Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Happy Gwangbokjeol

Today is VJ Day in the States and Liberation Day in South Korea. Koreans rarely use this day to thank their liberators; there seems, alas, to be a push to act as if Korea somehow liberated itself. Whatever speech President Moon gives today, it probably won't mention—much less offer thanks to—the countries that helped liberate Korea from Japanese occupation. That said, it's a national holiday, and we proles are off work today, so it's not all bad.

(If Moon breaks with tradition and does thank the US and its allies, I'll eat my hat. You will eventually be able to go here to see the English transcript of the president's speech for yourself. It's not up yet, so please be patient.)



1 comment:

John Mac said...

It was funny, I asked all my Korean employees on Monday what the holiday was on the 15th. More than half said "Independence Day". The rest called it "Liberation Day". Which I took as being the day the Japanese voluntarily said "mian hamneeda" and left of their own volition.