27
HOW
TO RESPOND THEOLOGICALLY
TO THE HUMAN CONDITIONS IN
ASIA TODAY
Kirn Yong-Bock
Some preliminary
remarks
I suppose I am reasonably well
situated to reflect upon human conditions in Korea and to do it on behalf of The
Korean Student Christian Federation, for I am personally and intimately related
to the community of Korean Student Christian Federation. I am an active member
of Korean Christian Faculty Fellowship, which is a senior segment of the
community of Korean Student Christian Federation. This means that I cannot
speak for all of Asia directly. What I am hoping here is that I share some of
my theological reflections with friends in SCM's in other Asian countries and
theirs with me. Therefore, my theological reflection is primarily related to
the Korean situation, but it will be useful for other Asian situations, if not
directly, dialogically and indirectly.
I am more and more convinced that
our theological reflection should not start with church history, especially
with mission history. World Student Christian Federation is an integral part of
the modern mission history of the Western Christiandom.
This does not mean that we should forget about the mission history and
especially history of the World Student Christian Federation. What it means is
that our theological reflection in Asia today should not be a simple extension
or even development of the Western theological reflections.
Theological reflection should begin
with Asian experiences of Christian witness to the Gospel in the context of
general history of the Asian peoples. The experiences of
Christian witness in Asia is broader than mission history and Asian
church history, which has been, by and large, the extension and development of
Western missionary movement. Our theological reflection takes very seriously
the general history of the Asian peoples, in which the message of the Gospel is
spoken. The theological reflection of the churches has not taken the general
history of the Asian peoples, which is often relegated to the pagan status.
I believe that theological
reflection is not done by the academic scholar, but is done by the community of
Christian witness, what I call Christian koinonia, which has borne the good
news to the poor in language and practice (Praxis). Theological reflection
takes place in the practising community of Christian faith. It is not the
monopoly of theologians or academicians. Theologians and academicians are tools
that the community of the faith uses for theological reflection. I believe that
SCM's in Asia are such Christian koinonia's in which
authentic theological reflection should take place based on the experiences of
faithful Christian witness.
The Social Biography
of the Peoples in Asia as the Context
The historical context in which our
theological reflection should take place
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must cover at least one hundred years or a longer
period of history of Asian peoples. Faithful theological reflection requires
intimate knowledge of the social history or social biography of their own people. Without such firm grasp of the historical
context of the Asian peoples any theological reflection will be aloof or
alienated from the concrete realities of Asian societies. I believe that the
social biography of minjung (the people, oppressed, exploited, and
discriminated etc) is the best way the reality of the story of the people are
known.
The social biography is the stories
of the people, which have been experienced by themselves and told by
themselves. The people are the subject in experiencing them and in telling them
(the stories). The story is more than social analyses, that
is scientific and objective. The story involves subjective experiences and
responses to the objective conditions of the society. The story is a drama in
which the people act as the protagonist of the story, and the oppressive power
acts as an antagonist. In the story, the protagonist and the antagonist creates events and sequences of events in which the life of
the people are decided one way or the other. In the story there is no inherent
historical law or inevitable victory. The story of the people is sometimes
victorious for the people; but most of the time the stories of the people are
tragic because of their powerlessness.
The story of the people or social
biography of the people is not purely subjective or imaginary, although
subjective feelings, visions and imaginations are an integral part of the story
of the people. The social biography deals with objective realities of history
or society. This means that the social biography includes the social analyses
and it is more than social analyses. Social analyses alone do not determine the
story or social biography of the people; but people's subjective and
self-determining action in history determines the outcome of the people's
stories.
Minjung (people)'s telling of their
own stories, including objective social analyses, do not reveal the totality of
historical reality of minjung. In recent years my experience has been the Minjung's story can be best told by minjung themselves; but often minjung have stories they cannot tell
or dare not tell. So long as minjung cannot tell their own stories or refuse to
do so, the real history of the people are not
completely revealed and the inner core of the story of the people remain hidden
to the world outside. There is a certain epistemological impenetrability about
the stories of minjung.
The story of the Asian
people is that of suffering:
It is impossible to tell the stories
of Asian peoples and describe them here. However it is important to indicate
certain historical experiences that Asian peoples have had during the last one
hundred years.
