 |
|
|||
|
|
|||
5 MADANG STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Madang Statement of Purpose
Introduction.
“We want to make a festival for everyone, so that Koreans and Japanese in Higashi-Kujo can be united” with this thought wholeheartedly in mind, colleagues active in Higashi Kujo have been gathering since last year, holding many meetings in preparation for the festival. Until now we have discussed as the main image for the festival the name “Higashi-Kujo madang (plaza)”, and we have made an appeal for widespread festival participation. Since January 24 of this year when the executive committee was formed this committee has continued in its efforts to prepare for the upcoming October 9 event. Because the success of this festival will depend on the individual efforts of many people, we want to ask for the cooperation of various groups.
A madang (Plaza) for ethnic cultural exchange
Higashi-Kujo is a part of Kyoto where many resident Koreans live. Korean eateries and household stores line the streets, and the Korean language is in the air of this district. Resident Koreans, who, in 1910, found their farms stolen by the Japanese colonial government, and their harvests confiscated, who were rounded up and commandeered as forced labor, wound up living in Japan. Before and during the War Koreans came to live in Higashi-Kujo serving as low-wage manual laborers, working on the Higashiyama train tunnel, on the Kamo River bank-reinforcement construction, on the project to widen Kujo street, and in industries such as cloth-dying.
After the War, many Koreans from outside Higashi-Kujo came here to live close to Kyoto Station in preparation for repatriation, hailing the liberation of their homeland. However, in the Korean homeland, the growing opposition between the North and South solidified in the severing of the nation at the 38th parallel, and so many resident Koreans came to reside permanently in Japan without returning to their homeland. The first generation of resident Koreans were extremely robust people who safeguarded their ethnic pride under what were very difficult historical circumstances, and they devoted their energies to the ethnic/cultural education of their children and descendants.
Today, the resident Korean society is centered around its second and third generation members, and is preparing to welcome its fifth generation. Lately, as marriages with Japanese people are now the majority of marriages, there are many children being born of mixed (or double) Korean-Japanese ancestry. Also, for a variety of reasons more than 160,000 Koreans were obliged to become “naturalized” in Japan. To the extent that permanent residency in Japan might be said to be voluntary, these people are still following a divergent path from the normal Japanese life, for their way of life is dependent upon national/ethnic and generational factors. Mainly starting with the second generation, the conditions for those who do hold on to their ethnic pride get very difficult at times, they cannot profess their real names, they are inundated with negative images of Korea, and there are no school assemblies about their history, language, and culture.
Because ethnic discrimination is so firmly rooted in Japanese society, we must press this very issue all the more. Having failed to hold on to our own identities, we are now a people who are shunned in society. This we must overcome—we must reassert our own independence and restore our ethnic identity.
On account of our current situation, we have to wonder what sort of glorious culture will be our legacy? It is important to consider just what the third and forth generation who will be developed on this soil called “Japan,” will inherit. For example, it is truly wonderful how successful various centers of resident Koreans around Japan, in Osaka, Hyogo, Tokyo, Fukuoka, etc., have been in creating ethnic/cultural festivals.
For the Korean people, the foremost problem to be overcome is the North/South division of Korea. We must national unity as soon as possible. Last year, great progress was made towards unity; an accord was reached that spoke to the harmonious settlement of the nation's North /South division. We want to completely fulfill this accord.
All of us in the Korean community want to make a madang for ethnic/cultural ex change, and so foster this type of exchange. What we mean is that the festival is a splendid and joyful event which is dedicated to the unity of the Higashi-Kujo area. On behalf of the young resident Koreans, we want this festival to provide great encouragement and to be a place that restores their ethnic identity and pride.
The Communal madang (plaza)
In Higashi-Kujo, people used to grow the famous Kujo negi (green onions), but now people in various situations live here: older people living alone in dangerous dwellings, handicapped people, discriminated-against burakumin, and resident Koreans. Right in the middle of Japan's high economic development, the whole Higashi-Kujo area is a district that is undergoing discrimination. Until just recently, the City administration took a completely hands-off attitude, but now, because of the efforts of this area's residents, some prospects for the future have opened up. As there are few people who feel comfortable mixing freely with the residents of this district, it is up to these residents to build up this area themselves.
Our wish is that Higashi-Kujo might become a town where there is active, person-to person contact between the various peoples who live here. Think of madang as encompassing this wish, which is the desire of various people to work together and make this festival a success. We want to make this a madang that is filled with joy in the recognition of our mutual livelihood: a place on which Japanese people can build their own lives and find the meaning of living as a community by meeting with each other; and a place where resident Koreans can hold firmly to their ethnic pride in this madang.
We resident Koreans and Japanese must live in accordance with mutual respect and understanding for one another. Japan is now said to be an “International Society.” However, only by building a society that respects human rights, that respects heterogeneity, a society where many different peoples live together as a community—only then can you start talking about a real “internationalism.” What the madang wants to realize, we think, is this very desire for internationalism.
Concerning the success of the Higashi-Kujo madang
1. We think that Koreans and Japanese through participating together and independently, want to create a place of real ethnic/cultural exchange and personal liberation.
2. Another idea is that we want to provide a place for the ethnic education of the third and fourth generation children, so we will make this a place for inter-generational exchange, as though the whole Korean community were dancing in one great circle.
3. In order to contribute to national unity, which is the wish of the Korean people, the desire to make this madang (plaza) is connected to the spirit of unity and compromise that comes from this area where we all must live together.
4. The is idea is that people of various circumstances who make their lives in Higashi-Kujo, and who live together here, want a madang (plaza) where they might really come into person-to-person contact with each other.
Higashi-Kujo madang Executive Committee
Mid-summer 1993
