Samuel M. Snipes August 1, 2011
At Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, numerous epistles are read from other yearly meetings throughout
the world. Likewise Philadelphia sends its annual epistle and greetings to all yearly meetings. Japan
Yearly Meeting’s epistle this year mentioned the “Nitobe lectures.” Friends outside of Japan may not
know about the extraordinary life of Inazo Nitobe. My purpose here is to acquaint Friends Journal
readers with him.
Inazo Nitobe (1862-1933) became a Christian while a college student, and later a Friend. He rose to
fame as an agricultural sugar expert, was the president of several colleges, was a Carnegie exchange
professor to the United States, and was a tireless worker for Japanese- U.S. understanding. Most
notably, he was the leader of the Japanese delegation to the League of Nations in Geneva,
Switzerland, in 1919, and when he arrived there he was promptly appointed under-secretary general
of the League. Nitobe is famous for coining the phrase, “Bridge across the Pacific”; for writing the
history of William Penn; and for the book, Bushido: The Soul of Japan. He is the only known Quaker
whose picture is on his country’s currency.
Nitobe stemmed from a Samurai (Japanese nobility) family on Honshu, the main island of Japan. His
grandfather was distinguished for developing irrigation projects and bringing much additional land
under cultivation. His father died when he was five and his mother when he was 13. He was the
youngest of eight and was raised by his uncle, who adopted him.
At 13, he entered Tokyo English School. By studying English, he became acquainted with Christianity
and the Bible. In 1877 he entered the newly founded Sapparo Agricultural College in the northern
island of Hokkaido and graduated in 1881. William S. Clark, from Amherst College, was the
viceprincipal of the Sapparo Agricultural College, although he left the college before Nitobe started
attending. He left a strong influence on the students, particularly in the way ethics was taught. He
said the only way he could teach ethics was by teaching the Bible. All of his students became
Christians and signed Clark’s “Covenant of Believers in Jesus.”
Nitobe subsequently became a Friend when he was 22 years old while doing graduate study at Johns
Hopkins University. He joined Baltimore Yearly Meeting.
He had previously attended Tokyo University, but found the professors there poorly trained. He
persuaded his uncle to finance his graduate study in the United States, first at Allegheny College in
western Pennsylvania, and then at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. While there, he was
appointed assistant professor in absentia by his original Japanese college, Sapporo Agricultural
College. This college financed his further study in agricultural economics for three years in Germany
at Bonn, Berlin, and Halle universities. He received his PhD from Halle.
In 1885, Inazo and a Japanese classmate were invited from Baltimore to Philadelphia by the
Women’s Foreign Missionary Association of Friends to advise them about establishing a Quaker
mission in Japan. This ultimately resulted in the establishment of the Friends Girls School in Tokyo
and ten agricultural missions in Iberaki Province, just north of Tokyo. The Friends Girls School
continues to flourish, educating the daughters of prominent Japanese business leaders. Three of the
agricultural missions still continue as Friends meetings in Tsuchiura, Shimotsuma, and Mito. Samuel
Nicholson, now retired at Friends Village in Newtown, Pa., and his father before him were
instrumental in founding a ceramics center at Mito Friends Center.
Gilbert Bowles, Gurney and Elizabeth Binford, Herbert Nicholson, Edith Sharpless, Esther Rhoads,
and others were instrumental in the success of Friends School and the success of the various
monthly meetings during the past 100 years.
An important outcome from Nitobe’s visit to Philadelphia was meeting his future wife, Mary
Patterson Elkinton, the daughter of Joseph S. Elkinton, later widely known for his help in bringing the
persecuted Dukhobors from Russia to Canada, as well as for his family business, Philadelphia Quartz
Co. They were married in 1890 upon Nitobe’s return from Germany.
Mary Elkinton’s parents objected to the marriage because it would take her to Japan. Her meeting
initially also opposed the marriage because of her parents’ objection. Mary’s brothers persuaded the
weighty members to change one by one. The wedding ultimately took place, and subsequently, her
parents approved.
Mary’s family of Elkintons, Evanses, and Jameses have inspired many others to support Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting’s Japan Committee (now International Outreach Committee) in nourishing the growth
of the Friends Girls School in Tokyo.
A corollary of this relationship was the friendship of Mary with her Westtown classmate Anna H.
