Japanese politics in comparative perspective: from the East to the West, and then whither?

Abstract

Ogle, a Methodist missionary and labour educator who was expelled by the Park regime in the 1970s. To my astonishment, Hwang cites my reporting on Korean labour struggles that I’d written for US publications, and key parts of his narrative on Gwangju are based on US documents I first obtained in 1996. He includes me in a small list of journalists, scholars, and activists who ‘contend that when faced with looming regional instability and threats to American domination, the United States prioritized its geopolitical interests over the mission of promoting democracy’ (186). Long after South Korea’s democracy was won, I would argue, that is still the position of the United States.