North Korea's racist ideology and how it connects to Imperial Japan

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction

2.Origin of the idea of Korean "racial purity"

3.How North Koreans see themselves

4.Role of the Dear Leader

5.Long Live the Dear Leader, BANZAI!

6.How North Korea’s leadership maintained power after Communism fell in the early 1990s and during the famine.

7.How the North Koreans see foreigners and South Koreans.

8.Crying North Koreans

9.How it relates to the current North Korean Nuclear Weapons crisis

10.Few exceptions

11.My personal criticism with Myers, author of the Cleanest Race.

12.My concern for US troops should they invade North Korea.

13.My personal thoughts

1.Introduction:

North Korea is mostly viewed by many people as a Stalinist state. While true North Korea was heavily influenced by Stalin and Mao, there was one influence not many people know: Imperial Japan.

Now many people may say “What, how?”

While not many know this, North Korea is a very racist country.

In fact, in 2009 the North Korean media called Barack Obama a monkey, which has typically been a racist word when said to a black person.
Its racism was rooted to the idea that North Koreans are the only “pure race”.

2.Origin of the idea of Korean “racial purity”

The origin of North Korea’s belief that they are a pure race came from the Japanese takeover and occupation of Korea. Under Japanese rule, in order to control the populace, they taught the educated class that they are part of a pure race or the Japanese race.
Imperial Japan itself was a very racist state itself and under their system they believe that the Japanese are the superior race and are known to brutalize non Japanese people simply because they see them as inferior.

The Japanese even urged Koreans to fight a holy war against Americans and many prominent Korean intellectuals are Japanese collaborators.

After WW2, when the Soviets occupied on what will eventually be called North Korea, they placed Communists in power. Interestingly, the Communists managed to retain many pro Japanese collaborators and incorporated them into their government. This resulted in the North Korea government retaining some of the political structure that existed during the Japanese occupation.

North Korea was not the only country that managed employ fascist personnel from the previous government.

While it’s shocking that N. Korea employed pro Japanese collaborators, let’s not forget that the Soviet Union and the US (via Operation Paperclip) also employed German Personnel and Scientists to work for them after WW2. Some of them are hard core Nazis themselves such as Werner Von Braun who himself was an SS member and employed Jewish slave labor when building parts for the V2 rocket system.

Even East Germany themselves employed former SS personnel.

3. How North Koreans see themselves.

Under the Japanese, the Koreans thought that they were part of a pure and virtuous race and that outside races were inferior,and continued to retain this belief once Japan had retreated.

North Koreans portray themselves as a clean race who have done no wrong and are innocent.

Their belief that their race was pure causes them to believe that all other races on Earth are impure. In other words, like the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese, they believe their race is better than everyone’s.

However, they believe that to maintain that purity, a leader is needed to guide and protect them, otherwise they will be defiled (This will be explained later).

4.Role of the Dear Leader.

Due their portrayals of themselves being innocent and clean race, many of them believe that only a parent figure (Kim il Sung and his family) can guide and protect them.

In North Korean propaganda, Kim il Sung and later his son and grandson was portrayed as not just a brilliant tactician but a man who loves his subjects.

Kim il Sung was portrayed as a leader who gives useful advice to his subjects and was considered the perfect Korean and that people should seek to emulate him.

His son Kim Jong il was not only portrayed as a general/father but also a mother figure as well:

“Held together not by mere bond between a leader and his warriors but by the family tie between a mother and her children, who share the same blood and breath, Korea will prosper forever. Let the imperialist enemies come at us with their nuclear weapons, for there is no power on earth that can defeat our strength and love and the power of our belief, which create a fortress of single heartedness. Our Great Mother, General Kim Jong Il.”

The Cleanest Race pg.124.



In other words, the Kims are portrayed as both a military/father figure and a mother figure. While it sounds ludicrous, it is a very effective propaganda. The Kims want to appeal to the North Korean’s need for a parent figure and by portraying himself as both father and mother, he can then get their love and attention.

Portraying him as a general also portrays him as a protector of the North Korean race and that by taking him out, then they don’t have that protection.

By showing themselves as a parent figure and conditioning North Koreans into thinking they are an innocent race that are need of protection from a parent/leader figure, it ensures that the Kim Dynasty have absolute power over their subjects.

5.Long live the Dear Leader, BANZAI!