Chace (one of the founders of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Chace Fund) and a member of both
Providence (R.I.) and Fallsington (Pa.) meetings. This friendship lasted all their lives. When Nitobe
subsequently became an under-secretary general of the League of Nations from 1920 to 1927, Anna
went to Geneva each year while the League was in session to be with Mary and Inazo. One year,
when Mary was ill and could not come to Geneva, Inazo asked Anna to be his hostess at all official
functions. Anna was in effect the “first lady of the world” for a year.
When Nitobe initially enrolled in University of Tokyo after Sapporo and before his German study, he
expressed his interest in studying agricultural economics and English literature. The interviewer said
“this is a queer combination.” Nitobe responded that “he wished to be a bridge across the Pacific
Ocean,” a bridge across which Western ideas could flow to Japan and over which Japanese and
Oriental ideas could flow to the United States. This term “bridge across the Pacific,” embraced
Nitobe’s life.
His PhD thesis at Halle was Land Possession and Distribution, and Its Agricultural Use in Japan. He
also subsequently completed his thesis at Johns Hopkins, The Intercourse between United States
and Japan: An Historical Sketch. Later, as a college professor, he published a 400-page biography of
William Penn.
In 1900, while recuperating from overwork in Japan, he took a leave of absence in California where
he wrote his most famous book, Bushido: The Soul of Japan. It was instantly acclaimed in the
English-speaking world as one of the few accounts of Japanese spiritual history written by a
Japanese author in eloquent English. It was subsequently translated into several languages. Bushido
means literally “the way of Samurai,” and it relates to traditional Japanese moral values.
Returning with his degree from Germany, Nitobe became a full professor at Sapporo. He taught
agronomy, colonial theory, history of agriculture, economics, English literature, and German, and was
the college librarian. He was also a technical advisor to the government of Hokkaido, two-thirds the
size of Pennsylvania.
Inazo established a secondary school in Hokkaido and became its headmaster, with financial
support from a local businessman. He and Mary also established a school for poor working girls in
the Sapporo slum, supported by faculty and student volunteers from the college. After a few years
he exhausted himself from too many duties, and in March 1899 he took the abovementioned leave
of absence in Vancouver and then in California.
While recuperating in California, Nitobe was offered numerous positions in Japan. He accepted a
position as advisor to the Japanese colonial government on Taiwan in 1901. His reform plan for sugar
production there increased it sixfold in 10 years and by 45 times in 20 years. His reforms continue
today to support Taiwan’s prosperity.
This brought him wide acclaim. He was appointed professor at University of Kyoto Law Faculty and
also headmaster at the First Higher School, the successor of his alma mater, Tokyo English School.
He began teaching on the faculty of Agriculture at University of Tokyo.
Inazo and Mary were invited to visit the emperor in 1905. As a boy, the emperor had spent the night
with Nitobe’s family at Morioka.
In 1911, Nitobe was chosen as the first exchange professor between the U.S. and Japan, funded by
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Nitobe tried to neutralize a rising tide of ill feeling in
the United States that was building against Japanese immigrants.
He spent one month each at Brown, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and the universities of Virginia,
Illinois, and Minnesota. He also visited and lectured in many other universities and colleges,
including Stanford, Clark, Haverford, and Earlham. These lectures were collected and published in
1912 as The Japanese Nation: Its Land, Its People, and Its Life. He spoke to other groups like the
National Geographic Society and Maryland Peace Society. He delivered a total of 166 lectures to
approximately 40,000 people, trying to build goodwill between Japan and the United States.
Brown University awarded him an honorary degree and he ultimately received five such degrees
during his lifetime.
Upon returning to Japan, he became a full-time professor of Colonial Studies at University of Tokyo.
A conflict had developed among educators about the Europeans and Japanese supporting
colonialism rather than liberation of their colonies. Some, like Germany and its South African colony
Namibia, thought a colony was merely for enriching the mother country. Nitobe espoused the more
humanitarian view that the mother country should bring benefit to its colonies and raise their
standard of living.
Nitobe also was concerned for women’s rights. He assisted several prominent women’s educational
institutions such as Smith School at Sapporo, the prestigious Tsuda College (founded by a Bryn
Mawr graduate, Umeko Tsuda) in Tokyo, Keisen Women’s College (established by another Bryn Mawr
graduate), and Tokyo Women’s School of Economics.
