Two brief excerpted passages:

In 1945, Kishi was jailed by the US occupation forces as a Class A war criminal for his activities running the Japanese colonies in Manchuria and northern Korea during the war. After being freed by US authorities in 1951, he rose through the ranks of the LDP to become prime minister, when he presided over the renewal of the US-Japan security treaty in 1960. According to one report, Kishi began visiting the Unification Church in 1970 after building ties with its International Federation for Victory Over Communism. As the Japanese press kept digging after the assassination, it soon became clear that Abe had inherited his grandfather’s love for the Moonies. Clips soon surfaced of Abe delivering a video message in 2021 to the Universal Peace Federation, an arm of the Unification Church, praising its focus on “family values” and telling members that “we should be wary of so-called social revolutionary movements with narrow-minded values.” The tabloid Nikkan Gendai compiled a list of 112 LDP lawmakers, including 34 current and former cabinet ministers, who were closely associated with the church and the anticommunist Federation. Many Japanese were shocked in August when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida appointed a new cabinet that includes over 20 lawmakers linked to the Moonies. All of this resonated strongly with the Japanese public. For years, the Unification Church and its zealous followers had been accused of using heavy-handed tactics and intimidation to force donations from church members. Many Japanese were sympathetic to the assassin’s complaint that his mother, a fervent believer in Reverend Moon, handed over to the church much of her family’s savings – over $750,000 in total. In July, a network of 300 lawyers representing families of church members said it has received 34,000 complaints related to “lost” money totalling more than 120 billion yen (about $890 million) since 1987. The church’s political campaigns in support of Abe and the LDP have further colored his image. The Mainichi newspaper reported that the Moon-backed International Federation for Victory over Communism has distributed videos supporting the constitutional amendments that would alter the peace constitution, a lifelong goal of Abe’s. During the fall, Japan’s ANN reported that records had been found of Sun Myung Moon “telling followers in 1989 that the Abe faction of the LDP was the center of their efforts to gain influence over Japanese politics.” As Japanese digested the revelations about the Unification Church, opposition grew to Kishida’s plans for a state funeral for Abe. Polls conducted in August by Kyodo News found that 53 percent of Japanese wanted the state funeral cancelled and that a stunning 85 percent said politicians should cut their ties with the Unification Church and its front groups. When the state funeral finally took place on September 27th, with Vice President Kamala Harris attending for Biden, thousands of people protested in the streets.

. . . 

Outside of an initial report in the Washington Post, however, the US press has stayed completely away from reporting on Abe’s ties to the Unification Church. That is strange in part because the Moonies have been controversial in the United States since the 1970s, when it was at the center of a congressional bribery scandal known as Koreagate. Starting in the 1980s, the Moon empire has had a profound impact on US politics through its ownership of the Washington Times, which was created as a right-wing alternative to the Post. But Abe and the LDP, of course, were hardly alone in their admiration for the Moonies. Over its history, the church has cultivated relationships with several US presidents, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. In September 2021, Trump was paid a princely sum to praise the Unification Church for a virtual event in Seoul that was organized by Hak Ja Han Moon, Sun Myung Moon’s widow and the co-founder of the church’s Universal Peace Federation (later, police said “the suspect decided to kill Abe after watching a video of that event.”) In Seoul, meanwhile, Moon’s Universal Peace Federation organized a public memorial for Abe on August 12 that was attended in person by former UN secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Harry Harris, the retired admiral and former US ambassador to Seoul. Both Trump and Mike Pence sent messages to the gathering, with Pence calling on world laders to take action against “religious persecution,” the Moon-affiliated Segye Ilbo reported. Listen to my hour-long interview on Shinzo Abe and US backing of the LDP. “Who Was Shinzo Abe And Why Was He Assassinated?” on WORT/Madison. For a deep dive into Abe’s attempt to rewrite Japan’s wartime history, read this interview with the brilliant historian Alexis Dudden in The New Yorker. And for a compendium of essays about Abe’s legacy in Japan, see this analysis in Asia-Pacific Journal from David MacNeill. With that as background, let’s turn back to Abe. As I’ve long argued, Abe’s LDP is the most obsequious pro-American political party in the world. Since coming to power in 1955, it has been seeking to transform Japan into a military power and do away with Article Nine of its US-imposed constitution, which rejected war as a means to settle international disputes. In 2015, after years of relentless pressure from the CIA, the Pentagon, and Washington’s think tanks, Abe pushed through the most important change to the constitution by turning Japan, in my view, into “America’s proxy Army.”