When Dennis Rodman arrived in North Korea in 2013 and 2014, many of Kim’s disciples were shouting Manse to the Dear Leader.

Interestingly, Manse means 10,000 years which in turn means Banzai in Japanese.

Now let me ask you this, where do you hear Banzai?

During the Pacific War, many Imperial Japanese soldiers would shout Tenno Heika, BANZAI! (Which means Long Live the Emperor,10,000 years!) when launching suicide charges against US troops.

Also, it was said that Kim Dynasty are divine.

Here’s an example of how Kim Jong il was portrayed as divine (From the Telegraph article 50 fascinating facts: Kim Jong il and North Korea and the CBS article: Kim Jong il: Ten Weird Facts):

“Legend has it that a double rainbow and a glowing new star appeared in the heavens to herald the birth of Kim Jong Il, in 1942, on North Korea's cherished Baekdu Mountain.” (Baekdu was also spelled Paektu) [quote/]

“He reportedly spread the myth across North Korea that he could control the weather with his moods, as if by magic.”[quote/]

This is not unlike the Imperial Japanese belief the Emperor was divine by stating he was descended from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu.

“Amaterasu is a sun goddess of the Shinto religion. It is believed that Amaterasu sent her grandson Jimmu to Earth 3,000 years ago to be the first ruler of Japan, beginning the divine family of Japanese emperors.” [quote/]

New World Encyclopedia: Amaterasu

The significance of Mt. Baekdu (Paektu) and its supposed connection with Kim Jong il’s divine birth was similar to the Imperial Japanese mythology of how Mt. Fiji was sacred due to it supposed connection to the Emperor and the Divine.
Now why would the Kim Dynasty borrow Imperial Japan’s system of leader worship?

Remember earlier I stated that from the moment North Korea was formed, many pro Japanese collaborators ended up working for Kim il Sung.

From this, it was highly likely Kim il Sung saw how successful Imperial Japan controlled its people and decided to copy its system and apply it to North Korea.

By portraying the Kims as Divine, this will make the North Korean populace fear, love, and obey them at the same time, lessening the chances of a rebellion from them.

Next, like Imperial Japan, the Kims indoctrinate their people to die for them. Here’s a quote from Myers in Vox article The single most important fact for understanding North Korea by Max Fisher:

“The masses are reminded with increasing frequency that because the nation cannot survive without the leader who constitutes both its heart and its head, they must be ready to die to defend him. As if the logic were not in itself reminiscent of fascist Japan, the regime makes increasingly bold use of the very same terms — such as "resolve to die" (kyolsa) and "human bombs" (yukt'an) — that were so common in imperial Japanese and colonial Korean propaganda during the Pacific war.” [quote/]

Examples of this include an incident where a 14 year old girl drowned just to save paintings of the Kims from a flood. This incident shows how fanatical North Koreans are toward the Kims to the point that they are willing to die for them.

edit on 7/15/2017 by starwarsisreal because: (no reason given)

6.How North Korea’s leadership maintained power after Communism fell in the early 1990s and during the famine.

In 1989, the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc fell and at around this time China opened up to Capitalism.

Due to the fall of the Soviet Union, North Korea stopped receiving foreign aid including food shipments and oil from them and fell into hard times.

During the 90s, North Korea experienced the worse famine in its history; however, despite being cut off from the outside world and lacking many basic necessities, its people did not rebel against the North Korean leadership.

Instead the North Korean leadership did something clever yet sinister:

They blamed their hardships on the outside nations such as the US.

Here’s what Vox had to say:

“Kim Jong Il, at the time North Korea's leader, solved these post-Soviet problems with something called the Songun or "military first" policy. This policy tells North Koreans that the reason they are hungry and impoverished and locked in a police state is because this is all necessary to fund the military and protect from enemies internal and external, so as to keep them safe from the imperialist Americans who would otherwise surely overwhelm them and do unspeakable things.

This is still a continuation of the Japanese far-right ideas carried over from the 1930s and '40s — a pure and unified Korean people beset by inferior races, held together by a deified parent-leader — just updated to keep the Kim regime alive in today's world.”

In other words, the North Korean leadership said this to their people: Support us or you will be defiled by US troops who are composed of racially inferior people. (More on this later).

This was not unlike Imperial Japanese propaganda where Japanese soldiers are told that if they surrender not only is it dishonorable for the Emperor but also American troops will mistreat them.