In 1918, he was appointed the first president of the newly established Tokyo Women’s Christian
College. This was heavily subsidized by the Methodist Church of Canada. Soon after assuming the
presidency, he and Mary and other Japanese officials toured Europe to inspect the damage from the
World War. While in London, he was advised by the Japanese minister that he had been selected to
be the under-secretary general of the newly formed League of Nations, under Sir Eric Drummond,
the secretary general. It is interesting that Nitobe had studied at Johns Hopkins with Woodrow
Wilson, whose ideas formed the League.
The League of Nations moved from London to Geneva in 1920. Nitobe quickly became a favorite
spokesman for the League. According to one of his colleagues, nine times out of ten he was chosen
to speak to audiences rather than his superior, Drummond. Drummond himself explained that
Nitobe was most highly qualified when he said, “He gives his audiences a deep and lasting
impression.” One of his colleagues wrote:
Contemporaneous with the idealist growth of the League was the increasing hostility in California to
There is no office in which more visitors were received or more work done; . . . yet there,
one always had the feeling of quiet, of reflection, of that silent gathering together of the
internal forces of human nature. One always left that room convinced afresh that it was
worthwhile doing one’s best in dealing with even the smallest everyday problems of office
life, because one had realized once more the essential connection between his work . . .
and the great current of human development which is embodied in the League.
“
Japanese. Initially there was a “gentlemen’s agreement” in 1907 between Japan and the United
States that only 146 Japanese individuals per year would be permitted to immigrate here. In 1924,
the U.S. Congress unilaterally repudiated this agreement and passed the Oriental Exclusion Act,
forbidding any Japanese to immigrate to the United States.
Nitobe was outraged by this Act. He tactfully spent the rest of his life trying to influence the
international community to appreciate Japan’s problems and attributes.
He resigned as under-secretary of the League in 1927 at the age of 64. He was appointed a member
of the House of Peers, the Upper House of the Japanese Diet. He joined the editorial board of the
Osaka newspaper and wrote a regular English column. Many organizations requested him to be their
advisor. He enthusiastically supported the union movement in aid of labor. He became chairman of
the Morioka Farmers Cooperative, and he was instrumental in preventing the intervention of local
conservatives in union activity.
Nitobe played a significant role in establishing Japan’s universal medical care system. (Does the
Japanese system have any provisions that we might emulate today?) This medical care system had
been initiated by Toyohiko Kagawa (1888-1960), who is known to numerous older U.S. Friends for
his Social Gospel work among the poor in Tokyo.
Politically, Nitobe’s speech against the pro-military cabinet of Prime Minister Tanaka in the House of
Peers in 1929 aided in Tanaka’s being condemned by many and led to his cabinet resigning.
The rise of militarism in Japan coincided with the London Naval Treaty in 1930, which adopted the
5:5:3 ratio in battleship strength between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. The
Japanese Navy strongly opposed this. Japan resigned from the League of Nations in 1933, in part
because of this treaty.
In 1931, to Nitobe’s great sorrow, the Japanese military bombed the Japanese-run South Manchurian
Railroad and blamed the Chinese for it. The Japanese army then established Manchukuo as a
separate nation carved out of Manchuria, over which it appointed a puppet government.
Nitobe was interviewed by a group of reporters about this development, with the promise that his
views would not be reported. One reporter violated his promise and published Nitobe’s anti-military
comments. A furor arose in Japan and Nitobe delivered a tactful apology.
With this as background, Nitobe toured North America in 1931 and attempted to present a clearer
picture of the events in Manchuria. He viewed Manchuria as a three-way conflict between Russia
(dating from the Sino- Japanese War of 1895), China, and Japan, with its historical presence in
Manchuria. He stated that this historical and economic background needed to be distinguished from
the current military action.
He pointed out how the Japanese civilian occupation of Manchuria occurred. Russia had occupied
Manchuria after 1895 despite strong Anglo-U.S. protest. Through President Theodore Roosevelt’s
efforts, the Russo-Japanese War ended in 1905, and the rights to administer Manchukuo that Russia
had previously obtained from China were transferred to Japan. Japan invested one billion yen in gold
in Manchuria to develop it. Japan, not China, was administering Manchuria, based upon the ChineseRussian
treaty. Japan, in hindsight, justified its actions because of the U.S. Oriental Exclusion Act.
Japan reasoned that it needed Manchukuo for its expanding population. Nitobe compared the
hostility in India against British administrators and the U.S. advocacy of the Monroe Doctrine in the
Caribbean, to the prohibition of Japanese immigration to the United States.
