Korea Tests American Sincerity
Buck, Pearl S.
Korea Tests American Sincerity Do We Believe That Freedom Is an Unalienable Right of All People? By Pearl S. Buck THE Koreans whom I have known are likeable people, human, approachable, a ad...
...It burns under cover in Korea, everywhere...
...No support was given—indeed, I suppose moat of our people knew nothing about the uprising...
...We have even alienated to aome degree those warm friend*, the Chineae...
...it makes ems ebneziess to family and friends...
...The ability to assume responsibility only comes with responsibility...
...The time hss now come for Americans to express themselves in regard to the freedom of Korea...
...An island people is nearly always an insular people...
...The East and West have met aad the twaia are hmrpsraMy Nnked ht close ties—cultural, eat*martial, aad petKical...
...We have twice betrayed Korea...
...Twenty-five million Koreans want to choss* their own government There will, of course, be seme difficulties and some disagreements...
...None of this support materialized on the day when she needed it Yet had wo helped her then, of course, we would not today ha fighting Japan aa our bitter and powerful enemy...
...We have alienated many peoples through est fear of standing on the eternal principle of frenown as a natural and unalienable rigbt of all...
...Bat Korea is a peninsula and her people are not insular...
...Korea was the first victim of Japan's expanding ambitions...
...Whatever the legal aspects of that treaty, the truth is that the Koreans thought that it meant, we would standby them...
...tawa - , U^mZ ' countries "not it far setf-government" indeed...
...She can be, if she is freed, one of the stabilizing countries of the world, comparable perhaps to Sweden...
...Let us not make the same mistake with the people of Korea...
...Second, Koreans aa I have known them impress aaa by their arm, indomitable, persistent stubbornness, a splendid quality of keeping after want they want, combined with considerable calm and practical sense in meeting daily difficulties...
...this seems to me a proof of their quaKieatisn for freedom, not a proof of why they should not have it H we are to have every country now subject to an alien \ rawer esmted aafere at aaa) lawns Ma froeeW aa N elM*a*na*a* srusk ess...
...We need th* freedom-loving people of Korea as onr allies, but msr* than that—we must signify to subject peoples that we, the people of America, stand for the freedom *f all peoples...
...we have shrugged our, shoulders and let ourselves do nuthing about, Korea...
...But neither is she one of the big countries...
...Heretical apinioaa lad to her resignation frssa the freakyteriaa Foreign Mmissaary Beard...
...After dlvarciag her frat husband, she married Richard Walsh, editor sf the magazine A$im and president of the John Day Company...
...Back ia the aathsr sf a losg list sf navels, pamphlets, books aa general subject*, and juvenile...
...Back ia areas-dent It has aaa* a splendid job af promstiag understanding between the United States aad the Orient la fact...
...To sty rnhad, therefore, the e..ly jtnt, tree, s* welt aa practical belief is that freedom is the natural aad an aliens M* right sf all people...
...Nothing so discouraging as those three little words "in due course" has happened to the Koreans since the last war...
...lKfK betrayed Korea again—unwittingly, it is true...
...It will take ua a leag time to win these peoples back to their belief in us...
...It flames in the Koreans who are living abroad in other countries because they cannot endure life under Japanese rule...
...1 feel that we Americans have a peculiar responsibility toward the Koreans...
...We do this individually and we do this through groups...
...In the Cairo conference that cautiousness, born of lack of understanding, expressed itself In the disappointing statement that Korea would be given her freedom, "in duo course...
...Their difference* sre only sack aa exist saseng say people—including Americans...
...New look here, you Democrat* and Republicans, you must let us role you until you agree among yourselves\" It is the glory of our country that our ritiiens have always been able te expresa their wishes and their opinions...
...I have listened to many Koreans who differ with him in details of how that freedom could be meat effectively and quickly obtained, but I have heard none who did not unite with him wholeheartedly in wanting that freedom, and in appreciation of Dr...
...Pearl Back advises: "Never write a aavel if yea ran passably kelp it...
...Together they foanded the Eaat and West Asssciatiss, af watch Mrs...
...Tbe peoples of France, Russia and Italy doubt our sincerity today...
...They went freedom without any strings tied to it Dr...
...her population ia nearly four times ss great as that of Australia, for example...
...A country that is too small may be continually bristling with fright But a median country, not big enough te swallow other peoples by mere power, not small enough to be afraid, is a country of balance...
...There is not only the obligation of the past, there is the compulsion of the future...
...As early as the middle of the seventeenth century Korea began to be afraid of the mounting ambitions of Japan and through the years ahe sought by means of treaties with all possible nations to secure support in case Japan attacked...
