Re: fingerprinting in Japan

[David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gordon C. Thomasson, Ph.D." <gthomas1 () stny rr com>
Date: November 22, 2007 10:14:34 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] fingerprinting in Japan

Dave,
Back in 1992 an American student of mine (of Korean Ancestry) did her  
Marlboro College honors thesis on Koreans in Japan -- they had been  
brought to the islands after the 1910 annexation and still were legal  
slaves until after 1945.  Never repatriated, they and their  
descendants were still the lowest class in Japan in the 1980s, and the  
ONLY people required to be fingerprinted and carry police ID in Japan  
except for criminals.  The equation of Korean = criminal was one of  
many  obstacles to improved Korean-Japanese relations as the techno- 
economies of those first Asian Tigers became intertwined.  Other too- 
typical obstacles to normalized relations included the still  
inadequately resolved demand of apologies and compensation for the  
kidnapping of Korean "comfort women" by the Japanese military during  
WW II, and the repeated vandalism of a monument in the Peace Park to  
Koreans killed by the Hiroshima blast -- the monument was finally  
rebuilt in a remote alley off a side street where "real Japanese"  
would not have to see it.  Fingerprinted foreigners now will have the  
distinction of having the same status as former Korean slaves.
Gordon C. Thomasson, Ph.D.
World History Faculty
Broome Community College (SUNY)

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