Nitobe toured North America again in 1932, conferred with President Hoover in the White House,
received an honorary degree from Haverford College, and in ten months delivered one hundred
lectures on Japanese culture and on the Manchukuo issue to audiences in the United States and
Canada, starting with a CBS radio address in New York, in which he said, “My keen concern over
Japanese-American relations and my earnest desire to study the American sentiment toward Japan,
are what have brought me over to America.”
Nitobe’s final trip to U.S. in 1933 was to attend the Institute of Pacific Relations conference in Banff,
Canada. This conference of scholars in various fields from countries around the Pacific Ocean met
annually. Nitobe had been chairman of the Japanese delegates since 1929, and this was his fifth
conference. In his final address he said: “China and Japan sit side-by-side at the conference table. . . .
There are differences between our governments . . . but as man-to-man, we harbor no ill-will the
one to the other. . . . Is it too much to hope then that in the intimate contact of nationals from all
over the Earth, the day will gradually come when not passion but reason, when not self-interest but
justice will become the arbiter of races and nations?”
In September, he collapsed in Victoria, Canada, and died on October 15, 1933, at age 72.
A memorial service was held in the Wesley United Church in Vancouver. Mary took his ashes to
Japan. A Quaker memorial service was held in Tokyo. Over three thousand people attended,
including his former students, politicians, the emperor’s emissaries, and citizens. There is a
monument honoring him at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Vancouver.
I made a pilgrimage to his home in Morioka, four hours north of Tokyo, after attending the Friends
World Committee gathering in Tokyo in 1988. There in the public park is a sarcophagus six feet long
and three feet high bearing the name NITOBE in Japanese. Morioka and Victoria have been sister
cities since 1985. Nearby is a sign in English directing one to Nitobe’s boyhood homestead. There is a
stone statue of him sitting in a chair with one hand under his chin, in a contemplative mood with the
inscription “Bridge across the Pacific” and a quotation from one of his famous speeches.
The 1945 will of Anna Harvey Chace provides for a $10,000 scholarship in honor of Inazo Nitobe,
the income from which is to assist a Japanese student to attend Haverford College. The corpus of
this scholarship is today valued at $55,000.
Nitobe is the only known Quaker to be honored on his country’s currency, a 5,000-yen note,
authorized in 1981.
Among Inazo Nitobe’s legacies to the world is the present United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Toward a More Balanced Analysis of Zionism
Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Power in Japan: The Ocean of Light above the Ocean of Darkness
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Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which grew out of the International Committee on Intellectual
Cooperation of which he was a founding director in the 1920s.
Friends are encouraged to visit the Nitobe Memorial Garden at University of British Columbia when
in Vancouver, Canada, and also the Nitobe homestead garden at Morioka when visiting Japan.
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Quakers suffered widely for their beliefs in the 17th Century. Since then they have reached out to others suffering in a similar way, helping religious dissidents and political prisoners around the world.
Many early Friends were imprisoned in Britain, leaving families (sometimes just children) to fend for themselves. Prisoners at this time were dependent on friends and charitable institutions for food, nursing and other comforts. Further afield, Quakers were imprisoned in the Bastille, by the Inquisition in Spanish held territory, and by the Moors on the Barbary Coast. The Puritan colony in Massachusetts enacted draconian laws against the Quakers and many were jailed there under very harsh conditions.
From the beginning, Friends raised large sums of money to support fellow members suffering in this way. Elizabeth Hooton carried food to Friends in prison in Boston. In 1675, at a time when many Friends in Britain were imprisoned for refusing to swear oaths, Meeting for Sufferings was established to provide aid.
By the end of the 17th Century and the beginning of the 18th, as conditions for Quakers were generally becoming easier, Quakers began to look outwards, towards other groups who were suffering in a similar way. Quakers raised money in support of groups such as the Pietists and Mennonites in Germany and the Huguenots in the south of France, providing aid both at home, and as they arrived in Britain as refugees. One such refugee was the future abolitionist Antony Benezet who fled France with his family in 1685.
