Letters to Professors

Dear Professor

Thank you for your attention and concern about the freedom of expression, being questioned at the event of 2019 Aichi Triennale. The problem is, as you may see them on the internet, the quality of exhibited self-clamed "arts" are terrible. Surprisingly ALL of them were like the homework of school kids. So, the current discussion point is whether if they are worth to spend tax payers' money to exhibit at a city funded facilities. At the same time, while the theme of each 'art' is also controversial, nobody, as long as I see on various SNS, claims those things can't be displayed in Japan. Rather, even the people who take opposite position against each 'art' are only claiming that these things should be displayed in a private place with private money. So, I believe Japan still holds healthy ground of 'Freedom of Expression'.

 (Please look at those crafts on the internet. My personal belief is that the 'art' should be backed by certain artistic skill and technic. This is more so if it tackle with controversial theme. On those items, I found NO such artistic technic whatsoever. Thus they became just to express creator's personal 'hates', rather than delivering authentic message to the public. But please have a look.)

 Now, the reason why I am writing this email is to ask your favor to have a little attention on the matters I would describe below, as a person who finds significant value on the 'Freedom of Expression.'

As of now, Professor Lew Seok-choon at Yonsei Univ. is under severe social as well as physical attack when he expressed his opinion in his class at University on the comfort women.
 His opinion is based on his research result, and he claimed that the Comfort Women Issue, which is the object of the research, should be analyzed with more comprehensive approach than solely relying on the testimonies made by comfort women themselves.

His result of the conclusion of his research was against the narratives dispersed by Korean people to date. But right after he expressed his research result, Korean Government immediately urged the university to dismiss him.

When a thug assaulted  Professor Lew Seok-choon in his research room, no media around them, while there were many, stopped this thug. And surprisingly, the Korean police arrested this professor instead of a thug.

 *Here is a link which shows how the professor is brutally attacked.

This is not my tweet and this clip might be a little offensive. So, just have this in your mind before you click it.

Same abuses and assaults had happened to Park Cheol-soon at Pusan Univ. and Dr. Lee Woo-youn, a research fellow at Korea's Naksungdae Institute of Economic Research this year alone.
In the past, Professor Lee Yong-hoon at Seoul Univ. was forced to knelt down and beg for forgiveness of Comfort Women in front of many Korean reporters, because of his book titled 'Anti-Japanese Tribe-ism'.  Professor Park Yu-ha at Sejong University were sued and sentenced to guilty for defamation because of his book.

The common grounds of  those professors are how to approach the issue to analyze. They tried to analyze the Comfort Women Issue with more comprehensive way, including the social background analysis and identifications of the roles of the parties involved.

However, if someone is attacked physically or socially immediately after he/she expressed his/her opinion which came to conclusions based on his/her years of academic research, it's obvious Violation of 'Freedom of Expression'.

As you are aware of, the tensions between Japan and S. Korea are historical high. At this critical time, I believe it's significantly important to exchange fact-base opinions between two countries. But if Koreans has not establish the fundamental of democratic country, I could hardly imagine such communications can come out fruitful outcomes.

With these reasons above, I would like to ask your favor and have your attention on the establishment of 'Freedom of Expression' in Korea.And I couldn't be more happier if you bring your concern to Korean Government.

Sincerely

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