Full article: https://timshorrock.com/japan-is-americas-new-proxy-army-thanks-to-pm-abe/

I love this so much

[Image IDs: the first tweet is from Lila Byock (@/Lbyock) from June 15th, 2023 and it reads:

Sarandos: Netflix is investing billions in Korean content to undermine American writers.

Korean writers: Fuck you, pay us.

That first tweet quote tweets the second image, a tweet from Tim Shorrock (@/TimothyS) from June 15th, 2023 that reads:

Korean writers picket in solidarity with Writers Guild of America. ✊

That tweet has a link to an article that I posted after it. /End ID.]

So, for those of you unaware: The Korean entertainment industry is an absolute nightmare. Actors have gone years never being paid for work they're owed pay on. The idol industry is terrible in all the ways. And it's honestly no surprise the industry is shit for writers as well. Glad to see the Korean writers are standing up for themselves too!

Edit: Not that anyone will see this because the post is too big now, but many writer organizations in countries around the world also participated in striking on June 14th, 2023.

June 25th is the 73rd anniversary of the “start” of the Korean War. We've curated a list of educational resources that the US & south Korean governments desperately tried to erase from our history. In the face of blatant US propaganda, it is up to us to learn the real history.

1. The Hidden History of the Korean War by I.F. Stone

In this new book, I.F. Stone challenges the dominant historical narrative about the Korean War and exposes the US' deliberate attempts to prolong the war.

2. Blowback Podcast, Season 3

Brendan James and Noah Kulwin expose US involvement in the Korean War using primary sources, vivid storytelling, and sharp historical analysis. The season also features interviews with Suzy Kim, Tim Shorrock, and Bruce Cummings.

3. Reflections on the Roots of U.S. Involvement in Korea by Chang Soon

Chang Soon condemns the US for its role in dividing Korea, and exposes its true interests of manifest destiny in Asia at the expense of the Korean land and people.

4. Reflections on the Roots of U.S. Involvement in Korea by Chang Soon

Chang Soon condemns the US for its role in dividing Korea, and exposes its true interests of manifest destiny in Asia at the expense of the Korean land and people.

5. From Orphan to Adoptee by Soojin Pate

SooJin Pate exposes how the adoption of Korean children by Americans was a Cold War tactic to expand American empire and reshape the notion of the American family.

6. Sex Among Allies by Katharine Moon

Katharine Moon exposes the history of the US and south Korea's sexual exploitation of Korean women. Moon reveals how south Korean leaders used Korean women as "personal ambassadors" to incentivize the US army to stay in the country.

7. A Forest Is Swaying by Jang Yong-bok

This film by Jang Yong-bok follows a north Korean veteran of the Korean War. The former soldier tries to grow a pine forest and care for an orphaned child in a region destroyed by American bombs.

8. Tastes Like War by Grace Cho

In this part-memoir, part-historical investigation, Grace Cho delves into intergenerational trauma and searches for the roots of her mother’s schizophrenia in food and the Korean War.

The U.S. Hand in Japan and Korean Politics, with Tim Shorrock

KISSINGER FINALLY CROAKS | Tim Shorrock | TMR

The winning side in the 1987 election that heralded South Korea’s transition to democracy planned to use “dirty tricks”, including ballot tampering, to ensure its victory, newly declassified US intelligence shows, raising new questions about the integrity of the historic vote.

Roh Tae-woo, the designated successor of military strongman Chun Doo-hwan, was elected as president of South Korea after bowing to public pressure to hold free elections and restore civil liberties after decades of US-backed dictatorship following the 1950-53 Korean war.

But ahead of the landmark election, the military-backed ruling camp so feared the loss of its hand-picked candidate that it drew up detailed plans to fix the poll, according to CIA documents obtained exclusively by the South China Morning Post through a freedom of information request.

