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Post by soapygrams on Jan 24, 2007 22:12:49 GMT -5
What I do not understand is why any teacher/educator would use a NOVEL/fICTION as a textbook. I know that certain books in lterature classes are prescrivbed reading but in history? Wow, then George Lucas Star Wars books or Stephen King's books about New England could also be used??? Scary thought!
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Post by dreamie on Jan 24, 2007 22:33:51 GMT -5
I don't like distortion of history as much as the next person but there's no mention of the book being used as a history text, and the age is sixth grade, which does not normally have separate courses.
I would wonder who introduced this as appropriate literature for 11 year olds in the first place, with violence and rape, let alone the political motive.
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Post by Binny on Jan 25, 2007 0:27:25 GMT -5
I also wonder why such a novel was used for a textbook. The novel is not widely known even in Japan, either. If some US teachers wanted to teach some perspectives from Japanese citizens who experienced the war, there are much more appropriate and rather standard materias that are also used (either as a part of textbook, or recommended by teachers) in Japan for a long time. Examples of such include "Black rain (Kuroi ame)" and "Leaving my child (Kono ko wo nokoshite)" etc. These are among the materials describing the sufferings of ordinal people after the country started the war. While these two materials do not talk about Japanese war crimes (and thus have to be combined with other materials to give a whole view; but no book can take care of everything), they met their own goals -- give a strong opinon against the war and teach kids how scary the war and how precious the life is. The materials are not at all political and in my recollection do not have anything that criticise the US. They're also rather law risk in the sense that they contain only a few main historical fact and story does not evolve with many historical facts, which often require "checking". I think this is the main Problem of the right winged based Japanese education system. Instead of Educating The japanese with historical accuracy's,the mantality has been to hide it.
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Post by Miko on Jan 25, 2007 23:00:24 GMT -5
OK. I thought I was just addressing that the literature I mentioned would be more appropriate than the bamboo book. Binny, what do you mean by "this" (is the problem)? If you mean Hiding the facts or all the Japanese text book issue, I did not say that Japanese textbook is perfect. In fact, I personally think it is far from perfect. But it is another big big issue, which requires a whole another session somewhere. Instead, in my short previous message, I was focusing on discussing only about the bamboo book. And if you like "facts", it is also a fact that many ordinal Japanese people suffered during the WWII. American kids are probably not familiar with ordinal people's sufferings even though many are taught about pearl harbor, iwojima, Japanese occupations, etc. I just speculated that the goal that the US teachers who picked up the bamboo book was to teach kids about other perspectives. Assuming I'm right, I thought there are better alternatives. Maybe you had a different opinion. Anyway, getting some idea about the ordinal people's experiences is a main thing I enjoyed from this drama, too.
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Post by zorro on Jan 26, 2007 10:03:00 GMT -5
On KBS News briefs last night they showed sales of the Bamboo book suspended, but made no further comments. Unfortunately I didn't hear who was doing the suspending.
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Post by TheBo on Jan 26, 2007 12:39:04 GMT -5
Hmm. I went ahead and ordered a copy of the book, just to see what this is all about. I read a little of it on the website (Amazon), and the part I read showed Japanese soldiers abusing the family, so I thought I'd better read it to see for myself. I'll try to find copies of those other books you recommend, also, Miko. This might be an interesting conversation.
Bo
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Post by distrubed too on Jan 31, 2007 20:18:16 GMT -5
Because it has to do with the Japanese occupation and the time period we've just gone through in this series. Does everyone want this thread to be moved? We can do that if it's bothering people here for some reason. TM is right. This post has NOTHING to do with the Seoul 1945 drama. The connection to Dong Woo, HaeKyung etc. is so flimsy, so loose, that anyone could justify posting just about anything anywhere. I can't stand the way some people try to politicize everything.
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Post by disturbed too on Jan 31, 2007 20:29:46 GMT -5
What bothers me is that this board is being used as part of an orchestrated campaign to attack a 20-year old book about an 11-year old Japanese girl's recollection of her experience in Korea at the end of the war. Surely, the reason why this book is newsworthy relates to the simple fact that it was recently made mandatory reading in an American public school. Otherwise, few people in the United States would have given it a second look. As for moving the topic, I think it certainly does relate to the historical timeframe of “Seoul 1945,” but if there’s a chorus of people who want it moved, it matters not to me. However, aside TM, I haven’t seen anybody complaining. I agree this is a newsworthy event, but the fact that it occurred during the same general timeframe of Seoul 1945 doesn't mean it should be posted here. By this logic, someone could start a post on the "Thank you life" board about that quack Korean doctor who fabricated all the cloning research, since that series involved medical and scientific research too. Or someone could start a post on the "Golden Apple" board about the hideous barbaric cruelty inflicted by Korean soldiers on Vietnamese peasantry since the series took place during the Vietnam war. But that would be just as nonsensical as this post is. As for people complaining, you can't draw a conclusion based on one person's willingness to speak up. I speak only for myself. There are 1900+ members in this group, and countless other casual guests like myself who like this board because it discusses the actual dramas that are the subject of the board. There are a handful of regular contributors who post thoughtful comments about the drama series. If you're not posting about the drama series or the actors/actresses in the series, put it on the General board! Thank you!!
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Post by Lucy on Feb 1, 2007 14:05:39 GMT -5
Why don't we just close this thread, since it started out being about something that was, in my opinion and that of some other members, related to Seoul 1945, and has now devolved into a discussion of whether it belongs here. At first I was interested because it is explicitly related to the idea of the Japanese perspective on the Japanese occupation that we just "lived through" on Seoul 1945, but as we have seen in other threads on the Chicago K-Drama board, such subjects are touchy. And political discussions can get pretty ugly. I can't see it getting any better from here on out. I lthink it might draw even more attention on the Generals board, and more people might be insulted for whatever reason.
I appreciate and understand your opinion, but I will say that if one doesn't like the subject under discussion, one always has the option of not reading it. I can't say that the presence of one thread you don't like on a board that has many threads in which to participate is cause to be very upset.
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Post by mikey on Feb 2, 2007 10:17:59 GMT -5
Why don't we just close this thread . . . Yes, it's getting a bit ugly. Probably a good idea to just kiss this thread goodbye.
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