This along with the mythology that the Kims are divine ensures that the people won’t rebel against the Kims while at the same time get their support despite the Kims starving them.

7.How the North Koreans see foreigners and South Koreans.

Their belief that their races are pure causes them to have a xenophobic attitude toward foreigners by believing that they are racially pure while everyone outside North Korea is corrupt.

Interestingly, during the Cold War there are reports of East European diplomats visiting North Korea who reports xenophobic actions coming from North Koreans themselves. There, they were cursed at and were thrown rocks in the street.

North Koreans who married Eastern Europeans are pressured to either divorce their spouses or get banished from the capital.

A Soviet wife of a North Korean man was beaten unconscious by North Korean police.

In 1965, a Black Cuban Doctor along with his wife and colleagues were touring North Korea when their car was surrounded by a mob of North Koreans shouting racial epithets.

As stated earlier North Korea have a huge hatred toward blacks. In fact an African student who studied in North Korea stated that she felt racially discriminated by her fellow North Korean students when she was in North Korean High School.

East Germans went so far as to compare North Korea to Nazi Germany.

Americans meanwhile are portrayed in a very negative way. Earlier I mentioned that part of the reason why the Kim leadership managed to maintain power after the fall of Communism was by scaring people into making them think that US troops will violate them.

US soldiers are portrayed as savages and an evil race that will rape and defile the purity of North Korean women.
Sadly it was far easier for the North Korean leadership to demonize the Americans because during the Korean War, the US ruined their country.

Here’s an example of how North Koreans portray Americans:



By portraying Americans as monsters that will brutalize them, it will ensure North Koreans are less likely to defect to America.

It also allows the Kims to shift the blame to Americans rather than themselves by saying it is the Americans, not the Kims that made them suffer which ensure that populace doesn’t rebel and instead allows the populace to focus their hatred on “subhuman” Americans.

Meanwhile US missionaries are portrayed as people that will poison the North Koreans under the guise of humanitarian aid.

Another country they hated was Japan was due Japan occupying them during the early 20th century. They portrayed Japan as a hostile imperialist power that will threaten the Korean people and the Japanese people are demons. Like the Americans, it's easy for North Koreans to hate Japan because at one point it was under their rule.

Their obsession toward racial purity also extends toward South Koreans.

The North Koreans stated that while they are pure, they considered South Koreans as impure and polluted.

Here’s what North Korean officials have to say regarding a half White American, Half South Korean soccer player and miscegenation in South Korea:

“Mono-ethnicity [tanilsong] is something that our nation and no other in earth can pride itself on…There is no suppressing the nation’s shame and anger at the talk of a “a multi-ethnic, multi-racial society”…which would dilute even the bloodline of our people (Koreans in this case)”

The Cleanest Race p.72

This racist comment by North Korean officials was very similar to Hitler’s comment regarding America:

“I don't see much future for the Americans ... it's a decayed country. And they have their racial problem, and the problem of social inequalities ... my feelings against Americanism are feelings of hatred and deep repugnance ... everything about the behaviour of American society reveals that it's half Judaised, and the other half negrified. How can one expect a State like that to hold together?”

Such comments show how the North Koreans are so fixated in racial purity that they are willing to see even their own brethren in South Korea as impure simply because of how different they are.

In addition, it’s used as a way to justify that they are better than South Koreans, the North would say while the South may be rich and prospering, the North Korean people are the racially pure Koreans and that South Koreans are racially inferior and that being with them will make them “polluted”.

This idea that South Koreans are racially inferior and dirty ensures that many North Koreans don’t flee to prosperous South Korea en masse.

nm

8.Crying North Koreans

Here’s what Vox has to say about the North Korean system:

“This system, mad as it may seem, works. Though North Koreans increasingly do get information about the outside world, contrary to popular misconception not all North Koreans go running for the border as soon as they learn the truth about how poor and miserable their country is. Some studies of North Koreans who sneak across the border into China find that most are economic migrants who willingly go back.”

The fact that a lot North Koreans went back to North Korea even after they see how China has far better living standards than N. Korea shows how deeply indoctrinated they are (Though many probably went back due to blackmail from the Kim Regime such as putting their family hostage).

In 2011, when Kim Jong il died, Vox suggested that the crying of North Koreans maybe genuine. Due to them being indoctrinated by the North Korean leadership into thinking they are pure race and that the Kim Dynasty is their parent and protector this results to North Koreans genuinely crying when Kim the Second died.

