Something positive coming out of all this

Well, it looks like we have something to thank old Mr. Rhie for today. The LA Times reports that in the wake of this controversy, Korean American leaders have formed deeper bonds with Jewish leaders. The Korean leaders made their first visit to the historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple, where they were welcomed as friends. That's nice to see.

Contrast that with what they're saying over at Ktown213.com, for example (about Rhie Won-bok)

"We need MORE people like him and less stupid korean americans who don't know
what they are talking about."

and

"In fact I think these so called 'leaders' are a bunch of idiots who are bending down and sucking every zionist c*ck thinking they even had a friendly relationship with the ashkenazi jews in the first place. . . The fact the jews are so concerned about some CARTOONS a korean in korea produced shows the zionistic nature that DOES exist in the media. That rabi just proved the professors point of view. "

Very classy, bl**ping out the curses like that. But in fact that last point is the major reaction that I've heard here in Korea. "This proves that the Jews control the press!" Is it the conspiratorial mindset that makes people in Korea instantly assume that only a Jew-controlled media would care about this?

The scale of the problem

I have received a couple of comments from Korean readers of this page asking that I make clear the exact extent of the racist and antisemitic content in the Monnara series. First of all, I have received some criticism for repeating the statistic that 12 million books from the series have been sold. I never intended to imply that volume 10 sold 12 million copies. Unfortunately I don't have any figures on exactly how many copies the book in question has sold. Let's say that it's reasonable to assume that each of the twelve volumes garnered around one twelfth of those sales, so we can estimate that this book sold between 500,000 and one million copies.
Although I have not read the entire series, I have heard from those who have read the whole series who tell me that the earlier volumes (written years before the three volumes on America) are much more scholarly and well-researched, as well as being based on the author's vast personal experience in the countries in question. I have seen volume 11, about U.S. history, and I can't say I found anything wrong with it. volume 12 is about American Presidents and I can't imagine it would differ much from any such book. Thus as far as I am concerned the problem lies only in volume 10.
Within volume 10 itself, the first 4 chapters of 8 are general history, with very little of the author's opinion injected. I find no fault with them. Chapter 5 is about immigration, and contains the cartoon about "white trash" that made its way around the internet. Although this chapter presents a generally negative view of immigrant nations, I can't find any huge fault with it. Chapter 6 is about the dark side of America, and my major fault with it is that it presents American workers as groveling and desperate, frequently using the imagery of a worker prostrate before his stern-faced boss begging not to be fired. Chapter 7, about credit, which I am currently in the process of translating, is a bit factually wrong in that it describes credit and the rule of law as a sort of desperate measure that immigrant nations resort to in order to force disparate ethnic and racial elements to live together in harmony. This is repeatedly presented as inferior to the supposed harmony that mono-ethnic societies like Japan and Korea enjoy. This is also the chapter in which the picture of the black girl saying that she and her baby would starve to death without welfare appears. But it is chapter 8 that has rightly garnered international attention as a piece of classic Jewish conspiracy theory.
So one chapter of one book in a series of twelve is absolutely intolerable. What's the big deal? The big deal is that by the time the reader has gotten through the first 9 books and the previous 7 chapters he or she is fully convinced of Professor Rhie's erudition and authority and ready to accept everything he has to say without question. Isn't that much worse than a patently false, easily dismissed work of junk propaganda?

Update:
According to a new AP article

More than 10 million copies from the 12-book series titled "Meon Nara, Yiwoot Nara," or "Far Countries, Near Countries," have been sold since it was first published in 1987, according to its publisher, Gimm-Young Publishers Inc. The company boasts that at least one volume is in every South Korean home in this country of 48 million people.

Straight from the horse's mouth. The 12 million figure I was quoting came from a Korean news article earlier this month.

Chapter 7: Credit is Life part 2, pages 195-198

This passage is interesting mostly for Rhie's fearmongering about the so-called 'economic death sentence' of bad credit. Although Koreans certainly have a lot more cash than Americans do he also doesn't acknowledge the prevailing American view of this disparity, in which Americans are enjoying their houses and cars while they pay them off, while Koreans are going without in the time it takes them to buy things outright with cash.

p195)
In America people with no credit that is to say an unverified credit rating, cannot do anything. When such people first come to America they still have no verified credit rating, they can't get a credit card, and for people in America once you are stuck with the label of bad credit, that is the equivalent of an economic death sentence.
Good credit is not just having a lot of money, creditis the evidence that you repay the money that you borrowed or the things that you bought on installment plans, and that you aren't the kind of person who borrows money and then fails to pay it back. The only way to have good credit is to build up a record of faithful repayment.
You can only get a credit card by building a credit history. Once you do that banks that had haughtily refused to issue credit cards will fiercely compete to offer their credit cards to you.

p196)
In America you can't do anything without a credit card. You can't rent a car or reserve a hotel and in many cases you can't even rent a house.
(Graphic shows the author and a real estate agent)
Rhie: I want to rent this house.
Agent: Oh, you came to America as an exchange professor.
Rhie: Yes, I would like to rent this house for two years.
Agent: Professor, you have no credit history, so I can't rent this house to you.
Rhie: I'm a college professor, but you still think I won't pay the rent?
Agent: It's not important to me whether you're a college professor. There's no guarantee that you will pay rent at the right time, professor. You have no credit history.
Rhie: Can't I just show you my bank book? There's enough money in it.
Agent: That's your money, not mine. If you don't give me the rent I'm the only victim.
Rhie: Oh, I'm angry. Even though I have enough money I can't rent this house because I have no credit. How about I pay one year rent in advance.
Agent (eyes exploding and jaw dropping): No problem. I'll give you a 10% discount. (thinks) In America it's a dream t touch this much money at once.

p197)
There are many times when credit is more important thatn cash. Let's say you're buying a car.
(Graphic shows a man and a salesman)
Man: OK, let's make a contract.
Salesman: $22,000 at 7.75% interest. How would you like to pay? Over 36 months?
Man: Installment plans are too complicated. I'll just pay all at once.
In this case the salesman will make a strange face.
Salesman (thinking): Naturally Asians have a lot of money. No American can buy a car with cash.
It's nice that you don't have to pay interest every month like you do on the installment plan, but the reliable monthly payment is decisively recorded in your credit history, and your credit points pile up regularly. If you come to be recognized as a trustworthy person you get accepted for a credit card. What Americans call a credit card literally means "trust card", so people who have one are people who've been economically verified to be trustworthy people. Before a credit card company issues a card they perform various meticulous checks. The basic information is where you work and how long you've worked there, and how much your income is, whether you have your own house and ho long you've lived there.

p198)
They check how much money a person has in the bank and whether he's paid off his loans on time and exactly. They must thoroughly check his economic power and ability to repay, and if the investigation company puts him on a "credit risk" or "bad credit" blacklist, we can see this person as economically already dead.
Even when the card is issued you don't get complete credit. For a fixed period, a so-called "secure card" is issued. In this case you can never take out more than the amount you have in the bank. Even though the monthly limit that you can use is high, it is strictly limited. In American society credit is so important that it is the same as life. If you have a credit card you can live your economic life even without a penny [of cash]. The credit card issuance process is strict and picky but America is also a capitalist society and if you can get a job there you can use that company's credit to get a credit card.

Dear Korean Readers/한국 독자 여러분께

오늘 내가 첫번째 한국분께서 질문 많은 이메일 받았어. Mr. J씨 한국말로 아래 있는 이메일 보내셨어.
I received my first email from a Korean today, asking several questions about this blog. "Mr. J" wrote the following in Korean:

어째서 당신은 한국인과 유대인을 이간질(싸움) 시키려 합니까?

유대인에게도 한국인을 비난시키려는 의도입니까?

그런 책은 학교에서 학생들을 가르치는 교과서(text book)이 아닙니다.

어느 나라나, 인종 혐오 감정이 있는

private book(사적 출판물) 이 발간될 수 있습니다.

실제로 거의 유명하지 않는(that book is not famous in korea) 그 만화를 유명한 만화라고 말하며, 큰 문제가 있다는 듯이

말합니까?

어느 나라나 출판의 자유는 있다. 그 책은 public serive를 위한 public education book 이 아닙니다.

학교의 text book도 아닙니다.

그렇게 유대인을 묘사하는 책은 일본에도 많고 중국에도 많습니다.

Which I translate as follows:

Why do you want to create this discord (fight) between Koreans and Jews?
Is your intention to make Jews denounce Koreans?
That book is not a textbook used in schools to teach children.
A privately published book expressing hatred of a people could be published in any country.
In all truth that book is not famous in Korea, but are you calling that book famous to make it seem that there's a big problem?

Every country's publishing is free. That book is not a public education book for the public service. It's also not a school textbook.
There are many books that describe the Jews that way in both China and Japan.

