shortage in conductresses became worse. Finally, the automatic bus was introduced in 1985. Passengers no longer paid the bus fare to the conductress and put the fare in the fare box. In 1989, conductress finally faded into the mist of history.

The mention of accidents reminds me of the main character in Yeongja's Heyday, the most popular film of 1975, who works as a bus conductress and loses her arm in an accident, leading her to become a prostitute. The reaction to the friskings the girls received is mention in this Korea Times op-ed article from February 1976 about the trials faced by bus conductresses:


Another extinct job mentioned at that site is the dabang DJ - do give it a read. Today I suppose there's no reason to have a DJ play your songs when you can simply sing them yourself. The Joongang Ilbo today took a look at the history of the noraebang - which turns 20 this year, a topic that Antti Leppänen delved into five years ago.

And on the topic of things that have disappeared into the past, this post is worth looking at.