“That moment in 2011, which was widely broadcast in the West and mocked as ridiculous, speaks well to how Americans misunderstand this country. Most assumed the crying was a sort of mass performance, done out of fear and under implicit or explicit order. Because that is how many understand North Korea: a people kept hostage at the point of a gun. And while there's something to that, it hardly explains how this country has stayed together, and this regime has held on, for so long.

Few Americans imagined that this display of quasi-religious devotion, North Koreans' apparent belief that only the strong parent-leader kept them safe, could be real. But it was real, and it still is, and though we might not always see the parallels, it's an ideology that Americans should recognize: It's much the same ideology we fought in a world war only two generations ago.”



Since there are North Koreans that are really crying for Kim, this shows how effective the Kims’ indoctrination is.

9.How it relates to the current North Korean Nuclear Weapons crisis:

Well here’s what the Atlantic article How to Deal With North Korea by Mark Bowden has to say:

“None of which, we should all pray, will amount to much. Ignorant of the long history of the problem, Trump at least brings fresh eyes to it. But he is going to collide with the same harsh truth that has stymied all his recent predecessors: There are no good options for dealing with North Korea. Meanwhile, he is enthusiastically if unwittingly playing the role assigned to him by the comic-book-style foundation myth of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The myth holds that Korea and the Kim dynasty are one and the same. It is built almost entirely on the promise of standing up to a powerful and menacing foreign enemy. The more looming the threat—and Trump excels at looming—the better the narrative works for Kim Jong Un. Nukes are needed to repel this threat.

They are the linchpin of North Korea’s defensive strategy, the single weapon standing between barbarian hordes and the glorious destiny of the Korean people—all of them, North and South. Kim is the great leader, heir to divinely inspired ancestors who descended from Mount Paektu with mystical, magical powers of leadership, vision, diplomatic savvy, and military genius. Like his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather Kim Il Sung before him, Kim is the anointed defender of all Koreans, who are the purest of all races. Even South Korea, the Republic of Korea, should be thankful for Kim because, if not for him, the United States would have invaded long ago.

This racist mythology and belief in the supernatural status of the Mount Paektu bloodline defines North Korea (Kim Dynasty), and illustrates how unlikely it is that diplomatic pressure will ever persuade the present Dear Leader to back down. Right now the best hope for keeping the country from becoming an operational nuclear power rests on a relation with China, which may or may not have enough economic leverage to influence Kim’s policy making—and which also may not particularly want to do so, since having a friendly neighbor making trouble for Washington and Seoul serves Beijing’s interests nicely at times.”

Or in other words, North Korean nuclear program became an important part of their racist ideology. This explains why North Korea will never give up their nuclear weapons despite constant pressure and sanction. To them as long as the “subhuman” Americans still exist, they feel that nuclear weapons will only protect them.
Sadly Donald Trump played right into their hands by acting tough and threatening N. Korea. North Korea propaganda may simply say “See I told you, Subhuman Trump and his fellow savages are a threat to the Korean Race. This is why we need nuclear weapons.”

However, Kim having nuclear ICBM is very dangerous.

Later on in the Atlantic article, the author stated:

“But acceptance, while the right choice, is yet another bad one. With such missiles, Kim might feel emboldened to move on South Korea. Would the U.S. sacrifice Los Angeles to save Seoul? The same calculation drove the U.K. and France to develop their own nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Trump has already suggested that South Korea and Japan might want to consider building nuclear programs. In this way, acceptance could lead to more nuclear-armed states and ever greater chances that one will use the weapons.

With his arsenal, Kim may well become an even more destabilizing force in the region. There is a good chance that he would try to negotiate from strength with Seoul and Washington, forging some kind of confederation with the South that leads to the removal of U.S. forces from the peninsula. If talks were to resume, Trump had better enter them with his eyes open, because Kim, who sees himself as the divinely inspired heir to leadership of all the Korean people, is not likely to be satisfied with only his half of the peninsula.”

So basically, if North Korea has nuclear ICBMs it can blackmail both the US and South Korea by forcing South Korea to surrender while having US troops to withdraw since at this point the US cannot support South Korea without the risk of nuclear annihilation. There is a reason why Russia, China, France, UK, the US and other nuclear powers will never be invaded a la Red Dawn. The moment a foreign military managed to invade their territory, it will go nuclear. At this point, Kim would have finally achieve his twisted vision of uniting North and South Korea under his rule and have both ordinary North and South Koreans starve.

