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.