I wrote the following reply to Mr. J.
내가 아래 있는 이메일 답장으로 보냈어.

If you read the blog from the beginning you can see that I didn't start writing knowing that the book contains racist and antisemitic content. I started writing because I was curious about the books that Korean children read. Professor Rhie Won-bok is honestly a famous man and his series 먼나라 이웃나라 did sell 12 million copies, even if it isn't a school textbook. I certainly didn't write the blog to start a fight. Also, when I saw that some foreigners who had heard about the book from other sites thought that are mostly antisemitic I translated a part of "Jurassic Park's Steven Spielberg" to show people the truth.
In all honesty, I started the blog to make sure that Korean children could read good books. I wrote thinking that it would be great if Korean people whom I love could read good books free of lies. I don't know where professor Rhie learned about Jews but most of the readers of the blog think his writing is shocking, and the only people who agree with him find the site through anti-immigration white supremacist websites.
I have written on my blog before about a video that teaches hate for Koreans in America. I know that there are many books that describe Jews similarly in Japan and China, but there's nothing I can do about it because I can't read those books. If I spoke Japanese I would be translating Japanese anti-Hallyu (anti-Korean Wave) books into Korean.
Thanks for asking be these questions. If you have any others, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Joe Mondello


제 블로그 처음부터 보시면 제가 이 책 인종차별이나 반유대교 내용이 있어서 번역 하는게 아니라, 대한민국 아이들은 어떤 책을 읽는지 궁금해서 하는거 알수 있습니다. 이원복교수님 정말 유명하신분이고 '먼나라 이웃나라' 시리즈는 학교에서 쓰는 교과서 아니라도 1,200만권 팔렸습니다. 저는 싸움 시키고 싶어서 쓰는거 절대 아니예요. 그리고 소수의 외국인들은 이 이슈에 대해서 다른 웹사이트에서 읽어서 한국사람들은 대부분 반유대주의자라고 믿는 거 제가 봐서 한국사람들 다 그렇게 생각 하지 않은 사실을 알리기 위해서 "쥬라기 공원의 스티븐 스필버그"에서 유대인을 의한 부분 번역했습니다.
실 은 내가 한국 아이들 좋은 책 읽도록 이 블로그 쓰게 된것입니다. 제가 많이 사랑 하는 한국사람들은 거짓말 없는 좋은 책만 읽었으면 좋겠다는 마음으로 썼습니다. 이원복교수님이 유대인에 대한 지식 어디서 배우신것 잘 모르는데 대부분 블로그 독자들은 말도 안 되는 거짓말이라고 덧글을 쓰고 이원복교수님 쓰신것 맞다고 하는 사람들 미국 반이민 백인 우월주의자 웹사이트에서 온사람들이예요.
제가 한국사람을 혐오한 비디오도 제 블로그에서 폭로하도록 글 쓴적도 있습니다. 저도 유대인을 그렇게 묘사하는 책 일본에도 많고 중국에도 많은거 압니다만 제가 저 책들 못 읽으니까 어찌 할수는 없습니다. 만약에 제가 일본어 읽을수 있었으면 제가 꼭 혐한류 만화 한국말로 번역 하겠습니다.
메일 주셔서 감사합니다. 또 아시고 싶은거 있으시면 꼭 연락 하세요.
Joe Mondello

LA Times reports on the story.

Here. It looks like Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center is coming to Seoul March 15th to see about getting the book taken off shelves. The article describes the response of Gimm Young Publishing's director Eun-ju Park as a brief email to Rabbi Cooper explaining that she had sent an apology to Charles Kim, national president of the Korean American Coalition. Utterly shocking, still.
Mercury News writes of a protest by Korean American groups against the publisher, and the same story was also reported in the Fresno Bee.
At last check 83 papers have picked up the original story through the AP, according to Google News Search

Chapter 7: Credit is Life, Pages 192-194 ("'I'll sue you' is the most commonly heard statement in America")

I love how Rhie seems to feel that the law is some kind of last resort when heart and common courtesy fail. More on 'heart'. The original Korean word is jung (rhymes with 'sung') and it is a word that Koreans claim is untranslatable and intrinsically Korean. I think the reasons Koreans claim that it is untranslatable are twofold: one, the best English translation would probably be 'warmth', and only in a specific context that I think most of the Koreans who talk about jung are not proficient in English enough to really understand, and also it feeds into this idea of Korea's uniqueness to say that normal everyday interactions between Koreans have some sort of added emotional dimension that other people can't even conceive of, let alone match. Mind you, now, this 'Koreans own warmth' concept is bandied about by a small minority of Koreans, usually for nationalistic purposes. I have had many personal encounters with jung. a Korean tour guide in Japan told the busload of tourists I was with that one shouldn't trust the Japanese because they lacked jung (said while shaking his two fists, wrists up, to demonstrate the gravity of this ancient and intrinsically Korean concept). Here again Rhie is making the same claim at length, that the problem with America, indeed the need for out litigious society all springs from lack of jung between the races. The false premise of all this is that there is a certain baseline jung between members of an ethnic group. Perhaps so in a country as thoroughly leveled and de'class'ified as Korea is now, but I wonder what th actual level of jung would have been between a Korean yangban (nobleman) and a servant in the 19th century. Certainly the same people, by Korean standards, but how much intrinsically Korean jung would there be?

Anyway, I find it interesting that he ascribes this dependency on credit and law to America in particular and suggests it is due to the lack of jung and general mixed up multicultural atmosphere.

p192)
Even though all Americans share the pride of calling themselves American and a love of their country, this doesn't form sympathy between the races and peoples. They put up their protective wall to protect themselves and thoroughly demarcate their territory from others' territory. That's why in America they have no choice but to solve everything with the law. They often even solve trivial issues with the law.
One example was in the U.S. branch of a Japanese company.
(Graphic shows a Japanese man and a Black woman)
Man: Hello Ms. A.
Woman: Director Kimura.

Incidentally isn't Kimura the zainichi Korean version of Kim?

Man (patting woman on the shoulder): Isn't working tough? Keep up the good work!
Woman: !
Man: Yeah, how's your husband? From the look on your face I'd
say things are going pretty good.
Woman: !
This Japanese executive never forgot to give a "warm" [not jung, literally 'warm', and quotes are his, not mine] greeting to his many female subordinates in the name of "encouragement". Graphic shows Kimura patting a shocked woman on the back) But some time later these female employees filed a class action lawsuit against him and the company received a demand for an astronomical amount for reparation for damages. Man: sexual molestation, defamation of character, interfering in personal life? $100,000 compensation per person times 100 people, so Ihave to give $10 million? I was just encouraging my workers with a warm heart and this is the response?

p193)

(Graphic shows Kimura and an American man)

Kimura: In Japan we encourage our female workers by patting them on the shoulder.

Man: That's a cultural difference. Laying your hands on another person, especially a person of the opposite sex, falls under sexual harassment and sexual molestation.

Kimura: What about the defamation of character?

Man: You know over half of American couples get divorced. Asking a woman how her husband is is interfering in her personal life.

(Graphic shows a woman looking at Kimura and thinking "He's raking up painfu things from the past. What's this, is he trying to make me angry?")

Man: Whether or not it's intential, bringing up someone's divorce as a topic of discussion falls under defamation of character. When did she tell you to care about her married life? Did they say to touch them without permission?

This is a famous case that happened at Mitsubishi in 1995. In America the most commonly heard statement is "I'll sue you." America has the highest number of lawyers per capita. American society's standard of judgment is not codes of conduct or ethical feelings, rather it is law that is equally effective for all races and people. In America the most important principle is that you must live by the rule of law.

p194)

They say the principle of American society where everyone lives behind a protective wall is fundamental premise of mistrust. But to live we must maintain economic relationships and exchanges. But who can trust who in this society where people of many races, many peoples, and every type swarm together? The only thing people can trust is law, and systematically confirmed credit!

Credit-- the measure of ability to believe someone. This is not trust, the belief in one's heart for another person. This is one's "score", one's amount of trustability as confirmed by the government or a specific organization.

In America they even call your school grades "credit".

(Graphic shows a report card. Caption says :Math 'credit' A = A level grade = his math ability is confirmed to be in the A level.")

Credit cards that you get at the bank are also called "credit cards". To speak of someone's credit rating and credit, in America credit is the secind most important thing after one's life.

What is the biggest difference between monoracial nations and immigrant nations?