“Officials in the ruling party are divided over Roh Tae-woo’s prospects, and pressure is building to fix the election,” the CIA assessed in an intelligence briefing written days ahead of the December 16 election, adding that a “plan for extensive fraud is already being implemented”.

In another briefing, the US spy agency concluded that the ruling Democratic Justice Party, the only political party permitted to operate freely for much of Chun’s eight-year rule, was “increasingly nervous about Roh’s chances in a non-controlled election” due to his negative association with the military dictatorship among the public.

“As a result, they are considering black propaganda and dirty tricks, reportedly to include ballot tampering; some officials now appear prepared to go even further,” a briefing dated November 23 said, citing a source who claimed “ruling-camp planners have thought about fabricating evidence of ruling-party fraud to give Chun an opportunity to declare the election null and void if government projections from early returns indicate Roh is losing”.

The Post attempted to contact Roh through an aide of his brother-in-law, former lawmaker Park Cheol-eon, but was told the ex-president left politics years ago and had no comment.

Tim Shorrock, a journalist and author on national security issues who covered the election, said the documents suggested the US intelligence establishment saw Roh as the best choice at the time.

“That it would only note these tactics and refrain from using the information to undermine the ‘ruling camp’ itself shows favouritism,” said Shorrock. “Imagine what a revelation like this would have on public opinion in both the US and South Korea if it was leaked to, say, The New York Times.”

The documents also show that the South Korean government was prepared to crack down hard on any unrest following the vote, with an intelligence briefing stating that an “open arrest order” had been prepared for opposition candidate Kim Dae-jung – who would go on to win the presidency and be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for pursuing rapprochement with North Korea – if he tried to “instigate a popular revolt against the election results”.

The briefing, dated December 11, said that government officials had discussed “contingency plans for martial law or more limited emergency measures should widespread unrest follow Roh’s victory” and “a move to crack down could come as early as this afternoon”.

Shorrock said the extent of US knowledge was “extraordinary information for any intelligence agency to have about another country’s senior leadership”.

This week in 1980, Jimmy Carter approved an operation to violently crush a pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju, S. Korea against the US-backed military dictatorship. S. Korean military forces beat, bayonetted, and fired on unarmed protesters, killing 600 & injured over 4,000.

US-backed dictator Chun Doo-hwan sent Korean Special Forces to Gwangju & instituted martial law across the country. Universities were shut down and political speech banned as protests began breaking out around the country.

Protesters in Gwangju—believing the US rhetoric about its support for democracy—naively believed the US government would side with them over their repressive dictatorship, but they were wrong.

The crackdown was carried out by S. Korean Special Forces trained for missions inside North Korea. They beat people with clubs, stabbed and mutilated them with bayonets, threw at least twenty to their deaths from high buildings, and used US-supplied weapons to fire on protesters.

One witness described the soldiers brutality: “A cluster of troops attacked each student individually. They would crack his head, stomp his back, and kick him in the face. When the soldiers were done, he looked like a pile of clothes in meat sauce."

The brutality caused the Gwangju protests to swell and to also take up arms and liberate the city in the style of the Paris Commune. Daily citizens' assemblies were created and much of entire city joined the protesters creating a self-governing community.

By May 19, the army sent 3,000 more soldiers, which began shooting into the crowds. Troops shot dead twenty girls at Gwangju's Central High School. Ambulance and cab drivers who tried to take the wounded to hospitals were shot.

One hundred students who sheltered in the Catholic Center were slaughtered. Captured high school and university students had their hands tied behind them with barbed wire; many were then executed.

Finally, on May 27, the military stormed the city, using tanks and helicopters in a full military operation to reclaim the city. The soldiers waged war on the students, killing hundreds and ending the democratic experiment in Gwangju.

Eyewitnesses saw hundreds of bodies dumped in several mass graves on the outskirts of the city. The death toll may not ever be known. Census figures reveal that almost 2,000 citizens of Gwangju disappeared during this time period.

Much of the very important work done to expose the US role in this massacre was done by the journalist Tim Shorrock.

