Remember the beginning, the King of Spades? In this last post*, we’ll return where we started so that you, against all the charm and spell of them outwardly nice, cute and sweet Koreans, cannot challenge the legitimacy, reliability, rationality, accuracy, and integrity of what’s been told and shown in this series. This will show the most sinister face of Koreans which will leave you speechless, I hope.
Please take a look below:
The photo is taken, as you can check from the EXIF yourself, on 10 April 2023, purely coincidentally on our last day in Korea, at Itaewon-ro, not so posh or fancy but still nice neighbourhood of the city. The plate says, first in Arabic then in Latin letters hello, or welcome (أهلا و سهلا) if you’d prefer the literal meaning, has the flag and the map showing the borders of Syria, and the position of the capital within, and at the bottom says Syria, the country’s name, and Damascus its capital.
What might come to your mind? My wife, the poor creature, when I showed her this plate, wore a great smile and commented: How cute it is!
Cute? Damn, it gave me shivers, how the hell can it be cute? Syria has been in war, at least technically, for over a decade. Bits of its soil is stolen by Turkey, Russia, the US, and Israel. Millions of Syrians are living abroad, in lot better conditions, hence with lot more joy, happiness, and hope for the future. Okay, this might not be that problematic of a thing but still, Syrian refugees are everywhere. How can this be cute?
Besides, the plate is not on a wall but is on the road, under our feet. When Atatürk entered İzmir, which kind of marked the end of Turkish War of Independence, a Greek flag was put on the door sill so that Atatürk would trample, or at least step on it, and enter the hall. “What the hell is this” he asked seeing the flag laid under his feet.
– The Greek flag, your highness.
+ And what for?
– The Greek commander stepped on Turkish flag while entering this place. For to return his kind act.
+ He made a mistake and I can’t repeat it. The flag is the honour of a nation, under no circumstance can it be laid down or walked upon. Raise it up!
The flag, down under our feet, on a kind of busy street albeit not the busiest in the city, is to be walked upon by hundreds, thousands, over time millions and billions of people. How crazy this is, can you imagine? Millions walk on Syria? I thought that this was a singular thing, something that was done by someone holding some grudges against Syria – and I was proven wrong in 20-30 metres, where I saw another such plate, this time of Poland:
What the hell was happening? How the hell could there be a thing that I didn’t know about? Curious, I kept walking and came across, as you’d expect, yet another and, for me the most saddening one:
Need I say that trying to remove the damn plate from the ground proved itself to be a fruitless effort?
As we walked on, I came across more plates. Who weren’t there? The US, the UK, Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Russia, Uzbekistan, China… What might be the common point between these 16 (and potentially other) plated countries? What can bring together China, the US, and Japan in other than Hamilton Hotel on Itaewon-ro, well, their dislike of Russia?
What might? History, of course! Let me tell and show this ugliest face of Koreans to you.
Korean 20th century history is rather saddening: The “vassal state to the Chinese” was annexed by the Japanese Empire in 1910. This went on until the end of WWII, when the losing Japan gave up on her “rights” on the peninsula. The two forces, Russians from the north and the Americans from the south entered Korea and draw an arbitrary line on 38th parallel north until they decided what to do, and how. Talks didn’t produce results and in 1948 was formed the South Korea first, and North Korea less than a month later. In 1950 the north came to invade the south, captured almost all cities except two, one being our famous Busan, and in 1953 armed hostilities ended – but hostilities didn’t.
Peace was installed? Not really. In 1961 came the first coup by Park Chung Hee and he ruled the country as he willed up until 1979. No, it wasn’t democracy, it was Kim Jae-gyu, a close ally and friend of President Park, that overthrew the dictator so that he would enjoy the rights and benefits himself. Sadly he could only less than two months, for came another coup in December 1979 by Chun Doo-hwan, whose rule lasted until 1987. “Enough is enough” said Koreans in the end, democracy was installed and the people, thanks to three decades of modernization and industrialization, have been living at least decent and adequate lives ever since. The war, first against the invaders, then against their own brothers, and then again against them their own soldiers was over.
Or was it? Of course not! Year after year Koreans lived under Chinese, Japanese, and in the end American rule. They were bombed with the invaders’ culture: They wore what the invaders did or told them to wear, they ate what they were allowed to eat, they watched what they were given to watch, they listened and danced to what they were given… But still they didn’t lose their “Koreanness”: They didn’t become Chinese, neither they became Japanese or American. Having such deep, strong and admirable culture, their bodies were captured, but not their souls. Being free in the end, and having the financial muscles, an agenda was implemented: Culture war against not only the ex-invaders but against the world!
Now you understand why the world is bombed with K-pop and K-drama and so on?
I believe you realized, yet I still better tell it: These plates show the countries which came to bow down to Korean culture. Koreans invaded the countries not by arms but by culture, by their soft power, by will than force, by love than fear. Hamilton Hotel shows the climax of this decades-old and never-ending policy: Those once made us now bow in front of our culture.
And I bow down to Koreans for their success in such grand project. Respect, tiny-eyed, short, yet iron willed and hardworking people!
Why Hamilton Hotel, you wonder? Well, in short, Alexander Hamilton, an American general named after the famous founding father, used to have his “base” on Itaewon-ro, at the very place where the hotel is located. He was the sole American general who died “on duty” in Korea, and the place, owned by his family, was turned to a hotel at the ground floor of which is a room, some sort of museum, exhibiting his uniforms, typewriter, books, beddings and such. The hotel was bought by the government in 1996 and the museum is removed, and this act is considered to be the starting point for Korean War of Culture. The flags of the three major enemies on such place are on display for this very reason: Korea “rules” where it once was “ruled from”.
* This series is intended to become a book in the end, for which it starts saying “in this last post”.