Quakers travelling in Russia in the early 19th Century encountered a number of Russian sects including Mennonites, Anabaptists and Dukhobors, who dissented from the Russian Orthodox church and with whose views Quakers were in accord. Tsar Alexander I had been broadly tolerant of these groups, but when Nicholas I succeeded his brother in 1825 that tolerance ended. Russia introduced universal conscription, which the pacifist Mennonites refused to comply with. In 1873, American and Canadian Quakers helped to negotiate with their governments to give Mennonite emigrants the right to settle. In the 1890s, when the Dukhobors were subjected to brutal attacks by Cossacks for similarly refusing conscription, British Quakers raised money and helped negotiate with the Canadian government for the right of almost seven thousand Dukhobor refugees to settle in the North West Territory.
In 1896, it was reported to London Yearly Meeting that as many as sixty thousand Christians had been massacred in Armenia. Against the advice of the British Foreign Office, Quaker J Rendel Harris and his wife travelled to Armenia to report on conditions there. By the end of the year Quakers, led by the American Katherine Fraser, were supporting refugees in Varna in Bulgaria, feeding and clothing them and setting up boot making and other workshops by which they could support themselves.
Before and during the Second World War, many German Quakers took personal risks to help those targeted by the Nazis, hiding Jewish families, visiting concentration camps and sitting in solidarity with Jewish families while they waited to be deported. In Britain, Bertha Bracey helped establish the Germany Emergency Committee in 1933, helping many Jewish families to leave Germany. After Kristallnacht in 1938, when conditions for Jews in Germany worsened, Quakers worked with Jewish organisations to help bring ten thousand children to the UK in what became known as the Kindertransport.
Quakers like Eleanor Atkins campaigned to free Greek political prisoners during the Colonels’ regime in Greece in the late 1960s and early 1970s and publicised the internment of Soviet dissenters in psychiatric hospitals. Others such as Dorothy Birtles visited political prisoners in Chile in the 1980s.
Quakers were instrumental in setting up Amnesty International. Using his contacts, experience and position, Quaker Eric Baker campaigned for the humane treatment of political prisoners. He helped write an article for The Observer entitled “The Forgotten Prisoner” in 1961. This article called for “the amnesty of all political prisoners” and began a campaign that resulted in the founding of Amnesty International in 1962. Many Friends continue to be involved with Amnesty International, both as members and as volunteers.
Quaker Service Australia aims to express in a practical way the concern of Quakers for the building of a more peaceful, equitable, just and compassionate world. QSA works with communities in need to improve their quality of life with projects that are economically and environmentally appropriate and sustainable.
Origins and History
The idea of an Australian Friends Service Council was first mooted by Alva Brunning in 1940. She recognised the need for a Quaker Aid Agency focused on the countries of Asia West Pacific. However it was not until 1959 that the Service Council (now Quaker Service Australia) was formed.
In 1967, QSA sent its first volunteer overseas. Pat Hewitt, a trained nurse, worked for four years in the health clinic at Friends Rural Centre in Rasulia, India.
During the 1970s, QSA shifted its focus away from post-war relief work and towards sustainable development. Much of their work focuses on permaculture – a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature to care for the Earth and its people. A notable example is QSA’s nine-year collaboration (1990-99) with VACVINA, a Vietnamese organisation dedicated to improving nutrition through re-establishing traditional food-gardening practices.
QSA's biggest project to date has been the Cambodian English Language Training (CELT) Program. In 1985, they began working with the Ministry of Education in Phnom Penh to provide English language training to government officials and to improve secondary school teachers' language abilities. The project was managed by QSA until 1993, during which class intakes grew from 15 to almost 150. The project was then handed over to Australia’s International Development programme, who continued to fund it until 1996.
A book, Friends in Deed, by Heather Saville, was published in 2009 to mark the 50th anniversary of QSA.
Funding, Governance and Scale of Operations
For many years, QSA was an entirely voluntary operation, with the administration run out of a private home. QSA did not employ any paid staff until 1985.
Today, QSA is run by a management committee. Their work is funded from a combination of public donations and grants from the Australian Government’s Agency for International Development (AusAID). Support for projects in Australia comes from QSA’s Indigenous Concerns Fund, funded entirely from voluntary donations.
In the year ending Sept 2013, QSA had a revenue of roughly $Aus 600k, of which $240k came as a grant from AusAID. Of this, $572k was spent directly on international aid programmes. $61k was spent on domestic Australian projects. A further $140k went on programme support costs, employee costs, promotional activities and other costs, giving a shortfall in that year of almost $170k.
Home base, physical offices, and countries worked in
Quaker Services Australia is based in Surrey Hills, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales.
