Memory Part 1

This has much less to do with any memories I created and only tangentially to do with my own travels. Instead, as I have traveled through so many countries that have experienced the long arm of colonialism, imperialism (both militarily and economically), large scale violence and isolation by the west a question that seems to return to me is; where is the resentment? This was a pressing question that I had as an American entering Vietnam last year and a similar one was turning around in my head as I traveled through Laos. I imagine I will question this when I am in the Philippines where American "advisors" still struggle with Islamic separatist movements and in Cambodia where Richard Nixon waged the sideshow as the US was supposedly cooling down in Vietnam. However, no doubt you have read your history and if not it is pretty easy to bone up a bit.

What I want to discuss however, is not the history itself, but the aftermath of those historical events. My mind has been especially colored by the rich cultural and historical perils that Korea is fraught with in re its neighbors and especially Japan. This comparison or questions about the differences in cultures even within Asia will return later. For now though

Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia especially experienced some of the most horrific and many times un-reported treatment from the US. In the US at least it is a little known fact that Laos has the dubious honor of being the most bombed country in the history of warfare. Something like 500,000 pieces of ordnance were dropped on the country, destroying whol villages, eradicating any infrastructure that existed. Essentially what people would popularly term bombing them back to the stone age. A pleasant concept indeed. The history of Vietnam is far more transparent to the west and especially Americans, but is no less tragic. Napalm, agent orange, carpet bombing etc. followed by years of economic isolation by the American government.

Yet, through all this I have found little resentment, or even dwelling on the issue. I was able to talk very frankly with a Laotion in Vientiane who recalls quite clearly the struggle between tribes armed by the CIA, the Pathet Lao and the ordinary people caught in between. He talked about the tremendous bombing campaigns, political killings, insurgency. Yet, with full knowledge of who was responsible for this, and with the full knowledge that he was discussing it with an American, my nationality did not figure into it at all. There was no accusations, no resentment. Nothing that would resemble the anger that I would think would be there. When I was in Vietnam last year I was very concerned (despite people telling me to the contrary that it would be fine) that my Americaness would have some sort of negative impact on my travels. This was never the case.

Allow me to contrast this with the great tragedy that struck China and Korea at the hands of Japanese colonialism in the early 20th century. The Rape of Nanking certainly stands out, but no less problematic was the comfort women of Korea, the puppet state of Manchukuo, or the wide scale cultural rape that occured at the hands of the Japanese (as an aside I am not writing this to place blame or demonize Japan etc. merely exploring the historical relevance of the situations. Japan must face these problems as a nation which they have overwhelmingly failed to do so at this point, but again become relevant later in re:the US). In Korea, certainly, there are widely held beliefs that the Japanese are not to be trusted, that they would do again the things that they perpetrated in the 20th century (I find that very unlikely), and seemingly small matters like the Liancourt Rocks can get Koreans flying off the wall about how terrible the Japanese are as a race. That they can never be forgiven for the things they did. This is not even endemic among merely the old. I have met many young Koreans who have similar feelings.

I cannot speak with much accuracy to much of the rest of the world (this will have to wait for when I can do proper research in a few months) but I have no doubt that the issues surrounding Algeria and France, Armenia and Turkey, former Yugoslav countries, any host of Latin American countries, etc. there are similar problems or lack there of in re: SE Asia. What I will attempt to do in my next entry is to offer some possible answers to why the cultures of SE Asia have distinguished themselves as not having allowed themselves to dwell on that past. A heady task indeed.