That's the question Rhie Won-bok asks in Chapter 7: Credit is Life, How Americans Live. Seems unconnected until you understand Rhie's theory that American dependence on credit is based on racial factionalism, the underlying weakness of immigrant nations. A note to the reader: I have translated the word 민족국가 variously as 'monoracial nation' and 'nation state'. Be aware that this term refers to a country in which everybody more or less belongs to the same ethnic group. Also interesting to see homogeneity used as a positive term, something which took some getting used to for my American mind.

p190)
What is the biggest difference between monoracial nations like Korea and Japan and immigrant nations like the U.S., Canada, and Australia? In a nation state, the citizens have a common 'homogeneity'. Even without explaining, we can say that compared to the "citizens' heart" that everybody knows, the immigrant nation's citizens with their various and complicated origins fall far from this homogeneity. It's not only morals and ethics but in values as well, nation state citizens have these in common while immigrant nations' citizens are different from each other. Even if we say nation state citizens have various personalities, they have a strong commonality between them, while the immigrant nation's makeup of various races and peoples have a much higher likelihood of clashes and friction than nation states.

p191)
Even if they are very careful they can always suffer these clashes. So in order to minimize unnecessary friction and to keep from damaging others and being damaged by others, the best method is to erect a 'protective wall' between oneself and one's surroundings. This protective wal is a way to concea oneself and not to show one's true feelings and true self to anyone. Even though in a society where everyone lives behind a protective wall arguments are kept to a minimumm we can call this a society where people use fundamental rules and law to solve their problemsinstead of using faith in each other and heart (정). This is why even though the image Americans show people seems warm, the moment they turn around they are completely different.

Chosun Ilbo tells us "What Monnara's Mistakes Show Us"

This is an editorial by Shin Mun-yeong, chief editor of Veritas Books, published in the Chosun Ilbo on February 19th. I just translated it and I must say it is fascinating, definitely worth a read. It starts out telling a story about how the Wiesenthal Center and Rabbi Cooper caused a popular Japanese magazine to be shut down and a writer to commit seppuku over a quibbling disagreement about the scale of the Holocaust. the writer then tells an anecdote about an extremely rich Jewish family he tutored for when he was studying in America, and their obvious unhappiness despite being rich. To read the story, it seems obvious that the woman in it's reaction probably had more to do with his clueless assumption that all things Jewish come from Israel than anything else. He then goes on to remind his readers of all the pain the Jews have gone through and how they are victims, inevitably tying it back to the comfort women. It strikes me that even chief editors can't stretch their mind enough to avoid simply projecting their own feelings of victimization on the Jews. This is a very common thread that we can see both in Rhie's book (page 20, where he compares the diaspora to the Japanese colonial period) and the Prometheus article (in which the Jews' history is again compared to the Japanese colonial period). It is almost unbelievable that not a single person writing about this in Korea has been able to form a single idea in which the Jews don't have to be likened to the Koreans in order to explain their reaction. It seems to me that what these writers are actually doing is co-opting the Jews' 'specialness' by claiming that they are the same as the Koreans. That is certainly what Rhie does when he says that the Jews and the Koreans are the most 'severe' (지독하다: anyone want to help me find a better translation for this unique word?). I'm truly struck by the lack of imagination going on here, but also at the strident way that these people, who seem to have scant years of international experience, seem to think themselves worthy to answer these questions that they barely understand. Truly fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

What Monnara's Mistakes Show Us
Shin Mun-yeong, Chief Editor, Veritas Books

It seems that the part of the 'Americans' volume of the best-selling series Monnara Iunnara, which introduces us to many countries in a fun and easy way, in which it says that the Jews wielding money and the power of the press led to the 9-11 terror attacks will eventually be changed. The writer, Professor Rhie Won-bok, and the publisher have expressed regret, saying they were "apologizing for hurting the feelings of Jews".
The Wiesenthal Center, which is now making this an issue, also once brought about the discontinuation of an education current events monthly magazine published by the Literature Chronicles Company called "Marco Polo" in Japan. In 1995 one Japanese neurologist said in this magazine that the Nazis' mass murder of the Jews was true but that the infamous gas chambers of Auschwitz could have been an exaggerated fabrication.
Marco Polo, with its 250,000 readers, suddenly became the object of protest by Jewish groups, and the Israeli government officially brought this problem to its embassy in Japan. The chief editor of Marco Polo suggested that he would load up on reporters for the rebuttal who would act as a mouthpiece for Jews claim, but this was refused. The Jewish groups exercised their real power, moving the advertisers. Cartier, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, Philip Morris and other companies canceled the advertising they had planned to place in Marco Polo. What's more, the Japanese government released a public statement that this writer's work was inappropriate. This eventually ended in his suicide by disembowelment. Rabbi Cooper and President of the Literature Chronicles Company Tanaka had a meeting and announced that the entire staff of Marco Polo had been disbanded.
It was 1995 and I was studying in St. Louis, U.S. The family where I was tutoring as a part time job was Jewish American, and their house was in one if the richest neighborhoods. It was Saturday afternoon and I saw a sign announcing a garage sale where Americans sell the things they don't want anymore. I bought a table that would be perfect as a speaker stand at a great price. I noticed a figure carved into it that I may have seen in the bible or a movie and so I asked the owner "Did this come from Israel?" Her face instantly went cold. "How did you know that? So what if it did?" she inquired. I just asked because I was curious, but it was different for the woman. If we can make a distinction between that bank president's family's social standing and wealth, their garage was full of things, but there was a shadow lurking on their faces.
Andy Grove, well-known even in Korea as one of the three founders on Intel, is a Jew who was born in Hungary but went to America as a poor foreign student and made his way up in the world. In the book about his dramatic success story "The Giant Andy Grove", he says that he doesn't even want to go to Budapest, where he spent his childhood, nor does he want to remember it. It's not just Andy Grove: many Jewish scholars, bankers, businessmen and movie-makers are uneasy even now. So they teach their children not to loosen their self-consciousness. They teach them not to forgive the over two thousand year history of hardship etched bone deep in their history.
In Korean society Jews are known for their great brains and as a people who kept their history for a long time, or for their vague responsibility for the powder-keg-like state of affairs in the Middle East. But if we can pay attention with a broader view, we can understand empathize with their painful scars. Even if we don't bring up the comfort women who are now having a hearing in America's Congress, we can understand the reason that the Jews brought up this problem. The rapid decision to fix the book's contents was an appropriate response. In the future Korea, surrounded by large and powerful nations, must rise up to find the horizon and thus understand other people and nations a little deeper, and thus show a Korea to be a nearer, more attractive nation.

Suzanne Scholte's letter

Below is the letter Suxzanne Scholte of the North Korean human rights group Defense Forum sent to Korean American groups and politicians (as she put it, her Korean friends). She told me that she was very pleased with their response and that they had wanted to go as far as having a press conference with Rabbi Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center. Apparently this urgency and will to action was somehow lost between these people and the Korean news media, whose reaction went from "Jews in America have small numbers but they have the strongest influence, so Koreans living in America are worried that the troubles and arguments with Jews over this comic book will spread." to "Some say the reaction to the part of the book about the Jews taken out of context was overly sensitive."

Dear Friends:
This is the first time you've ever gotten
an email from me that was not related to North Korea, but I very much would appreciate your help on a matter of great concern to Rabbi Cooper, our dear friend and colleague on the NK human rights issues. Many of you are familiar with his great help to us on the North Korea human rights issues: his hosting a conference at the Museum of Tolerance for us and serving as the vice chairman of our NK Freedom Coalition. It has come to our attention that a popular South Korean writer and Professor has produced comic books that are very offensive to Jewish Americans and anti-semitic (and anti-American, as well). I hope that several leaders in the Korean American community would consider making a strong statement of outrage at this and I immediately thought of you all as leaders in the Korean business and the church community. All that would be needed is some quotes (a paragraph is fine) that we can provide to Rabbi Cooper that he could use in future statements and releases on this issue -- it would mean so much to come from all of you who are successful, accomplished Americans, who believe in tolerance and respect for other faiths. I know also that many Koreans, especially pastors, hold the Jewish people as very dear and travel to Israel often. Please see below the release from today and the attachment for an example of what these offensive cartoons depict about the Jewish people. Rabbi Cooper is always counseling me to keep speaking out for the North Korean people and reminding me that silence is acquiesence. I hope we can show him that we are willing to speak out for the Jewish people as well.
If you or any of your colleagues are willing to make a short statement please send along to me and I will put them together for Rabbi Cooper.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION OF THIS REQUEST.

Suzanne Scholte

Hanbooks pulls volume 10, it seems.

Google has a cached page from Hanbooks.com selling volume 10 (containing the chapter about the Jews) which is currently unavailable. The page describes the book as follows:

This book, in the form of a comic book, introduces 8 keywords that will help understand the way Americans think and act, such as Constitution, election system, 50 states under 1 federal government, and the power of Jews.

Great choice
for anyone who wants a fun-to-read, informative book to help better understand everything about Americans!