Currently, QSA works in Cambodia (40% of aid budget in 2012), India (25%), Uganda (18%), Zimbabwe (8%), and Timon L’este (2%). In addition, 7% was spent on Indigenous Concerns in Australia.
Methods of Work
QSA views development as a process of improving a community’s conditions in a sustainable and self determining way, addressing causes as well as symptoms and involving all of the community in the planning, design and implementation of a project.
QSA works with international development partners in long term partnerships, working towards the goals of economic self-sufficiency and environmentally sustainable living.
QSA supports projects which:
Seek to relieve suffering and poverty
Improve access to basic services
Increase the knowledge, skills and expertise of those involved
Use local materials and appropriate technology
Promote sound environmental and ecological practices
Create a reciprocal relationship between QSA and the community.
Areas of Current Work
Areas of current work
Developing sustainable organic food gardens in Cambodia
Reforestation, growing medicinal plants and watershed management in India
Organic farming in Uganda
Supporting a nutrition garden at an orphanage in East Timor
Building a dam to provide water for an isolated community in Zimbabwe and support for a school in Bulawayo
Supporting small scale Aboriginal projects in Australia
Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW) is the central peace and service department of British Friends, and represents them at national level on issues of peace and social justice. It facilitates dialogue to build greater understanding of these issues, and disseminates outcomes and ideas. QPSW works with Quaker and other partners to put this understanding into action on a variety of projects within Britain and around the world. It gives considerable support to QUNO Geneva.
Origins and History
During the nineteenth century several national committees were set up to respond to emergencies of various kinds. Initially they focused mainly on raising funds, but by the time of the Franco Prussian War in 1870-5 individual Friends were also visiting and working in the field. All these committees were short-lived: it was only in 1918, at the end of the first world war, that Carl Heath proposed and then led a longer term body, the Council for International Affairs. The idea was to establish a set ofQuaker embassies that would encourage dialogue and promote peace.
In 1927 the Council merged with the Friends Foreign Mission Association, to form the Friends Service Council (FSC). Irish Friends were members, as well as British ones. FSC was the joint recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947, along with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) on behalf of all Quakers. The Prize was in recognition of what the citation describes as
‘the silent help from the nameless to the nameless, which is their contribution to the promotion of brotherhood among nations’
This ‘silent help’ included much work on relief and on peace building: theKindertransport, the Quäkerspeisung, non-formal diplomacy to enable protagonists to explore issues frankly and constructively, in safe settings, and much else.
In 1979 FSC became Quaker Peace and Service, and in 2001 it merged with Quaker Social Responsibility & Education and was renamed Quaker Peace and Social Witness.
Funding, governance and scale of operation
QPSW’s funds come from British Friends’ central funds, from legacies and donations, and from grants for specific initiatives. Their work is overseen by QPSW Central Committee, which is nominated by Meeting for Sufferings acting for Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM): the committee then reports to BYM Trustees. Committee members are unpaid. QPSW employs a staff team of 20 or so and has a turnover of about £2m a year.
Home base, physical offices and countries worked in
QPSW is based in Friends House in London. Current overseas projects are in South Asia, Israel-Palestine, Kenya and Burundi.
Methods of Work
QPSW’s programme of work is reviewed annually. Efforts are made to support the initiatives of individual Friends and meetings but the main focus is on what is best done corporately. The QPSW Central Committee, its sub-committees and the staff work together to discern the areas of work needed, within the context of the six-year Framework for Action priorities agreed by Meeting for Sufferings. In support of this discernment and to inform and encourage Friends they hold conferences and other meetings. They also work on statements about public issues and/or responses to consultation documents, and prepare briefings for British Friends. Much of QPSW’s work is done in partnership with others, both nationally and globally.
Areas of Current Work
Criminal justice: support for prison chaplains, and for restorative justice. Economic justice and inequality reduction: conferences, discussion papers, Earth and Economy journal, campaigning Environment and sustainability: sustainability toolkit, follow up to ‘Minute 36’ (BYM's 2011 commitment to becoming a low-carbon sustainable community), campaigning Nonviolence: Turning the Tide, Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. Peace education: support for contact between local Friends and schools Peaceworkers: one-year placements in the UK and abroad Public issues: submissions to government consultation papers and/or briefings for Friends on issues of the day, such as the renewal of nuclear weapons, economic inequality, climate change, young people in the military, asylum seekers and refugees. Peace-building in East Africa, in partnership with the Quaker Peace Network. Peace-building in South Asia, in partnership with NGOs in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. QUNO Geneva: funding, governance, and a Geneva summer school for young adults. Relief grants: grants for higher education.
