Status Updates From Three Tigers, One Mountain:...

Section 2/3 Korea done!! Continues to be such an interesting read.

Next and final stop: China

Section 1 of 3 (Japan) done!

Continues to be so fascinating… now onto Korea

“It hadn’t really occurred to me to ask about the relationship between Taiwan and the third of my tigers, South Korea…”
…this book literally has South Korea in the title. What do you mean you didn’t even think about it? Maybe he was researching this stuff outside of planning for this book, but I’m sorry that’s absurd

Ok so Taiwan is where we actually see him talking about two countries in relation to one another that don’t include Japan.

3. He constantly brings up Japan in terms of China or South Korea, but never China in terms of South Korea or vice versa. He’s connecting the three using Japan, not all three equally. Again, this makes him seem biased towards Japan

2. I do like how he’s showing the nuance between the three Asian countries’ people and their feelings towards one another, but he himself comes off as biased

1. He’s splitting hairs here, to me. “He actually did apologize!” No he didn’t; “We do recognize that acts of cruelty and violence were committed by members of the Japanese military…” it’s too vague, like “oh we’re sorry these things happened” not “we’re sorry we did these things”
idk tho I don’t like the author’s handling this at all

(2) One that’s not an apology, and two that’s history for South Korea. I’m not saying the Japanese now should continue to have to pay for what the Japanese of then did, but at the same time we’re not gonna try to take away things that symbolize history

(1) When we were talking about the negotiations between South Korea and Japan, I thought that they were pretty ok. But one of Japan’s apologies, though compensating victims/victims’ families w/ however many millions of dollars, included South Korea’s end of the “bargain” being that they take down the memorial for comfort women.

Like I’m sorry but he does know that - I have to imagine - South Koreans and Chinese likely want the Japanese to apologize for NOT JUST THE COMFORT WOMEN, riiiiiiight?

Look I know we’re not talking about the comfort women anymore, but since we’re going through the atrocities that happened at Nanjing rn, him previously saying “Foreigners should have no say in telling the South Koreans to forgive the Japanese, but they could” *him as a foreigner btw* is just leaving a worse and worse taste in my mouth.

“But it was at the penis park…that I finally fell in love with the Koreans.”
……….what?

(2) Maybe I’m too sensitive or looking too much into it and if so I’ll admit it and move on, but the way he’s worded some shit is distasteful to me

(1) Maybe it’s a thing in the travel genre to be light-hearted whenever you can, but you’re talking about dark historical things that have happened. You don’t need to joke all the fcking time, and I find it a little distasteful that “vegetable soup” was used when Warmbier was literally in a medically-termed vegetative state.

“I didn’t want to have my brain turned to vegetable soup as it happened to poor Otto Warmbeir…”
Yeah no I’m sorry idk whether he’s trying to be light-hearted about something so awful or something like that, but I detest how some of this is worded particularly this. “Vegetable soup”? Is he trying to be funny about this?

“It is not the place of an outsider to tell the Koreans to move on, but they could.”
Bro what are you talking about
Like I get it, but when one of Japan’s apologies included South Korea having to take down their comfort women memorial, that’s not an apology are you fcking serious

I can’t lie the tone of this book feels odd. At times, it’s serious and at other times, it comical. It’s very jarring being flipped between the two