Searches for the title or author's name no longer bring up the page, although a search of Rhie Wonbok's name turns up the volumes on France, England, the English translation of the volume onKorea (English title "Korea Unmasked"), and both volumes about Japan, which they still carry.

Register your disgust

Let it be known to the Korean government how damaging this book is to Korea's image. Go to The Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism's website and lodge a complaint. Don't worry, it's in English for your convenience. And please, be polite.

Rhie according to Rhie

According today's article in Herald Biz, Rhie Won-bok says:

"During my ten years living in Germany I visited concentration camps and I know as well as anybody how much the Jews suffered and how cruel the Nazis' barbarity was."
"I have no bias of any kind against Jews and I have always opposed racism." Starting with the next edition he plans to replace the problem portions.

Pardon me, Mr. Rhie, but that is demonstrably not true. Also, no one called you a Holocaust denier. I think what you learned during your ten years in Germany is classic antisemitic conspiracy theory, plain and simple.

Monnara Iunnara, volume 10 page 240:

Rockefeller was the top American conglomerate. There is ongoing dispute about whether or not he was a Jew but the matter is not clear. But the reason he is mistaken for a Jew is that his enterprise technique was exactly the same as the Jews. His number one business rule was to destroy the competition. He used intrigue, tricks, threat, menace, and naturally he mobilized industrial spies to steal information from his competition. He used bribery, violence, and to top it all he didn't hesitate to sabotage companies. This was cold hearted industrialist who cruelly knocked down the competitors who faced him.

미국 역사상 최대 재벌의 하나였던 록펠러. 그가 유대인이냐 아니냐의 문제는 두고두고 논쟁거리였지만 그가 유대인일라고 뚜렷이 밝혀진 건 아니야. 그러나 그가 유대인으로 오해받는 것은 그의 사업수법이 유대인과 똑같기 때문이야. 그의 경영원칙은 경쟁을 원칙적으로 없애는 것으로 음모, 술수, 공갈, 협박은 물론 산업스파이를 동원하여 상대의 정보를 훔치고 뇌물, 폭력에 심지어 공장 파괴까지 서슴지 않고 그에게 맞서는 경쟁자는 잔혹하게 쓰러뜨린 비정한 사업가였어

Anybody seen the letter itself?

Rhie Won-bok apologizes . . . to Korean Americans!

Here. The response to this from the publisher and Rhie Won-bok has been deplorable, with seeingly no attempt to even address the problem to Jewish groups, no apology to Korea's children and parents for selling them a book full of racist lies, and an apology only to the Korean-American community for all the trouble this is causing them. Disgraceful. Here's the article.

"I will correct the parts about the Jews in Monnara Iunnara"

Rhie Won-bok sends letter of apology to Korean American group leader.

(Seoul-Yonhap News) Lee Ju-yeong reporting - Rhie Won-bok (Deokseong U) said to that he will change the offending passages, which American Jewish protesters said disparaged and distorted Jews, in his educational book series "Monnara Iunnara"

According to a press release, the publisher, Gimm Young, released a letter saying that they "extend deep apologies for any trouble caused by Rhie Won-bok to the Korean American Coalition."

In the letter, they quoted professor Rhie as saying "He will take steps to correct the things some people pointed out" but that "The book's contents were not antisemitic and that te intention was not to disparage Jews.

Professor Rhie added "I am not a racist" and that he "hopes this doesn't effect Korean-Jewish friendship and cooperation."

Gimm Young editor Shin Eun-yeong said "Professor Rhie said he intends to redraw the parts in question" and "starting with the next edition, those portions will be replaced"

The part of Monnara Iunnara with a problem is volume 10 "The Americans" in which it says that Jews are the force moving America (p242, 247), and that Koreans in America can succeed but they always hit a barrier of Jews (220).

Suzanne Scholte, president of The North Korean human rights group Defense Forum recently sent an email to the Korean-American Federation and other Korean American groups and politicians demanding that the book be corrected and stating "The volume in professor Rhie's series about America has erroneous information."

Prometheus compares Monnara and "So far from the Bamboo Grove"

Here. I've gone ahead and translated the whole thing into English. It is a fascinating read, essentially justifying Monnara's claim that the Jews hold particular sway in America by declaring this natural and citing Korea's irrational nationalism as a mere part of a historical dialectic of nationalism ebbing and flowing in power and influence. Check it out.

Monnara Iunnara and "So far from the Bamboo Grove"
Nationalism Reaps What it Sows.
by Im Se-hwan

Jews in America are angry about Deokseong University professor's book "Monnara Iunnara'. They say the book's contents disparage the Jews. The problem is that the book contains statements that Jews have strong power through money and prevent Koreans from achieving the American dream.

Whether or not Rhie Won-bok will accept the problem presented by the American Jews is up to Rhi Won-bok. Separate from that, what every Korean must ponder together is to what extent this 'Monnara Iunnara' charge is similar to the recent allegations surrounding "So Far from the Bamboo Grove".

Some Koreans claim that "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" is a lie and demand that author Yoko Kawashima Watkins apologize. Yoko is sorry for inciting this passion in Korean people, but explains that she personally experienced the events that she wrote. But that didn't satisfy the feelings of those Koreans angry about Yoko's explanation. Latest reports indicate signs that the furor surrounding "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" is about to erupt into a massive court case. We've heard that a group called "Parents for the Proper Teaching of Asian History' is planning a lawsuit saying that not only is "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" distorting history, but it also damages children by teaching untrue things

We don't know whether those angry about "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" have read the book or not. They are angry about the part that says that in 1945 right before the liberation of Korea Koreans abused Japanese in Korea. But all the netizens were sure about were things like "Yoko said her father served in the 731st unit" and "Yoko said in Nanam in North Hamgyeong Province there were bamboo trees, but this book is a fabrication because there are no bamboo trees in Nanam"

If you read "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" you'll see that in escaping from Korea, Yoko's brother received help from a Korean family. There's also a story about how the Japanese felt cold toward Yoko because she had come from Korea. "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" is not an anti-Korean book, it's a book about a young person. Also, the book Korean-Japanese Interchange History - From Prehistory to Present, created jointly by the Korean History Textbook Reseach Organization and the Japanese Education Research Organization records that around the time of the 1945 liberation north of the 38th parallel violence by Koreans against Japanese did occur.

Still, many Koreans insist that "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" is fabrication and distortion. [In saying] "Don't ask!", this nationalistic feeling is operating as an ideology.

In the same way the criticism by American Jews of 'Monnara Iunnara' is Jew's nationalist sentiment in action. Jews' nationalist nature is as strong as Koreans. It's a fact that Jews in America have great financial power. The Jews use their monetary power to lobby the American government to adopt policies that help the Jewish people. Naturally there are various factors including Middle Eastern oil and Middle Eastern terrorism that factor into America's antagonistic policy in the Middle East, but it is hard to say when we see someone saying that Jews in America, who are hostile to the Arab world, have connections and social standing, that this is defamation or distortion.

If the Jews wish such tolerance for their nationalism, just as when Japanese war victims or Yoko wish for the same tolerance from Korean nationalist sentiment, the broad-mindedness that engenders such tolerance must come first.

Nationalism continues to cycle through history, making the assailant into the victim, the victim into the assailant. As in Poland, where the nationalism during World War 2 took the form of oppression against the same Polish Jews who had fought against the oppressive Russian czar in the Polish nationalist movement before the 1917 Russian Revolution (See the movie Schindler's List, 3 million Polish Jews lost their lives), The Jews, who suffered greatly under German nationalist fascism during World War 2 play the role of harsh oppressor to the Palestinian people today.

Korean nationalism, that fought in the face of Japan's World War 2-era supremacy theory and Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, today manifests itself in reasonless discrimination against South-East Asian guest job-seekers and irrational character assassination against Yoko. Korean nationalism is face to face with Jewish nationalism.

MBC News report

This MBC News report actually repeats the same stereotypes that Jews are complaining about in the first place. Tactless in the extreme.

Anchor: Jews in America are demanding that the Korean best-selling world history comic book Monnara Iunnara defames Jews.

Kim Won-tae Reporting

Reporter: American Jews are lashing back at Deokseong University professor Rhie Won-bok's comic book Monnara Iunnara, saying it describes the Jews negatively.

The problem passages say, among other things, that 9.11 terrorist attacks occured because Jews use money and the media as a weapon to twist America in whatever way they want, and that Koreans in America can succeed but in the end the wall called the Jews blocks them.

Suzanne Scholte of the Defense Fund (Original English): Well, I find that this writer is producing comic books that are very offensive to Jewish Americans and to the Jewish people. They're clearly antisemitic and they're clearly anti-American.

Reporter: Jews have demanded Rhie Won-bok's apology and a revision to the book and discussions with Korean groups in America.