Twitter thread

News Roundup 5/7/19

US News

A St. Louis police officer has been charged with second-degree assault for shooting a woman instead of tasing her. [Link]

Some Utah jails are charging over $11 for a 15-minute phone call. The high rate makes it difficult for prisoners to stay in contact with their families. Prisons make money off the phone calls. [Link]

Illinois’ governor announces a plan to legalize marijuana and expunge some marijuana convictions. [Link]

Russiagate

Michael Tracey interviews the Trump Tower meeting organizer Rob Goldstone. Goldstone explains how this was not a conspiracy to steal the election. [Link]

The FBI sent an undercover investigator to meet with Papadopoulos when he was a member of the Trump campaign. [Link]

Peter Van Buren’s 15 questions for Mueller. [Link]

North Korea

Tim Shorrock breaks down the connections between the group that broke into the North Korean embassy in Madrid and the US government. [Link]

The UN reports that North Korea is facing severe food shortages following a bad harvest. [Link]

Myanmar

The Myanmar government killed six and rounded up 275 people in the Rakhine state. Rakhine is where the Myanmar army carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya. [Link]

Afghanistan

The US ends a program that trains Afghan pilots in the US because many of the Afghans went AWOL. [Link]

The Taliban put out a statement that claims talks with the US are closing in on a timeline for the exit of foreign troops. [Link]

The SIGAR says critical data on tracking who controls each district is no longer available. [Link]

Africa

Nearly 400 have died since the battle for Tripoli started four weeks ago. Frontlines have remained near the former international airport south of the city. [Link]

The Islamic State killed ten soldiers in Nigeria. [Link]

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the Congo has killed nearly 1,000. Efforts to contain the outbreak has been limited by over 100 attacks on medical facilities since January. [Link]

Read More

Facebook is removing posts that link to a Twitter thread by journalist, Tim Shorrock, that criticizes the New York Times for writing a distorted history of South Korea's democratic uprisings.

Thread Post:

THREAD on America's still-hidden role in the suppression of South Korea's democratic uprisings that our "newspaper of record" still ignores. https://t.co/34Yssz5dwC

— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) May 28, 2019

Thread Content (full thread):

About time this received media attention. But just like its coverage of the Gwangju massacre of 1980, the Times completely ignores the US role. "Memories of Jeju Massacres Were Long Suppressed Here. Tourists Now Retrace the Atrocities." 1/3 https://t.co/YNED0EgJJa

— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) May 28, 2019

Censorship:

Update on @Facebook: After they took down my post critical of the NY Times coverage of Korea, people started reposting it in solidarity. Now FB is blocking access to those posts. Yet doctored posts on Speaker Pelosi stay up. "Community standards" is Big Brother Censorship. pic.twitter.com/n3Q7ggDQwi

— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) June 4, 2019

For years, organizers have faced repression in South Korea, where they didn’t have the first democratic elections until 1987. The democratic uprising in Gwangju was crushed by U.S.-backed dictators and generals. We know from Tim Shorrock's investigative journalism that the United States gave the order to send paramilitary troops from the demilitarized zone to Gwangju to quash the democratic uprising led by students and ordinary people. People in the United States have no idea of the kind of gross role that the United States has played maintaining hegemony in the region or the Korean Peninsula. The Cold War and McCarthyism first landed and proceeded on the Korean Peninsula, and it has never ended because the war has never ended. In organizing the DMZ crossing in 2015, one of the largest South Korean left-liberal women's associations didn't feel they could come out and be with us because of the repression under Park Geun-hye. Only a handful of the women's groups had the courage.

Christine Ahn, “Liberals Are Criticizing the Korea Summit From the Right. Here’s Why They Have it All Wrong“

When the envelope first arrived at the Intercept, there was considerable doubt that the document within it was real. The reporters decided, per standard journalistic practice, to contact someone who could verify its authenticity. What is less standard — what Thomas Drake calls “abhorrent” and Tim Shorrock calls “just shameful” and investigative journalist Barton Gellman called “egregious” — is for a reporter to provide a copy of the document itself, which could help reveal precisely who had provided it. On May 30, according to court filings, an unnamed reporter sent pictures of the document to a contractor for the U.S. government and told the contractor that they’d been postmarked in Augusta. The contractor initially said that the documents were fake but, after checking with someone at the NSA, reported that they were real. (The Intercept declines to comment for this story, though its parent company is contributing to Reality’s defense.)

The U.S. Hand in Japan and Korean Politics, with Tim Shorrock