Sadly, I seriously have zero faith Trump will pay attention due to his recent performances in foreign policy. In fact should North Korea takeover South Korea, it would be the biggest American foreign policy (and Trump’s or any other future President after him) failure in history.

(To be continued)

a reply to: RedDragon

The problem is, the Kim Dynasty used their racist ideology to justify starving their own people. Japan never done that.

What a pile of white washed crap
It's pure Darwinism
Humans are just animals, Hitlers, Mao, pol pot, stalin and others did it
Blame Japan, that's just silly

10. Few exceptions:

While North Korea may seem xenophobic, they do accept some foreigners. However, many of these foreigners have strong
ties to the Kim Dynasty.

Yakov Novichenko was a Russian man who saved Kim il Sung’s life when he was a revolutionary and so was honored and became a close friend to Kim.



Interestingly, while North Koreans have a hatred for Japan, few Japanese are allowed to marry North Koreans. Among them was Kenji Fujimoto. However, he too was also a close friend of the Kims, which means he gets a special pass. In fact there was one story where Kim Jong il actually insisted Fuijimoto that he marry a North Korean singer (Even this was officially discouraged by North Korean society).


Fujimoto in the right.

Dennis Rodman was also another example of a foreigner being accepted in North Korea this time due to the behest of Kim Jong Un.



Now for ordinary North Koreans though, this is unacceptable since as stated earlier if you’re not North Korean, you’re not allowed to interact with ordinary North Koreans outside of Pyongyang and a few other places.
This shows that it’s possible the Kims don’t exactly believe in the North Korean racial ideology and that they are only using
it to maintain power.

11. My personal criticism with Myers, author of the Cleanest Race.

Interestingly the author of one my sources, the book the Cleanest Race, Myers, stated that North Korea is a Fascist state while masquerading as a Communist state.

He stated in the Cleanest Racepg. 166

“This racialism is utterly irreconcilable with Marx and Lenin.”

Myers, I like that you made a great analysis of North Korea’s racial ideology but I have to respectfully disagree it’s a Fascist state in real life and that Racism and Communism can’t go together .

For example, Joseph Stalin was Anti-Semitic and helped enact anti-Semitic actions. Also, Soviet society was very racist toward Central Asians. In fact Ethnic Russians are on top of the hierarchy in the Soviet Union while other Ethnic groups (With the exception of a few like Stalin for example) are on the bottom.

“Paralleling the totalitarian purge, a new anti-Semitic current appeared, very different in its manifestations from that of the latter 1920’s. It was less violent and less explosive but more tenacious, reflecting a trend in the various bureaucratic groups toward the elimination of Jews from influential positions and the reduction of their proportion in occupations to be reserved for the elite. Post-purge anti-Semitism was neither reported nor publicly censured. Within the framework of official statements and announcements it simply did not exist. But to the extent that personnel data on the Soviet elite can be made available, the cold and silent squeezing-out of Jews becomes clearly evident in many areas of Soviet life.”

A more accurate assessment would be that the North Korea is a Communist state mixed with elements of Imperial Japan’s system of governance. It’s Communist because officially you can’t own property and many private enterprises are mostly done secretly because the North Koreans will crack down hard on private enterprises. It’s also inspired by Imperial Japan due to its worship toward the Kim Dynasty and use of racial ideology and the fact that the North Korean populace worships the Kims just like how Imperial Japan’s populace worship their Emperor during WW2.

(To be continued)

And Darwinism is irrelevant, how so?

Stop the continuations and answer the question please, it's farcical

It's not about Marx and Lenin, it's pure Darwinism
It's humanity reduced to animals, do you think humans are just animals?

12. My concern for US troops should they invade North Korea.

Now some of you may wonder how this is relevant to the next Korean conflict.

An ATS member by the username of Martin75 once asked “What’s after North Korea?”

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Well here’s my take on this, it will be very bloody if US troops ever step foot on North Korean soil.
Let me ask you this question, why didn’t we invade Imperial Japan in 1945?

The answer was this: Because the moment the US step foot, there will be a bloodbath. Men, women and children will launch Banzai attacks against US forces in the name of the Emperor.

