Words Mean Things
This is a letter to the editor in today’s Korea Times. I found the letter to be quite straightforward and powerful in it’s message:
Freedom of South Koreans
Dear Editor,
I do not know if newspapers in South Korea publish letters to the editor as the U.S. papers do. But I felt the need to write this letter.
Last week, the start of the Korean War was remembered. At the time I was 18 years old, and I enlisted even though I did not know where Korea was.
I was sent to Korea and I served with the 7th Infantry Division. We were to serve for nine months and 36 points. When I finally rotated home, I was in Korea over 13 months and I had 52 points, but I was one of the lucky ones, I made it home.
I have always tried to feel I did some good in helping South Korea and its people. I wore my 7th Division cap with Korean ribbons on it in civilian life, but no more!
Like many Korean War veterans, I too have tired of the TV reports showing mobs of people in various Korean cities shouting “Americans, Go Home!”
When I think of the sacrifice we made and the number of people we lost in trying to protect the freedom of the South Korean people, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and to have the South Korean people throw our sacrifices in our face is too much to take.
If I had my way, I would bring home every one of our enlisted men and women.
Then South Korea could fend for themselves, and pray North Korea would allow you to live in peace.
Walter E. Gunther, Las Vegas
In the past, I have explained this type of thing as a cultural misunderstandings and tried to explain that they don’t REALLY mean “Yankee, Go Home” or “We Hate America,”. I think Michael Breen explained this phenomenon quite well in the November-December 2004 issue of the Invest Korea Journal (full text available here) when he wrote:
What, for example, do anti-American protestors want? The common assumption is that protestors want the United States to withdraw its troops but two years ago, when American commentators started suggesting that the troops be withdrawn if they were not wanted, protestors took to the streets to complain that Americans did not understand Korean anti-Americanism.
“We don’t want you to leave; rather, we want you to change your attitude,” they said.
While I still believe this to be true, letters like those written by Mr. Gunther remind me that to Americans, who do not understand the Korean way of doing things, words mean things. Americans hear the words and take them at their face value. We don’t do a lot of processing words through the filters of other cultures. Although there needs to be greater education and less focus on the minor events in the Western press, the Korean side must also understand that a poor choice of words or misguided actions can end up doing much more harm than good.