A. Asian
peoples have long struggled to break the shackles of traditional burdens of
repressive cultures, authoritarian power structures, and extreme poverty and
disease. In the nineteenth century, most of Asian peoples experienced the
breakdown or the beginnings of the breakdown of traditional societies due to
the internal strains and the external (Western) impact. One can easily detect a
story of the people in this historical
29
context. A Korean example is the famous
popular literary work. The Tale of Hong Kil-dong,
– a story of Korean Robin Hood. Often in this historical context there
emerged messianic movements of the people such as the Heavenly Kingdom (Taiping Tienkuo) movement in
China, Tonghan Peasant Religious movement for
Transformation of Heaven and Earth in Korea. Both these movements are classical
people's movements in the middle of 19th Century. In these movements the people
dream new dreams and have new visions, giving them hope to struggle to
establish a just and equalitarian social order.
B. Asian
peoples experienced the colonial encroachment in various forms and degrees.
Often Christianity was the religion of the colonial power. Spanish and American
colonialism in the Philippines; British colonialism in India, Pakistan, Burma,
Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong; French colonialism in Indo-China,
Dutch colonialism in Indonesia; and Japanese colonialism in Korea and Formosa
were antagonists that caused a great deal of suffering for Asian peoples.
Asian people's story in this historical context
is that of the struggle for self-determination and national independence.
C. The
historical matrix that caused the Asian people suffer
most recently is the Cold War and super-power rivalry in Asia and in the rest
of the world. The Korean War, Indo-Chinese War and other small or large
domestic conflicts were direct results of the Cold War. Today the war machines
of the East and West threaten the people in the whole world for their quality
and survival of life. This cold reality gave the impetus to the militarisation of societies in Asia and resultant political
repression in many parts of Asia. The Asian people suffered most under the
aegis of the Cold War. Here the stories of the Asian peoples are to overcome
the ideological division imposed upon them by the super-powers and the search
to realize the true shalom, that is, peace in the domestic and international
setting.
D. The
encroachment of technocracy especially from the West causes the suffering of
the Asian peoples. Industrialized nations of the West and Japan form the
tri-lateral axis around which the world order is being organized, and
third-world nations will be penetrated by the various components of the
technocracy. Specifically the economic aspects, the central component of Transnational Corporations, will play the most important
strategic role in the formation of the world order through which the Asian
peoples will suffer once again. The pinnacle of suffering of Asian peoples will
be, in addition to usual political, social and cultural suffering, suffering in
terms of stifling of selfhood, subjectivity and self-determining freedom of the
people. The people will be suppressed, tamed, domesticated and intoxicated by
the technocracy.
The above historical realities
co-exist in a given social situation in Asia in varying combinations and
intensities, and consequently people suffer, and creatively and determinedly
struggle against such powers that make them suffer. What is remarkable about
the ever-unfolding stories of the peoples is that the people are becoming more
and more conscious and aware about their historical
30
predicaments and consciously remake their own
stories by affirming their selfhood, subjectivity, and by claiming their rights
of self-determination and sovereignty to shape their own story and future.
Since it is very difficult to
present a typical story of the people, let me give a brief example from Korea:
the Social Biography of the Korean A-bomb victims.
Let me once again clarify the terms
"minjung" and "social biography." Minjung is a political
concept in the broad Aristotelian sense. The minjung are not known through
philosophical, ideological or even scientific concepts. The minjung are known
through their own social biography, that is, their life story. The minjung are
not to be "named" objectively: they are not objectively defined by
anyone, except perhaps by their own self-definition.
However, the minjung are known in
two ways. One is by knowing the minjung in relation to the power. Minjung here
are "the powerless, the poor and the alienated." The other is that
the minjung are known through their own social biography, i.e. their own
stories. What, then, is social biography? It is simply the story of the
minjung. The term "story" here should not be understood as trivial.
It is the basic form of the minjung's life. It is a
drama in which antagonist (power) and protagonist create events and sequences
of events. There is no built-in victory or defeat. No laws are dominant in the
story. The story contains memory and vision. It contains the wisdom of the past
to create a new future, and it entertains the future vision to energize the
present course of the drama. The story unfolds in interaction with the
ecological environment, with socio-economic structures. But above all the story
contains the subjective and internal experiences of the minjung.