Reporter: Jews in America have small numbers but they have the strongest influence (유대인 사회는 미국 내에서 소수계지만 가장 큰 영향력을 행사하고 있습니다.)

So koreans living in America are worried that the troubles and arguments with Jews over this comic book will spread.

The SBS-TV report on Monnara

Here's my translation of the SBS transcript, seemingly the meatier one. The more I think about it the angrier I get:

Anchor: Jews in America claim that the ten million-selling educational comic book 'Monnara Iunnara' deprecates the Jews and distorts their history and a Jewish group demanding it be revised.

In Los Angeles, O Dong-heon reporting

Reporter: In part of educational comic Monnara Iunnara, it is
written that the Jews are the real power behind the scenes in America and control Hollywood movies and portray themselves positively as victims while lumping together the Arabs as a barbaric violent group.

The book also says that Koreans living in America can go far with hard work but can never surmount the wall of Jews.

North Korean human rights group the Defense Forum's director Susan Scholte wrote a letter to Korean politicians saying that this comic could hurt Korean-Jewish relations and demanding that the book be revised.

[Michelle Park/ California Tax Equity Comittee: [We] interpreted the letter as a request that [Korean American groups and Jewish groups] come out with the same position on the issue]

Some say the reaction to the part of the book about the Jews taken out of context was overly sensitive (일부에서는 전체적인 맥락과는 관계없이 유대인에 대한 일부의 인식을 묘사한 데 대해 지나치게 민감한 반응을 보인다는 지적을 하고 있습니다).

I would argue that, when placed in context, these passages that people are reacting to are much more shocking.

But there are many indications that merely this situation could pour cold water on the relation between Koreans and Jews and that this situation needs to be dealt with prudently.

Overreaction indeed! I'm quite shocked by this report, actually.

Special thanks to Robert Koehler for setting my hasty and awful translation of this article straight.

TV takes notice.

Both SBS and MBC have picked up the story today. The gist of their coverage is that this problem is a bit of a pain for Koreans in America Here's a transcript of the MBC report and here is the SBS-TV report. I will translate as soon as possible.

Chapter 6 Part 1: The Jungle Within The Cutting Edge Society (pages 160-163)

This chapter is highly interesting, but not nearly as shocking as Chapter 8 and without as many unbelievable quotable affronts to human decency. Nonetheless his general thesis, that Americans are desperate slaves to their jobs and mildly pathetic, is amazing.

p160)
America is the strongest country in the world. No country can face America's military, economy, scientific skill, etc. The Swiss world-class research body Institute of Management Development has announced that America's national competitiveness is number one (Canada's second; South Korea's is 15th). In GDP, which shows the scale of a country's economy, America's is first, and twice as much as China, which is in second place. America's population isn't even one fifth of China's, but it's economy is twice the size of China's, Do you have any idea what a rich country America is? In military size too, America is second only to China in number of soldiers (#3 India, #4 North Korea, #5 Russia, #6 South Korea). National defense spending estimates place America's spending at $347.9 billion, 7.4 times that of China. In firepower, equipment, and every respect, America has the world's strongest military. They fancy themselves "The world's police" and holds sway ('세계의 경찰'을 자처하며 호령하고 있는 나라가 미국이야).
(Graphic shows a soldier in sunglasses looking arrogant,surrounded by captions: "Middle East", "Iraq", "Afghanistan", "Bosnia").

Rhie is the master of the backhanded compliment. His version of the punchline is always the last frame of the page that makes all the seemingly positive information leading up to it seem to merely be setup for a snide jab. America is so rich and powerful! That's why they want to be the 'World's Police'.

p161)
The Nobel prize is the world's highest authority, but it's not just a private honor, it's a national honor and point of pride. Since 1901 the Nobel prizes have been awarded each year for over 100 years, but our country only won one award, and even that was merely a peace prize awarded to Kim Dae Jung.

This is another fascinating twist by Rhie, surprising to me in that in the middle of discussing these great achievements he can't help but push his inferiority complex on his readers. A mere peace prize. Ha!

On the other hand, 261 Americans have received the precious Nobel Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize takes turns going around to each country so only 20 [Americans] have received it, but nearly half of the Nobel prizes given for Physics, Chemistry and Medicine that are given to scientists who record revolutionary achievements in science and medicine have been swept away by Americans. They say that this award is given in the West and that it measures [achievements] against the yardstick of Westerners. But we can compare the number of awards given to Japan (America at 261 versus Japan's 11). Seventy four Americans received the Nobel Prize for Physics, 50 in Chemistry, and 83 in Medicine.
(Graphic shows an American watching TV)
TV: This year's Nobel Prize in Physics . . .
Man: Eh, it's gonna be an American.
(Graphic shows three students)
Student 1: My head professor won a Nobel Prize
Student 2: Mine too.
Student 3: Yeah, mine too.

p162)
And America won the prize for Literature, which goes around to all countries, nine times. Twenty Americans won the Peace Prize and in the 33 years since the prize for Economics was established in 1969, 35 Americans have won it (versus 17 non-Americans), and it's not going to far to say that America has led the world in capitalist economic theory. According to the symbolism of the Nobel Prize numbers, America is the most scientifically advanced country and is the most cutting edge civilization in the world in terms of economic theory and practice. America's Wall Street leads the world's finance, Silicon Valley is deemed the world's leading science region. It also serves as the birthplace of the world digital revolution. Furthermore, American movies made in Hollywood fascinate audiences worldwide and inject [the idea of] "Great America" into their brains.
(Graphic shows a couple walking past a sign that says "Now showing: Defenders of the Earth, Stop Attacks from Outer Space")
Woman: Naturally no one can protect the Earth except America.

Another telling choice of words here. The expression he uses that I've translated as 'injected into people's brains' (뇌리에 주입하다) is so reminiscent, but distinct from, brain wash (세뇌 - Incidentally, both English and Korean get their words for brain wash from the Chinese term, used particularly in the Korean War).

p163)
America is truly a land of abundance. Thanks to unlimited resources, the American average income is over $40,000 (cf. Korea's $11,000). America seems to be a heaven on earth, where if you have money you can get anything, and the products of the whole world are pushing into the great market. In America you feel like everything is big and ample. Houses are big, roads are long and cars are big.
(Graphic shows a 4-door "Europe/Japan-style car" and what seems to be a six-door stretch limousine that is labeled "American Car")
The food they give you in restaurants is so plentiful that it is difficult to finish a single meal alone. In our country's restaurants a single portion is based on a person who only eats a little bit, and when you eat bulgogi you have to eat two or three servings to be full. In America one serving is based on the amount of food it that a bulky person can eat until they're full. It;s so much that if you order one serving of bulgogi you can't eat it all and have to ask for a doggy bag. In the stores the products are piled up and waiting for the customers. America is a country where the gas price is less than half of ours and you can roll your big car around as much as you want.
(Graphic shows man driving a van)
Man: Naturally America is number one in energy consumption per capita!

Won-bok-kun, subarashii, you've done it again! Kudos to you and your craftiness.

An Interesting Parallel Case

It's worth it to check out Aron Ranen's inflammatory documentary "Black Hair" (handily collected for you at this old blog entry of mine) for an instance of Koreans being treated to the same sort of angry conspiracy theorizing as the Jews are in Mr. Rhie's book. The gist is that the Koreans have snuck into the Black hair care industry and vertically integrated retail, production and wholesaling. Ranen made the movie, and then subsequently attempted to use it as an anti-Korean piece of propaganda in an attempt to get Blacks to boycott Korean stores.
Incidentally, Ranen is the man responsible for the film Moon Hoax: Did We Go?, a classic in the field of fuzzy conspiratorial thinking. a true spiritual brother of Rhie Won-bok. Unfortunately, he is not the moon-hoax conspiracy theorist who got punched in the face by Buzz Aldrin, that was Bart Sibrel

Korean news picking up the story.

The Korea Times picked up the article that YNet printed, with no significant changes and the same pictures, courtesy of Sonagi. I was unable to find a translation of the article on the Korean version of the site, but I'll keep an eye out for it. Hey, it's a start.

A couple of pieces from other chapters

I thought it might be easier for everybody if I cut to the chase and put up as much offensive material from Monnara as I could find. So here are a few more pictures with shocking and offensive captions.

"Most crime in America is committed not by ethnic people (literally 'colored people') but by a social class called 'White Trash'" (page 135)

"Even now [Blacks] can't overcome racism both visible and invisible" (page 182)

Presumably broad stereotypes about speech patterns and bizarre portmanteaus could be considered racist in some form. The asterix next to 'SLACKS' does not, by the way, refer to any part of the text in the book.