Earlier I mentioned how devoted people are toward the Kims. So the same thing may happen if the US step foot in North Korea.

It will be a repeat of this:



Imagine the physical, emotional, psychological effects of such an invasion.

In the Atlantic Article I mentioned earlier, the author has something to say after the US managed to take out Kim and occupy North Korea:

“How long would it be before bands of armed fighters from Kim’s shattered army began taking charge, like Afghan warlords, in remote regions of the country?”

Now look one long hard look at this poster featuring this pretty North Korean girl ripping the American flag and tell me how this will connect to these warlords?



And if you really think China is gonna help the US in eradicating the insurgents, think again. China stated that they hated Kim. However, what if one of these warlords is far more willing to be subservient to China? Remember as much as China hated Kim, they don’t want US and South Korean troops on their borders and would rather have a North Korean leader more friendly to them. These warlords will probably be having covert support from China and even Russia.
Due to the debacle in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military would have to think twice before they consider invading and occupying North Korea. Any long term occupation with body bags piling up would be a disaster and the end of many military and political careers.

13. My personal thoughts:

I think this maybe a partially accurate assessment of North Korea. Many people often wondered how North Korea survived when so many Communist states like the Soviet Union and East Germany fell.

What makes North Korea different was that it managed to control the populace via worship of the Kim Dynasty and the concept of racial purity by saying the outside world is polluted and only the Kim leadership can protect them from the filth.

This results with the North Korean population being fanatically devoted to the Kim Dynasty.

In the other words, the Kims managed to take scare tactics to the extreme.

I would also like to think that maybe there may be a secret society within North Korea that actually were hell bent on reuniting both Koreas by force and Communism along with Racial Ideology was used as a way to maintain control and that Kim Jong Un was just a puppet for their plans. The idea that the Kims' rule are divinely inspired and that the Kims are heir to the Korean race sounds like something a secret society would believe.

a reply to: Raggedyman

Here's the thing if you were Kim il Sung, wouldn't you adopt Imperial Japan's tactics of having people worship and die for you? That's an effective form of control. In fact such control ensures that the people won't rebel. That's why as stated earlier, no body rebelled when the Kims are starving them. They worship them. They felt like their starvation was part of the divine destiny of the Kims. Not even the French Kings can do this and hence why they get guillotined during the Reign of Terror.

While yes I acknowledge there is a Darwinist aspect, it's hard to ignore the fact that there are some Imperial Japanese influence.

Sources:

The Cleanest Race by Myers. (I highly recommend this book for more info on North Korea’s racial ideology)


DPRK honors schoolgirl who died saving Kim portraits
en.people.cn...

North Korea insults Obama
www.cnn.com...

BR Myers on North Korea

invisiblecollege.weblog.leidenuniv.nl...

The New Anti-Semitism of the Soviet Union:Its Background and Its Meaning
www.commentarymagazine.com...

How to Deal with North Korea
www.theatlantic.com...

Kim Jong Il: 10 weird facts, propaganda
www.cbsnews.com...

50 fascinating facts: Kim Jong-il and North Korea
www.telegraph.co.uk...

Vice: The Hermit Kingdom
www.youtube.com...

Nazis spied for East Germany
www.telegraph.co.uk...

New World Encyclopedia: Amaterasu
www.newworldencyclopedia.org...

North Korea’s Kim family cult: Roots in Japanese state Shinto?
www.nknews.org...

The single most important fact for understanding North Korea
www.vox.com...

Japan tells Soldiers “Never Surrender”
ww2days.com...

I would also like to give credit to Martin75 for that question she asked.

Special thanks to ATS member Zosimov for helping me fix up this thread.

originally posted by: starwarsisreal
a reply to: Raggedyman

Here's the thing if you were Kim il Sung, wouldn't you adopt Imperial Japan's tactics of having people worship and die for you? That's an effective form of control. In fact such control ensures that the people won't rebel. That's why as stated earlier, no body rebelled when the Kims are starving them. They worship them. They felt like their starvation was part of the divine destiny of the Kims. Not even the French Kings can do this and hence why they get guillotined during the Reign of Terror.

While yes I acknowledge there is a Darwinist aspect, it's hard to ignore the fact that there are some Imperial Japanese influence.