Social Biography of the Minjung: the
Story of the Korean A-Bomb Victims
The day when the
A-bomb exploded over the people in Kwangdo and Chanki1
was the most terrible and tragic day in human history. It was the day when World War II
was fatefully decided; no, the "end" of world history became manifest
in qualitative terms, for the Korean minjung, numbering 70,000 suffered the
"ultimate" death2 as far as we are able to know in human
history. 40,000 nameless persons died and 30,000 survived with the curse of
atomic disease on their bodies and spirits and in their very being.
Who are the Korean A-bomb victims?
This question has escaped our perception and thinking even when we ask the most
fundamental questions of human history today. Why? Because it is the most
horrible part of the horrible event, so that the powers suppressed the story of
those of Korean origin who were A-bombed. The Korean A-bomb victims have
suffered more deeply than their Japanese counterparts, for the historical
reality of Koreans in Japan (over two million at that time) was that of
"slaves" of the colonial "master". Perhaps human
consciousness is incapable of grasping the historical reality of ultimate
death. Certainly we have no way of telling the story of these Korean persons in
terms of their total suffering. In human history there has never been another
such experience. In some sense the experience of suffering of the A-bombed
Koreans has a character of epistemological impenetrability. It is impossible to
31
know their full story. If there is a way to know in
part, it is through their own telling of their own story of suffering.
A. Where
is their home? Their home was not the real place where they could feel at home,
because they had come from the Korean rural areas, where the vestiges of the Yi
regime's oppression and exploitation made deep scars in their fathers' lives.
The Yangban had ruled them for over 500 years and at
the end of the Yi dynasty they rose up to overcome their own burden.3
The story of the Korean A-bombed includes the story of
the Korean minjung under the power of Yi Korea.
B. But
their home was taken away by the Japanese colonial power. They lost their
farmlands to the Japanese rulers and Japanese colonial agricultural companies.
And that was not all. They were taken as forced labor
to Japan (the hell-to-be); some of them were forced to migrate in search of
work to support their families. They worked in munitions factories, mines and
other war industries. Some were women who were taken to Japan to provide sexual
services to the Japanese soldiers at war. These "conscripted
prostitutes" lived in the slums of grim cities in Japan.
C. They
lost their names,4 their history, their
culture. They were culturally annihilated, left with no personal or historical
identity. The Japanese regime of the Emperor was the "divine
authority" that believed its historic mission was to create the Greater
Co-Prosperity Sphere in Asia. It was an ultra-rightist, militarist regime that
suppressed the people and mobilized them into the World War. Those Korean
minjung who were forced to migrate to Japan had to bear the greatest brunt of
the burden. This is a part of the story of the Korean A-bomb victims.
D. They
were abandoned by the powers that were. The U.S. Military Government in Japan
first classified the Koreans in Japan as a party to the victor in World War II.
But it changed its mind, revising their classification to "special
status", which meant no status at all. Suddenly the Koreans in Japan lost
every right to claim damages. The Korean A-bomb sufferers lost their
eligibility for any compensation.
The Japanese government, by design or by
neglect, forgot about the plight of the Korean A-bomb victims and their stories
were suppressed until the early 1970's. The Korean government was too busy
rebuilding the country and fighting the Korean Cold War to remember the Korean
A-bomb victims. Even in the negotiation of the Korea-Japan Normalization Treaty
they were completely forgotten.
E. Above
all, they are victims of the deadly modern military technocracy, the fruit of
which is the most destructive weapon, the nuclear bomb. Modem military science
and technology is behind the explosion of the A-bomb: it was not just a bomb.
It is the A-bomb that is the systemic reality of a worldwide nature; it is the
culmination of the giant global war machine. They were the first victims of
this giant "death machine" of the world.
F. They
are the minjung who suffered most cruelly in World War II. The powers, the U.S.
and Japan, fought for their own reasons; but these Koreans
32
were innocent sufferers. The political and economic
forces of the world that triggered that most tragic Second World War were on
the backs of these Korean A-bomb victims without their choice and even without their
knowledge. They now share the burden of the Cold War-pervaded Korean society in
a very lonely way of a life.
G. They
were ethnically discriminated against in the Japanese society. They were
absolutely segregated and despised by the Japanese as "Chosenjin".