(Quoting Samuel Huntington's 2004 book "Who Are We") "The greatest crisis that modern America faces comes from the continually increasing influx of immigrants from Latin America." (wave is labeled "South American immigrants") (page 186)

(Speaking about the problem of unwed teenage mothers) "In particular, young Black girls present an even bigger problem when they have children in their teens"
Mother: If there was no government assistance we'd starve to death." (page 215)

Pictures from Monnara

I've placed all the most provocative pictures from Chapter 8 together with captions here. I think they're decent quality scans and they give a pretty good idea of the gist of the book's antisemitism. Spread them around.

Chapter 8 pages 243-249 (Wherein we learn how to spot a Jew, why America is the Jew's guard dog, and America's fatal flaw)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

Part 7
This is the end of the book. It starts off with what seems to be a bit of a change of heart, but proceeds to tie together all of Rhie Won-bok's negative views of the Jews and of America, essentially making Americans all out to be a bunch of rube cannon fodder for Jewish wars. highly insulting to all, no doubt about it.
I'm going to spend the next few days cleaning up some of the other entries, adding pictures with clearer captions, something easy for non-Korean speakers to quote, say, in the press, and put it all together in a sort of Monnara's Greatest Hits. After that I'm either going to translate Chapter 6: The Jungle Within the Cutting-Edge Society or perhaps something else, whatever the most interesting thing I can find is. I welcome any recommendations, so if you know something you think needs translating, email me at joemondello@gmail.com.

And if you're only interested in shocking things to make your blood boil, skip pages 243-245.

p243)
A people who spent 2000 years wandering without a homeland and living in other people's lands must try many times harder than other peoples to survive, and if they didn't surpass others, they would face contempt and hardship due to their Jewishness.
Jews put into action their wisdom for survival and tried harder than anyone. They gave birth to innumerable glittering stars of human history. More than anything the fact that almost 100 Jews have won the Nobel Prize is a testament to that fact.
Poets like Heinrich Heine, musicians like Mendelssohn, innumerable artists, philosophers like Karl Marx, who reversed the course of the 20th century, leaders of the communist revolution like Trotsky, in the 2000 U.S. presidential election a Jew had the distinction of being a vice presidential candidate, scholars like Wittgenstein, psychologists like Sigmund Freud, stars such as Elizabeth Taylor (she converted when she married a Jew), directors such as Steven Spielberg, the Jew's power in entertainment is great.

It's kind of funny that he included Elizabeth Taylor, you must admit.

p244)
More than 90% of Jews living in America are Ashkenazim who emigrated East from Germany, and having lived in Germany they have features of the German language [in their names].
(Graphic shows "Kissinger = gravel digger, Stern = star, Mendelssohn = Mendel's son")
So you can know if somene is Jewish just by hearing their name.
(Graphis shows two men, one listening to headphones)
Listener: "I'm listening to a song by Leonard Cohen"
Man: "Cohen is a typical Jewish name"
Europe's whites' names mostly derive from jobs (Tayler, Smith, Miller). But Jews were chased from their homeland long ago, and were not allowed to hold jobs in Europe, so the Jews derived their names from the topographical features of the placeswhere they lived.
So the most typical name elements are Thal (valley), Berg (hill), Stein (stone), and Feld (field). So nine out of ten people with these descriptions of topographical features in their names are without a doubt Jews.

p245)
Lilienthal, strapped on wings and flew in the sky, means "lily valley". The world-class ceramic maker Rosenthal's name means "rose valley". Blumenthal means "flower valley". Wiesenthal means "grass valley". The first man to succeed in a trans-Atlantic flight, Lindbergh's name means "linden tree valley". Modern Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg's name means "beautiful mountain". Hollywood's greatest showman, director Steven Spielberg's name means "amusement park" (놀이동산). The 20th century's greatest scientist Einstein's name means "one stone", and famous conductor Bernstein's name means "Bern stone" Names with "-feld" in them are almost all Jewish names (Blumenfeld, Rumsfeld, Rosenfeld)
Christian whites mainly use names of the twelve apostles from the New Testament. Jews,who only recognize the 5 scriptures of Moses known as the Old Testament mainly use names from that work, so you can know if someone is a Jew [if they have such names] (Simon, Isaac, Solomon, Moses)

And that's how you spot a Jew. Now back to hardcore conspiracy.

p246)
America wields the finance of the world any way they want . . .

". . . but the American financial world is completely dominated by the Jews.
(The meat is labeled 'American financial world')
Chef: 'What shall I cook this time?"

Moreover, the modern media leads the world's trends.

"Newspapers, magazines, broadcasting, TV, telecommunications, and everything else are dominated by the Jews."
(Trumpets are labeled newspapers, broadcasters, communication, and magazines. The people are labeled "the masses")
Trumpeters: To the right!"

In today's world of image and age of the masses, stars are the idols of the masses and Hollywood is the birthplace [literally 'delivery room' (산실)] of the stars and entertainment that predominate the world. Hollywood is controlled by the Jews.

"Boy, in that case how could America possibly be free from the Jews?"

The Jews make sport of the American economy with the press and Hollywood's image, and of course the Jews exert great influence over America's domestic and international politics.
The core group of people that moves Washington power is the WASPs, but in reality the invisible power that moves them is the Jews. Indeed if the Jews aren't the real power that moves America and the world, what could it be?

What an incredibly good question. Who could it be that wields the real power behind the scenes? Could it be nobody? That's what they want us to believe.

p247)
Why would America keep protecting Israel completely and maintain hostile relationships with all of the Arab world, all the while taking all kinds of disrespect from the whole world? Why would America start wars with poor countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, setting up their moral duty as the eradication of WMDs and the War on Terror? Because the real power that moves America is the Jews.
The reason Arab terror power is gaining and people hate America, and New York's World Trade Center was destroyed by suicide attacks is because behind WASPs the Jews are there, swaying America to their own ends using money and the media as a weapon.
Therefore this country called America is the country that can't know the Jews and will never understand them.
(Graphic shows Statue of George Washington and two men labeled "a representation in Chicago of George Washington and two Jews who backed the U.S. economy)
In fact the statue is the George Washington-Robert Morris-Hyam Salomon Memorial and it is in Chicago.
Even before American history began, there was an invisible face moving behind the scenes
(Graphic shows the Union Jack with a Star of David flag behind it)

p248)
U.S. history is only 230 years long. Over the last 20 years the U.S. experienced the most wars of any country in the world. Since independence the U.S. has been in a state of war for 34 years, 15% of its history.
(Graphic shows American pointing across the ocean at an explosion)
American: "Since the beginning of the 20th century all our wars have taken place outside the U.S.
It's the country that kept having wars on a grand scale for 25 years
(Caption shows World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War)
The longest period of peace in American history was the 34 years between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War
(Graphic shows a soldier lying on the grass thinking "I'm bored")
America's lethal weakness is its low population density in a vast country, which means that there is a limit to America's arms production, transportation, and propagation, and the unending development of weapons of mass destruction is intended to solve this problem (미국의 치명적인 약점은 넓은 땅에 낮은 인구밀도로 무기생산, 운반, 보급에 한계가 있기 때문에 대량 살상무기를 끊임없이 개발하여 이 문제를 해결하려 하고 있어).

Does anyone have any idea what this means? Where does this idea come from, that our dangerously low population density drives our arms industry and the development of WMDs. Sounds like a weird twist on the old Japanese/Korean "Our country is too small" lament.

America's characteristic is that it is accustomed to war and it doesn't fear war.
Nonetheless Americans believe in God and that they have a mission to protect peace and freedom in the world.
Greed and moderation, war and peace, civilization and savagery, arrogance and compassion. America is a nation with two faces. Only by knowing those two faces can we properly face America.

p249)
America's problem is that it believes it s true identity and values are WASP, but they try to coop up many non-WASP citizens [within the WASP identity], and their escape [from said identity] can not be tolerated and their rejection brews discord.
The most typical thing is that the core thinking of Americans is that they think the society called America is the world, nay, the universe.
But did you know only 8% of Americans have passports?
Graphic shows a man and a cowboy)
Man: "I heard 90% of Americans haven't been able to go abroad?"
Cowboy: "It's not that they can't go, it's that they didn't choose to go, we have everything inside, why go abroad?"

"But America, that seems so global and world-class, is in fact not the most globalized.
Cowboy: 'Why globalize? America is the open world!'"

For those of you who don't know, this is a reference to the Korean story of the frog in the well, who thinks his dingy little well is something to brag about, when nothing could be further from the truth.

"But there's one thing we must never forget. America is a part of us. There are Americans in America, but those Americans are a part of every race and people that came over from around the world. The over 2 million Korean countrymen who live in America are a part of us that we can never hate, and have no reason to hate. And that fact will never change."

