Are Korean-Americans true Americans?

Last week, an incident happened that was very painful for Americans. Otto Warmbier died after being released from North Korea. It is not yet clear what caused Warmbier to suffer fatal brain damage. However, North Korean violence is being cited as a strong possibility.

The United States is currently at North Korea’s mercy. Many Americans expected things to turn around after the change to the Trump administration. Everything seemed fine until the US daringly dispatched two aircraft carriers, but ultimately this was not even seen as a threat. North Korea has continued to develop its missiles as before, and is still provoking the US and its surrounding countries. North Korea’s ICBM already has California within its range. Then last week, this incident happened. How should the US take this reality? We are irritated that we cannot find an answer, and have been backed into a corner. We can easily guess from the statements of senior government officials that the reason the Trump administration is not attacking is out of consideration for South Korea.

But since a new president has emerged in South Korea, this major player has been pushing back THAAD deployment plans and has even talked about holding the winter Olympics jointly with North Korea. Are these the actions of our allied country?

There is a fact few young Americans know. That is that the supposedly finished Korean War is actually still continuing according to the law. There is currently a truce in place, and the Korean peninsula is still in a state of civil war. That is, North Korea is still South Korea’s enemy, and the US is cooperating with its ally South Korea to protect it from the threat of the North. Despite this, South Korea is acting in ways that could be seen as “pro North Korea.” How should we think about this?

As the situation becomes more and more worrisome for the US, Korean-Americans are still passionately protesting against Japan. Perhaps this is of no interest to Americans, but these Koreans are using the issue of Korean “comfort women” during WWII to build statues called “comfort women statues” in parks around the US, and are conducting anti-Japanese activities in the US. The reason of describing “Korean” instead of “South Korean” is because both North and South Koreans are supposedly participating in these activities. According to them, the purpose of installing the statues is “to protect the rights of women.” However, one cannot help but have doubts about their idea of “rights.”

During the Vietnam War, South Korean soldiers massacred many citizens and raped Vietnamese women. The mixed children born of those rapes are called Lai Dai Han, and nearly 30,000 of them still live in Vietnam. Neither South Korean criminal nor South Korean government have still apologized for this situation.

People who recognize that war is abhorrent are likely to be against war, and to enthusiastically agree to protect the rights of women.

But there are still some things which are hard to understand.

Why would such patriotic Koreans want to become Americans?

The reason is not so hard to understand if Koreans and South Koreans who still live in Korean peninsula are building comfort women statues in the US. But why would Korean-Americans go to the trouble of investing their own money for this? It is currently unclear whether or not they are actually investing their own money. After Warmbier’s death, many people probably think that there are other things South Korea should  do.

Americans should do things that are advantageous to the US. Is building comfort women statues meaningful for the US? Do Korean-Americans, who have the same blood as the North Korean criminals, not think anything about Warmbier’s death?

Even more surprisingly, some shocking news has been coming in at this time.

On June 30th, a new “comfort woman statue” will be built in Brookhaven, a city in the suburbs of Atlanta. After the Atlanta Comfort Women Memorial Task Force’s project to build a memorial was rejected, Brookhaven accepted the proposal and is now going to build the statue.

As Americans, do Korean-Americans not have any feelings about Warmbier’s death? Is it important to build a comfort woman statue even when such a painful event has happened?

Is it important enough to defame Japan, one of the US’s important allies? Don’t Korean-Americans want to use the time, money, and power being spent for that statue to stop North Korean tyranny? If South Korea cannot provide convincing answers and actions in response to such concerns, no one is likely to accept Korean-Americans as Americans.

Americans should act patriotically for the benefit of their country. All public actions should be aligned with US interests.

Korean-Americans are not patriotic. They are living in the US, a country where they have no roots of their own. As long as they do not act in ways that benefit the US, they should not be accepted as Americans, and the US should not accept their demands.

Wise Korean-Americans should think carefully before acting, and other Americans should also understand.

What Korean-Americans should be passionate about are not efforts to build comfort women statues, which have no meaning to the US. As people who share the same Korean blood, would it not be more meaningful for the US if these people were to protest against North Korea? Many people who share the US nationality would likely think so.

Image source https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/The_first_of_two_Terminal_High_Altitude_Area_Defense_%28THAAD%29_interceptors_is_launched_during_a_successful_intercept_test_-_US_Army.jpg