After the A-bomb explosion they were virtually abandoned due to the
segregation.
They did not have relatives or friends in the
A-bombed city. The survivors suffered because they did not have any place to go
outside the destroyed city, having lived in groups in the slums. Thus they were
exposed to the atomic radiation for a long period.
H. The
lives, spirits and bodies of these persons are in a condition of disease
destruction and misery that is beyond imagination.
1. When
they returned to Korea, they found that their language and customs were alien
to the Korean people. They are the objects of hate for their cooperation with
the Japanese war effort, and are treated as "national traitors."
2. They
do not have knowledge about their own disease which was caused by the atomic
bomb. Their poverty and their disease form the most vicious cycle of life.
3. Due
to their disease and the prejudice against it, they usually cannot get married,
and married persons have had to get divorced.
4. The
physical pain, disfiguration and destruction are practically beyond
description.
5. Mental
damage:
a. Loss
of memory is a common phenomenon among the Korean A-bombed. Often they cannot
remember their life in Japan and their direct experience of being bombed, but
when they do remember, it is only expressed in the Japanese language.
b. When
they remember their experiences, these are most often:
i) the sorrow of losing or being robbed of their national
identity.
ii) the memory of being taken away from their families since
they were being conscripted as forced laborers.
iii) memories of the Japanese oppression and hard labor.
iv) the shame of being a "prostitute" to the Japanese
soldiers.
These memories surge up; and then a feeling of
extreme sorrow, a sense of loneliness, resignation, and helplessness sets into
their lives.
6. It
is said that the atomic bomb disease is not inherited by the second generation,
but strangely, the children of A-bomb victims suffer various unexplained
physical illnesses.
I. When
they came "home", they were the minjung also. They returned to Korea
to find their home, but in fact there was no home for them on earth. They were
alienated almost totally from their own people in their own nation. They
continue to be segregated as A-bomb victims, as though they are strangers from
the darkness of outer space. This prejudice against them is an excruciating
pain that goes to the marrow of their bones and to the depth of their souls.
J. They
cannot find jobs due to the A-bomb disease, prejudice and segregation; as a
consequence many have to live as beggars. In their home country they have
become the lowest part of the Korean minjung, who are also caught in the
sufferings of the divided nation and in the recent social and political
developments.
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This is the bare frame of the social
biography of the minjung who suffered in the atomic bomb explosion in 1945.
They were "conscripted prostitutes" to the colonial military in World
War II; they were forced laborers in the military
industries of Imperial Japan; they were forced to migrate in search of work for
survival. They are the children and families of these people.
This social biography is the story
of broken lives, in terms of spirit, body, community and history. The heritages
of oppression and exploitation under the Yi dynasty rule, the destructive power
of brutal colonialism; the horror of the A-bomb and its whole accompanying
military technocracy, the matrix of world economic and political dynamics of
World War II, and the political process surrounding the U.S.A., Japan and Korea
are all directly related to the infinite and unfathomable suffering and death
of the A-bombed minjung.
Theological Reflection
and Story of Asian Peoples
A. In
the context of the story of the people, God of the Bible cannot be other than
one who vindicates the suffering Asian peoples. God of History is God of
justice for the people in Asia. Biblically speaking, Yahweh is God of the
Hebrew (Hapiru) who are socially downtrodden slaves.
Yahweh made them his people and made Covenant with them, promising their
future. This is realized in the story of the Exodus of the Hebrew. The Exodus
gave the basic structure in the legal code of the people of Israel, the
principle of historical evaluation of the kings, and vindication of the
persecuted in the Apocalyptic literatures. Asian
peoples who are suffering should be the people of God, in our confession and
theological reflection. I know that this is a very bad theological statement
compared to the 'church theology', in which only Christians are regarded as the
people of God. At least in the messianic kingdom (in eschatological terms) all
the suffering people are God's people (Rev. 21:1-4). Traditionally, theodicy is
a philosophical riddle to explain the contradiction between the existence of
God and the existence of Evil; but for us, it is the question of the justice
and vindication of God for the people who are suffering under the power of
evil.