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A children's book with a different perspective

Since starting this blog I have been dismayed by some of the comments I've seen citing Monnara Iunnara as proof that 'Koreans are antisemitic'. So it was good luck today that I came into possession of a book called "Jurassic Park's Steven Spielberg" (쥬라기 공원의 스티븐 스필버그), a children's biography of the director. Of particular interest is the chapter called "Where are my roots?". Below is a summary of the chapter with some particularly interesting passages directly translated.

Where are my Roots?
The chapter starts with Spielberg's family sitting around telling stories. When he was a boy his mother once bought some live crabs, which are not kosher, and conspired with Steven to eat them, when their family rabbi happened to show up at their house. In an 'I Love Lucy'-like scene, Steven hides the crabs in a pot under his bed, and they scurry around making noise that makes the rabbi suspicious. After this story, Spielberg is introduced to a cousin's next-door neighbor named Maria who has no fingers. It turns out she had been a pianist, and had her fingers cut off by a Nazi when she played a song by a forbidden Jewish composer. After this Spielberg stopped laughing.

"He disliked calling himself a Jew. He resented the God that made him born a Jew" (사실 지금까지 스필버그 자신이 유태인이라는 것이 너무 싫었거든요. 자신을 유태인으로 태어나게 한 하나님을 원망하기도 했어요)

He winds up asking his gentile wife if she hates him for being a Jew. "If I didn't like you because you're a Jew why would I marry you?" Spielberg asks her why people hate the Jews and she says

"It must be because Jews are so smart and great." (그건 유태인니 똑똑하고 훌륭하기 때문일거에요)

Spielberg asks what he can do to help the Jews and his wife says that, as a movie director, he has an opportunity to make a movie for them. So he directed "Schindler's List" in order to find his roots. He came to learn more about the pains of the Jews while making the movie. The German soldiers killed Jews and made soap from their fat, but not all Germans were evil, and so "Schindler's List" is about a German who saved Jews.

"Spielberg won an Oscar for the movie, and he also established a fund called The Righteous Person's Foundation to inform the world about other terrible events.
But that foundation isn't just for Jews. It is for all the peoples in the world suffering troubles. They record the suffering of blacks or Asian peoples and show them to the world. He founded the organization to spread the message that we should live in peace and harmony without harming other peoples.
Haven't we been ruled by the Japanese? This is exactly the kind of thing that Spielberg wants never to happen again."

A couple of interesting things in here, including the sympathetic portrayal of Jews, the unbelievably terrible story of the piano player losing her fingers, and the final reference to Korea's occupation by the Japanese.

Chapter 8, pages 240-242 (Wherein Rockefeller is a Jew and the most hated man in America and Jews control the news)

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I'll be back with more later today. I think this is enough for now.

p240)
Rockefeller was the top American conglomerate (Top 3: Rockefeller, DuPont and Mellon) There is ongoing dispute about whether or not he was a Jew but the matter is not clear. But the reason he is mistaken for a Jew is that his enterprise technique was exactly the same as the Jews. His number one business rule was to destroy the competition. He used intrigue, tricks, threat, menace, and naturally he mobilized industrial spies to steal information from his competition. He used bribery, violence, and to top it all he didn't hesitate to sabotage companies. This was cold hearted industrialist who cruelly knocked down the competitors who faced him.

Here we see the ruthless practices of Rockefeller, not a Jew by any means, being claimed as exactly the same as those of Jews.

In 1863 Standard Oil was established. By 1890 the tycoon controlled 90% of America's domestic oil production. He was the most hated American industrialist of the 1900s. This Rockefeller grabbed hands with the Rothschild family. Chase bank, which Rothschild established, and Manhattan bank, established by Rothschild front Kuhn Loeb [actually Kuhn, Loeb & Company: here he has confounded the company into a single person], merged and America's biggest bank Chase Manhattan was born!

In researching Kuhn, Loeb & Co. I found a great explanation of the history of this myth of Jewish control of the Federal Reserve, which is very enlightening to any of you who are not familiar with many of the conspiratorial claims typically made by antisemites.

p241)
After the passage of the Antitrust Act, Rockefeller's Standard Oil continued, broken up into pieces like New Jersey Standard (later to become Exxon). Five of the current seven major oil companies come from this, and the other two (BP and Royal Dutch Shell) were ruled directly by the Rothschilds. This means oil, the most important thing in the world, was controlled completely by Rockefeller and the Jews. So if Rockefeller was a Jew, the whole world's oil was in the palm of the Jews' hand.
(Graphic shows a man wondering, caption says Rockefeller = Rocke (rock) + Feller (cliff))
Man (thinking): "To look at the name, you'd think he was a Jew . . ."

More 'is he or isn't he' obfuscating, this time to plant the seeds of the 'Jews control the world's oil supply' conspiracy theory. Rockefeller was a 'devout Northern Baptist'.

The Rockefeller family produced a New York governor who went on to be Vice President, and also churned out a string of governors. Along with the king of steel Carnegie and the king of cars Ford, they represented American capitalism. In 1890, the Rockefeller fund donated huge amounts of money to farming, medicine, and environmental science sectors. They started the Green Revolution, which propelled the development of seeds to improve food supplies in poor countries. Rockefeller, who seemed to give many billions of dollars, was thanked by many.
But this one-time most hated industrialist in America still can't shake his bad reputation
(Graphic shows angry man)
Man: "[They] still accumulate too much money to bear. He did all that to get a tax exemption."

p242)
Jews don't just control the finance and movie industry. In the modern world the all-too-important press is totally controlled by the Jews.
(Graphic shows the author in front of a chart that says "Legislature, Judicial, Executive, Press)
Author: "The press is so powerful it is called the 4th branch [of government]

Just a translation note. The Korean word eonlon (언론) was translated by others as 'public discourse', and I will use the word 'press', although I think a better, if less accurate, translation would probably be 'news media'.

"It is not going too far to say, in a word, that the American press is a Jewish thing and that it's voice is the Jew's voice"

(Graphic shows newspapers, magazines, TV and radio, all with stars of David on them)
America's three most influential papers (the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Times) all are either owned by Jewws or have Jews involved in their management. The world news services AP and UPI naturally are owned by Jews. England's biggest news agency and the world's third biggest, Reuters was founded by Jew J. P. Reuters. America's top 3 channels, NBC, ABC, and CBS-TV are all under the power of Jews. The world's weekly Newsweek is too.
America's preeminent newspapers, broadcasters, magazines and other mass communication media are all owned by Jews. The newspaper king who established the Pulitzer Prize was also a Jew born in Europe who moved to America. New York Times' top writer Walter Lippmann was a Jew too.

Next time: The calm before the storm, how to spot a Jew, the crashing crescendo of Jewish conspiracy, and the summation of America's weaknesses. Plus: The 2 million Americans we must never hate!

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Wiesenthal Center takes action

The Weisenthal center has sent this letter to the Gimm Young, publishers of the Monnara series. What a very positive development.

Incidentally, someone a good bit more diligent than I has determined that the series as a whole has sold 10 million copies. So anyone wondering how popular the series is, consider that South Korea is a nation of about 48 million.

A semi-related article and some questions

First off, check Ariana Eunjung Cha's article in today's Wall Street Journal about Chinese 'success' books teaching people how to get rich 'the Jewish way'. In an interesting parallel to the Monnara series, those Chinese books were written to capitalize on a boom in the 'success book' market in China. Monnara's last three volumes about the U.S. were written to take advantage of the currently surging Korean fad of educational comic books. The books basically spring from the same source of misinformation, for example, the article says

Some works incorrectly refer to J.P. Morgan (an influential Episcopalian leader) and John D. Rockefeller (a devout Baptist) as Jewish businessmen.

All that is coming up in my next batch of translation, which I will hopefully get up tomorrow morning. I've translated up to page 43 but it's not easy to find time to sit and type it up. The funny thing is they just take opposite tacts. To the Chinese books, Jewish success is inspiring, and to Mr. Rhie, it's a wicked conspiracy. Interesting, I wonder if it has anything to do with national identity.


Also, I received an email from a friend of mine who has never been to Korea, and he had some questions I thought it would be helpful to answer here, so here goes.

Q: What is a social studies comic book?
A: It's a comic book that both kids and parents think is educational, and that kids read in order to gain knowledge about the world. Education is important to Koreans, so it's considered much better to read a book that is marginally educational than one that is 100% entertainment. Rest assured that this is big business, typical Korean kids have walls covered with these books, they buy entire series at a time. They tend to market themselves as more fun and less educational than Monnara does, it's on the educational end of the education-fun spectrum.