Yes
EXCEPT the Japanese were following Darwinism
So, are humans just animals, thats the most important question


North Korea are not acting out in any way that contrivines Darwinism, are they?

originally posted by: starwarsisreal
Sources:

The Cleanest Race by Myers. (I highly recommend this book for more info on North Korea’s racial ideology)


DPRK honors schoolgirl who died saving Kim portraits
en.people.cn...

North Korea insults Obama
www.cnn.com...

BR Myers on North Korea

invisiblecollege.weblog.leidenuniv.nl...

The New Anti-Semitism of the Soviet Union:Its Background and Its Meaning
www.commentarymagazine.com...

How to Deal with North Korea
www.theatlantic.com...

Kim Jong Il: 10 weird facts, propaganda
www.cbsnews.com...

50 fascinating facts: Kim Jong-il and North Korea
www.telegraph.co.uk...

Vice: The Hermit Kingdom
www.youtube.com...

Nazis spied for East Germany
www.telegraph.co.uk...

New World Encyclopedia: Amaterasu
www.newworldencyclopedia.org...

North Korea’s Kim family cult: Roots in Japanese state Shinto?
www.nknews.org...

The single most important fact for understanding North Korea
www.vox.com...

Japan tells Soldiers “Never Surrender”
ww2days.com...

I would also like to give credit to Martin75 for that question she asked.

Special thanks to Zosimov for helping me fix up this thread.

Reminds me of how some special forces people are trained in the US
The presidents life is more important than theirs

This is just crap

NK is full of crazies, so is every other country

Apologies:

For some reason this part in didn't show up in it's original post it's part of Long Live the Dear Leader, Banzai!

Now why would the Kim Dynasty borrow Imperial Japan’s system of leader worship?

Remember earlier I stated that from the moment North Korea was formed, many pro Japanese collaborators ended up working for Kim il Sung.

From this, it was highly likely Kim il Sung saw how successful Imperial Japan controlled its people and decided to copy its system and apply it to North Korea.

By portraying the Kims as Divine, this will make the North Korean populace fear, love, and obey them at the same time, lessening the chances of a rebellion from them.

Next, like Imperial Japan, the Kims indoctrinate their people to die for them. Here’s a quote from Myers in Vox article The single most important fact for understanding North Korea by Max Fisher:

“The masses are reminded with increasing frequency that because the nation cannot survive without the leader who constitutes both its heart and its head, they must be ready to die to defend him. As if the logic were not in itself reminiscent of fascist Japan, the regime makes increasingly bold use of the very same terms — such as "resolve to die" (kyolsa) and "human bombs" (yukt'an) — that were so common in imperial Japanese and colonial Korean propaganda during the Pacific war.”

Examples of this include an incident where a 14 year old girl drowned just to save paintings of the Kims from a flood. This incident shows how fanatical North Koreans are toward the Kims.

a reply to: starwarsisreal

Exce!!ent post. Do you think, given that Kim grew up in this culture, that he may believe in all or some of these concepts? Is he one with his people?

a reply to: Raggedyman

Here's the thing, no other leader in history managed to have people worship them while starving them at the same time. Most of the time people are held by fear like the Soviets under Stalin. They never saw him as divine.

Have the Kims did not implement their system of governance, they would have been overthrown long ago especially after the fall of Communism in 1989.

Look at Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu for example.

a reply to: TacSite18

If your referring to Kim Jong Un , probably the part where he believe he was a divine god. Other than that though, the Kims seemed to be opportunists rather than hard core believers.

Kim Jong Un would be in for a rude awakening though when the masses finally rebel (hopefully) and executed him like what they did with Ceausescu.

a reply to: starwarsisreal

The Japanese even urged Koreans to fight a holy war against Americans and many prominent Korean intellectuals are Japanese collaborators.

That what happens when empires like Japan brutalize nations they occupy during the process of subjugation.

North Korea itself is akin to a dysfunctional child raised under duress by a bully father (the US). The most fearful paranoia of being attacked at any moment (again) and beaten up (like before) by the biggest bully on the planet (the us military).

Thank you for the compilation of this material. I make great effort to attempt to understand the people of a given culture, and look at how and why they are what they are today. And I also go out of my way to gather this knowledge first hand. By visiting the culture personally or by getting to know someone of that culture personally.

There is much more to the NK history and culture than a few pages as shown here. But, I felt your statements were an honest attempt on your part to actually understand their culture, and their people.


Thank you.