B. Traditional
Western theology tried to work out the meaning of Christ (Christology) in Greek
philosophical terms; but for us the historical Jesus is the Messiah of the
people. Jesus becomes the messiah by sharing the suffering of the Asian peoples
as Suffering Servant. Jesus is in solidarity with the people in his suffering,
and therefore, the people will be in solidarity with Him in His messianic
kingdom of shalom, koinonia and justice. Incarnation should be regarded somatically(soma) and it means God's co-dwelling with the
people in bodily terms. Jesus dwelt with the ochlos, crowd of Palestine,
unconditionally loving them, having koinonia with them fully. In Jesus the
story of God is interwoven with the story of the people in its suffering and
victory. This drama of Jesus and Minjung is the historical Missiology
(Christology). The biblical references of Isaiah 53 (the story of the Suffering
Servant), Matthew 25 (Jesus's identification with the
poor and oppressed), and Philippians 22 (Jesus's
kenosis) are basic texts that undergirds the new
34
historical Jesus with the people. Thus, the
understanding of Jesus Christ in the context of the social biography of people
becomes transformed into "the story of Jesus the Messiah of the suffering
people."
C. The
Spirit of God is One who kindles the sense of Justice
among the people; and the Spirit of Christ (Son) is the Messianic spirit among
the people, sharing the suffering of the people and giving the hope of
messianic kingdom to the people. Traditionally, the Holy Spirit is understood
in very non-historical terms, and in modem Western theology the Holy Spirit was
under-played for it cannot be explained through reason. In the context of the
story of the people, the Spirit is, above all, the Spirit of Messiah or the
Messianic Spirit among the people, comforting the suffering people, kindling
hope, and quickening their awareness of the future kingdom.
D. Thus
Trinity forms one community or one koinonia, but this Triune koinonia is not
aloof in the transcendent realm, but is among the
people as community of God of Justice for the people, Jesus the Messiah of the
people, and the Messianic Spirit of the people. This forms the reality of
koinonia among the people, and this is the so-called Christian koinonia, or
messianic koinonia with the messianic style of life, that of shalom, koinonia
and justice. Eschatologically speaking, the people
participate in the shalom, koinonia, and righteousness
of the Messianic Kingdom.
I have just indicated a certain
directional signal for theological reflection in the context of the social
biography of the Asian people. Again, it is very difficult to give general
theological reflections without relating concretely to people's historical
context. It would be useful for each community to formulate certain salient
theological affirmations as a result of theological reflection, and engage in
dialogue with other communities in Asia.
Let me give an example of
theological reflection upon the Korean A-bomb victims. It is in the context of
the minjung social biography that the Korean Christian koinonia is called upon
to witness to Jesus the Messiah of the People.
(A)
1. The bodily abiding of Jesus the
Messiah among the minjung, and his experienced of Sheol.
Jesus said to his disciples at this
last supper, "This is my body, broken for you." The body is che, the fundament of the human being. Soma is the concrete
stuff of life and living, it is the body of the spirit, and the spirit is in
the body as the body in the spirit. The body is, in other words the spiritual
and concrete form of the spirit. The concrete form of life and living of Jesus
the Messiah is broken for the minjung (you), and this means that the Cross as
the broken body and broken life of Jesus is the same brokenness of the life of
the Korean A-bomb victims. To say this more simply; in the suffering and broken
body and life of the Korean A-bombed, we find the cross of Jesus the Messiah.
Furthermore, one traditional part of
our creed is that Jesus after his death went down to Sheol.
I believe there is a special significance in this confession, in the context of
the social biography of the A-bombed minjung. This makes Jesus' Messianic
identification with the A-bombed minjung more realistic and profound than the
cross alone. The seriousness of the death of Jesus the Messiah
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is amply confessed in this creed. In Sheol the praise of God is said to be impossible. Indeed
the social biography of the A-bombed minjung cannot be described in relation to
thanksgiving and praise of God without making the reality of the gospel cheap.
2. The death of the A-bomb victims
is not just the end of their natural life. It involves all the forces of
destruction of the brutal Japanese colonialism, the military technocracy of the
A-bomb, and the historical insensitivity of the powers that be – as the forces
of death in the story of the A-bomb victims and their sufferings before and
after the A-bomb experience.
Indeed, the death and cross of Jesus
the Messiah has cosmic significance. It has got to have such a scope; otherwise,
how can he be the Messiah of such minjung in the twentieth century?