Q: Is anitisemitism common in Korea?
A: Perhaps the best answer I can come up with is that it's not uncommon to hear antisemitic and anti-Israel statements in Korea. Does that mean there is a lot of antisemitism in Korea? I don't know, there aren't a lot of Semites in Korea, nor is there much history between Korea and Jews.
To me, when I hear a Korean espouse an antisemitic view, it reminds me of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, when some people said "Those intractable Pashtun warriors will never be defeated. Their country has not been successfully invaded in thousands of years." and I wanted to ask them whether they learned about Afghanistan off the back of the Risk board game box or whether Colmes said it to Hannity the night before. In other words, anything resembling antisemitism in Korea is both hearsay and designed to fit a Korean view of the world, rather than being born of experience or arrived at through empirically obtained evidence.

Q: Is this propaganda or satirical?
A: Anyone who has lived in Korea likely laughed at this question as I did. Not satirical.

Q: If it is propaganda, what is it's purpose?
A: To make Korean children dislike/fear/suspect Jews.

Any more questions? Any better answers than mine? I'll bet there's plenty of both.

Chapter 8, pages 235-239 (wherein the Rothschilds establish Israel and creates J.P. Morgan while Hollywood Jews and orientalists brainwash the East)

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p235)
The meeting of all the nations who won the Napoleonic War [The Congress of
Vienna] opened in 1814. This Congress of Vienna was really the Jews' victory
feast, as represented by Rothschild. In International finance and politics, it
had become impossible for anyone to ignore or obstruct the Jew.
(Graphic shows nobleman in a wig and a Jew)
Nobleman (to someone out of frame): "The Jews' power is too stro-"
Jew: "You wanna pay me back for the money you borrowed right now?"
After that the Rothschild family financed the construction of the Suez Canal in 1875. After World War 1 ended they pressured the British government with money.
(Graphic shows a British man and a Jew holding a money sack)
Jew: "Kick out the Arabs so the Jews can make a nation."
This resulted in the Balfour Declaration, promising the construction of a Jewish State.
Balfour: "Following Rothschild's proposal,
we vow to build a Jewish state in Palestine."
After World War 2, Rothschild financed huge amounts of money for the construction of the Israeli nation. Rothschild even spread into Eastern Europe and South America. They [unclear whether he's talking about the Jews or the Rothschilds] came to rule the world's finance and industry. The backlash and hatred against the Jews who use their money as a weapon to shake domestic and international politics burst forth like
a dam.
Antisemitism spread throughout the whole of Europe. The national
terror that was abuse of that anger in domestic politics was Hitler's massacre
of the Jews.
Hitler: "Jews, who ruin their host like parasites, must
disappear from the earth."

Note that there is no scale given to Hitler's massacre of the Jews. It's called terror[ism], which probably makes it sound like it was a) not so large scale and b) meant to scare the Jews he did not massacre.

p236
After the War of Independence, America's industry and economy
amazingly expanded. [Nathan] Rothschild quickly formed a plan to spread into
America.
Rothschild: "It's not difficult to grab the American market, but
the problem is if our clan appears in person America will resist us violently.
We must put up someone as a proxy to be our servant.
Spencer Morgan, a merchant Rothschild had had his eye on, was born in Massachusetts and established and operated Morgan Trading Company in London.
There is a rumor that Morgan was a Jew, and this is not clear, but
one thing that is certain is that he was Rothschild's servant.

He has this offhand way of implying that someone is a Jew, which serves as both an explanation of that person's actions and further proof that Jews are bad.

Rothschild dispatched his son John Pierpont Morgan to America as his full proxy
(총대리인). In New York he established J. P. Morgan Bank. J. P. Morgan Bank, thanks to Rothschild's massive funding power, was quickly able to rise to the strongest position in American finance.
J. P. Morgan and the other Jews that controlled American finance (미국의 금융업계를 장악한 J. P. 모건 등의 유대인들은) . . .

"The heart of world finance is New York." "So New York is where the greatest concentration of Jews in America are." "So 9.11 terror happened in New York."

Finally they succeeded in creating the Federal Reserve System, which regulates the American currency supply. Just as in England, the Jews secured top seats and grabbed the right to print money
(Photo of Alan Greenspan)

p237)
With Rothschild's backing, J.P. Morgan Bank grabbed DuPont, U.S. Steel, electric, telegraphs, telephone, chemical companies, et cetera. For a time, [Morgan] squeezed one fourth of America's total production and built a huge empire.
An Egyptian American philosopher named Edward Said is the authority on Orientalism".
(Photo of Said with speech bubble saying "Orientalism is cultural racism!")
The West, and especially Europe, consider themselves better and the Easter (orient) remainder of the world uncivilized and inferior. The core of Orientalism is the whites of Europe and America's justification for ruling the world. What is the most representative instance of Orientalism?
(Graphic shows a white pointing a camera at a Chinese person)
White: "Asia is mysterious!"
Chinese man: "I guess that means Europe is 'normal'.

I will remember this the next time someone here in Korea calls something about me "mysterious!" (신기해!)

They (Europe) use themselves as the standard to judge the rest of the world
and consider the East mysterious. Using whites as the measuring stick
for every value and judgment was called white supremacy and developed into
racism.
French philosopher Sartre pointed out this fact.
(Graphic shows a Frenchman and a turbaned man bowing to him.
Caption reads "Europeans became human while making monsters and slaves of the
East." (유럽인은 동양을 괴물과 종으로 만들면서 인간 되었다))

The above is my translation of the Korean translation of the original, which was written in Jean-Paul Sartre's Preface to Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth", in which he writes "[A]ll of us without exception have profited by colonial exploitation. This fat, pale continent ends by falling into what Fanon rightly calls narcissism. Cocteau became irritated with Paris — ‘that city which talks about itself the whole time’. Is Europe any different? And that super-European monstrosity, North America? Chatter, chatter: liberty, equality, fraternity, love, honour, patriotism and what have you. All this did not prevent us from making anti-racial speeches about dirty niggers, dirty Jews and dirty Arabs. High-minded people, liberal or just soft-hearted, protest that they were shocked by such inconsistency; but they were either mistaken or dishonest, for with us there is nothing more consistent than a racist humanism since the European has only been able to become a man through creating slaves and monsters."

But it's not just Europeans. Americans are also thoroughly enslaved by orientalism.
(Graphic shows a cowboy)
Cowboy: "Whites are the center of the world. America is a country built by whites."
If we speak as Sartre did, we should say "Americans became the owners of their country while making slaves and monsters of the Indians."

p238
The leader of the trend is none other than Hollywood movies. Like when England made its colony India inferior and whites superior . . . (영국이 식민지 인도를 열등화 하여 백인을 우월한 존재로 만든 것처럼). . . even in Nobel Prize winner Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book . . . (captions state "Mowgli is smart because he's a white child. The natives are on the same level as animals."). . . and in African Tarzan's story, too, whites are great and colored people (유색인) are inferior. (Caption states "Tarzan is white so he can teach himself how to read books. He gets together with white Jane.)
Hollywood movies play a decisive role in this propaganda and brainwashing. These movies were so magic that when a scene of early 20th century imperialism in which an American commander played by Charlton Heston penetrated into Beijing, it made even the victim Eastern audience (피해자인 동양의 관객들) cheer.

This is a reference to the movie 55 Days at Peking, in which Heston leads a multinational force going to Beijing to save the foreigners being held captive in the city by the Boxer rebellion.

Hollywood portrayed the Native Americans as savage and warlike and the whites as righteous and the embodiment of bravery. Even subject peoples clapped for the white side (피지배 민족까지 백인 편에 박수를 보내게 한 무서운 힘을 발휘했지).
(Graphic shows the author standing next to a sign that states "Now showing the great film "Men of the Wilderness (황야의 사나이들) The friendship and love of the brave men who faced the violent Indians)

p239)
The first people to fully perceive [the power of] this frightening cultural industry called film were the Jews. More Jews started the film industry with Jewish financing, and Jewish statesmen were implicated in the background.
(Graphic shows two bearded men)
Man 1"They're making a movie that badmouths the Jews (유대인을 깎아 내리는 영화 만든답니다)."
Man 2: "Don't let them make it."
It is still a Jewish industry employing Jewish artists. In early Hollywood the 8 studio heads were all Jewish. Beginning with the early film industry's biggest star, Charlie Chaplin, Fairbanks [sic], Buster Keaton, the 4 Marx Brothers, etc. were all Jews.
In the 1940s the world viewership of films reached 10 billion. In America, 4 billion movie ticket were sold. Of the world's 67,000 movie theaters, 17,000 of them were in America, sohow explosive do you think Hollywood's power was?
(Graphic shows a woman clapping at a movie screen with the caption "Movies really are the best way to brainwash the masses")

Second best. Comic books are still number one in my book.

It's because, unbelievably, until the 30s all the people who monopolized the film industry were Jews.
(Graphic shows a Jew)
Jew: "Make money and suppress antisemitism (반유대주의), Now that's killing two
birds with one stone."

Next time: Rockefeller, the media, communism, and how to tell a Jew by his last name.

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