...But the steadiness inherent in the Korean nature kept the people from giving up their light for freedom...
...All Koreans suite in their respect and affection for Dr...
...Peepl* muat learn by doing...
...The people of India are beginning to classify ua with tyrant...
...Sonaa-times peeptea who have lived ia small casratriea form tight, unapproachable little communities, perhaps out of a sense of fear because they are small...
...He is aa strong as a rock iasida For a generation now the' people of Korea have had to live under a based alien rale...
...The Koreans do not want any "in due course" attachments to this promise of freedom...
...The Chinese government has recognized this spirit and has expressed that recognition officially to the exiled provisional government of Korea in Chungking...
...They sre a people and are ready to begin to live and act as a people...
...We have bungled very badly in our treatment of set allies...
...In spite of our twice-broken faith in ths past they look to us again today for our help in seeing that their people are free at the end of this war, free not only from Japan but from all other alien governments...
...Mr...
...Syngham Shoe is the well-known and beloved elder leader of the movement for Korean freedom...
...1 am sure that again most Americans had no knowledge of the betrayal...
...They tend to think of him a* weak...
...PEARL S. BUCK wan farm ia West Virginia, hat ahe was taken is China by her atiaaksaary parent* whoa a baby...
...But the people of Korea, after the first World War, took literally Woodrow Wilson's promise of the freedom of small nations, and they rose up against Japan, expecting support from us and from the Allies...
...They havelrvsd, they have net died, aa a people, ia spite of persecutions' and aggressions They have lived aa best they could, they have never become Japanese or Japonised, The number of Koreans who would be Quislings is so few that they are negligible in the total...
...The Koreana express their differences ia the same way that we do, with candor and without fear...
...Ska has taught ia universities ks both China aad ths Hasted States...
...We have heard much of the so-called divisions or factions in various Korean groups, an...
...Many Koreans were killed and a period of great darkness and gloom settled over Korea as the result of the heart-breaking disappointment...
...By Pearl S. Buck THE Koreans whom I have known are likeable people, human, approachable, a ad freedom ktving...
...The Korean people, as I have known them, avake me think of the Swedish people, a seagirt people but act an island people, with aosne of the breadth of the aaa but with roots ia great mainlands...
...But to her family and friends, whs csaatitate a cleud sf witnesses, nke is far from skaezieea...
...He ia not weak...
...Talk with any Korean and you And a man deeply determined to see his people free...
...But how fiercely would we resent some foreign power saying te as...
...Hera in our own country we have not understood either the spirit of the Korean people nor their value to the cause of democracy...
...No people ever can hecsate "worthy of freedom" so long as freed*** is denied them...
...The determination to win their independence burns very clearly and brightly today...
...a assy aianarscy any where Astra are many voice*, at free la apsafc, jad what in aarseaary k* . UcV nagae alien IJ taw majority ralaa, with protection far the rights of minorities...
...I know that some Americans say that we did not actually betray the Koreans when we did not stand by our treaty to come to her aid should she be attacked by a foreign country, which all along everybody knew woold be Japan...
...She contributes articles on the P*r East to namerene magazines...
...Sweden, by her prudence and by the commonaense of her people, is always actively on the side of commonaense relationship between peoples, which means reasonable behavior, aa equitable adjustment of differences, and no aggressive ambitions...
...Rhee's single-minded devotion to the cause of Korea's freedom...
...And her hast af friends eztends acres* the globe...
...She has spent all of her childhood aad much of her adalt life ia that roantry, and her love far China and the Chinees impregnates every bask aha writes...
...Still more impractical is the idea that a people can show itself worthy of self-government without any chance to practice self-government A child tearna to walk by walking...
...o / I SUPPOSE that if we were to try to find a test t* classify the eternal difference Between the conservative aad the progressive mind, we could find that test ia the answer to this one question—do yen Mir** that fr*e4»m ** the sna/isneW* ri#*t •/ all pe»s{**> The conservative tory mind will always say that people must show themselves first worthy of freed** before they can have it Just who is to judge what constitutes worthiness for freedom is not so clear, and still less clear is, what right any person has to set up such arbitrary standards...
...Rhee...
...The people of Korea skeald he free Is govern thea-aelves, because all pcopleo should be free te |overs the at selves...
...We go through such difficulties every four years...
...Korea ia not one of the very small countries...
...Westerners are of tea deceived, I think, by the mildness and good hussar of the average Korean...
...Pearl Back ha* proved Kipling wrong...
Vol. 27 • March 1944 • No. 12