What this means is that death and
life is not a question of simple and natural transition between one state or
span of time and another, no matter how radically this is understood. Death is
the ultimate power to destroy the life and "living" of the people.
3. The death of the A-bomb sufferers
is a total one: a spiritual, psychological, somatic and socio-political death.
The spirit is lost together with the broken body. The spiritual disintegration
and demonization of the spirit would be the most
profound destruction of life and the ultimate death. But here it takes the form
of bodily disintegration — somatic corrosion, individual and corporate
(koinonia). For the A-bombed, politically and socially, their bodies are so
feeble and weak that their political destiny and social relations do not give
them power for a fruitful life. The body of the Messiah in his person and in
his ecclesia (koinonia) is truly with the body of the A-bombed in the
historical experience of destruction and death. This is not possible in human
terms, but it is "realized" in the cross and Sheol
of Jesus the Messiah.
(B)
1. Messianic politics (kingdom) to
overcome the power of death: "Then I saw a new Heaven and a new earth. The
first heaven and the first earth disappeared, and the sea vanished. And I saw
the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared and ready, like a bride dressed to meet her husband.
I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: Now God's home is with humankind
(minjung). He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself
will be with them, and he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from
their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief, or crying or pain. The
old things have disappeared." (Rev. 21:1-4)
It would be desirable to take the
vision of new Jerusalem – new polis of Shalom as the
overarching theological point of reference in the context of the social
biography of the A-bombed minjung.
First of all, in the new polis of
Shalom there will be an overcoming of the death, grief, crying and pain of the
A-bombed. The vision reminds us of the Exodus and the year of Jubilee. In the
Exodus the destructive power of the "oriental despotism" (ancient
Egyptian polity) was broken; and in the year of
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Jubilee all the unjust social and
economic relations were righted and the slaves were freed. The A-bombed minjung
have a similar social and political biography. The Japanese Imperial power was
far worse than the Egyptian despot, and the A-bombed, forced laborers and conscripted prostitutes suffered far more than
the Hapiru in Egypt.
Then, this new Shalom is possible
because God lives with the people. This is the praxis of God, his life with the
people, vindicating them with his justice. The life of the A-bombed would not
be possible from a human point of view; but by God's justice their life is
vindicated, for they are his people, and he dwells and shares the same abode
with them.
Finally, the new polis (body) of
shalom emerges in the koinonia of the wedding between the bride and groom after
the place of Sheol (the sea — the seat of the power
of death) has disappeared. This is the overarching vision of shalom (peace).
This reminds us of the prophet Isaiah's vision of shalom. Shalom is not the
simple state of absence of war or conflict; it is the dynamic historical
strength of koinonia, justice and liberation that creates the fullness of life
of people and that overcomes the power of death. This should be possible, by
the grace of God, in the context of the social biography of the Korean
A-bombed.
Shalom makes the living of the
minjung full in spirit and whole in body. It is not a static order, but a
dynamic movement. Here lies, I believe, the focal point of the true peace
movement in the world today.
2. The resurrection of the dead
(minjung), the resurrection of the body: How is it possible to speak of the
resurrection of the dead in the context of the social biography of the A-bombed?
The resurrection of their body? That is impossible,
humanly speaking. It is not an easy task to witness to the resurrection of the
dead that is based upon the Messianic Resurrection.
In the first place, theodicy (the
justice of God) could be taken as a point of reference again. The victory of
death makes the justice of God impossible and vice versa.
Then, in individual terms, the
Korean A-bombed could create a life in a new way in the belief that the God of
justice is and will be victorious, and that the body will be resurrected.
However, this cannot easily take place outside of the body, the resurrected
body of koinonia (church) of the Messiah.
Notes
1. Aug. 6 and Aug. 9,1945.
|
2. |
|
Victims |
Dead |
Survivors |
Returnees to Korea |
Residents in Japan |
|
Hiroshima |
50,000 |
30,000 |
20,000 |
15,000 |
5,000 |
|
|
Nagasaki |
20,000 |
10,000 |
10,000 |
8,000 |
2,000 |
|
|
Total |
70,000 |
40,000 |
30,000 |
23,000 |
7,000 |
3. The Tonghak Rebellion is an example.
4. As eloquently described
by Richard Kirn's novel Lost Names.