In the aftermath of the Korean War (1950-53), The Friends Service Unit (FSU) – a joint arm of the British Friends Service Council (FSC) and theAmerican Friends Service Committee (AFSC) – provided humanitarian and medical aid to refugees and others affected by the war.
War between North and South Korea broke out in 1950. By January 1951, six million people (one third of the Korean population) had become refugees. Thirty thousand children were in orphanages and as many again were without shelter. The UN was providing food relief and carrying out mass inoculations against diseases such as smallpox and typhoid. Nevertheless, tuberculosis was rife.
In October 1952, the UN invited civilian organisations, including the Quakers, to help with relief efforts. Jonathan Rhodes from the AFSC and Lewis Waddilove from FSC visited South Korea, and identified Cholla Pukto, where there were two hundred thousand mainly North Korean refugees, and Kunsan, where there were thirty three thousand, as areas where Friends could be of most use.
In July 1953, a ceasefire was signed, and Frank and Patricia Hunt arrived to set up the Friends Service Unit, setting up base in Kunsan. In October, an international team of doctors, nurses and a physiotherapist arrived from England, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Norway and the USA. They lived in a Korean house and operated out of the provincial hospital.
Kunsan Hospital had been left unfinished after the Japanese withdrawal from Korea and had then been bombed by the Americans. There was little equipment, no heating, no running water and only intermittent electricity. The AFSC shipped relief supplies of food, medicine and bedding. Social workers from the USA and Norway began to assess welfare needs. Warm clothing and bedding were distributed by local volunteers. Milk stations were set up serving hot milk and vitamins to children and pregnant women.
Over the winter, the priority lay in dealing with malnutrition. However, plans were being drawn up for the rehabilitation of refugees. American Quaker Floyd Schmoe, who had been helping with reconstruction work following the bombing of Hiroshima in Japan, set up Houses For Korea - a building project that provided refugees with the materials and training to construct their own houses. Schools were started in the camps, with Korean teachers paid for by the FSU. Adult literacy classes were started for war widows, and games of volleyball and basketball were organised.
Sewing machines were brought, and the war widows opened tailoring shops, a dry cleaners, and a business making soya bean curd. Goats, bees and seeds for planting allowed the refugees to supply some of their own food.
In cooperation with the UN, Friends ran a training school for Nurse Aides. They restored the Pathology lab at the hospital and trained lab technicians. David Ward, the physiotherapist, helped to fit prosthetics, made by local craftsmen, to those who had lost limbs in the war. A nurse, Ann Sealey, and a doctor, Jean Sullivan, started an antenatal and midwifery service.
The FSU started an outpatients’ service for sick children and opened a children’s ward in the hospital, where the children were looked after by a House Mother. In some cases, children had been abandoned by their families and Friends arranged adoption with families in America.
The Korean authorities had little money to pay hospital staff and locals’ salaries were often paid in part by the FSU. Throughout the time the FSU operated, the AFSC continued to provide vital medical supplies.
The FSU continued to operate until 1957, under the leadership first of Geoff Hemingway (1953-56) and then under Robert Grey.
The Quaker presence in Korea dates from the end of the Korean War (1950-53). In the aftermath of the war, The Friends Service Unit (FSU) – a joint arm of the British Friends Service Council and the American Friends Service Committee – provided humanitarian and medical aid to refugees and others affected by the war.
From their base in Kunsan, the FSU initially tackled problems of severe malnutrition. Later Houses for Korea was set up by AFSC’s Floyd Schmoe, providing refugees with the materials and training to construct their own houses. Schools were started in the camps, with Korean teachers paid for by the FSU. Adult literacy classes were started for war widows, and games of volleyball and basketball were organised.
The FSU was heavily involved with training local Korean doctors and nurses. They set up a physiotherapy unit to help war amputees, and ante-natal and midwifery service and both out-patient and in-patient services for sick children.
When the FSU was wound up, at the end of 1957, local Koreans who had been working with the Quakers wanted to continue their connection with Quakerism. With the help of American Quaker families living in Seoul (in particular, Reginald Price and Arthur Mitchell), a group began to meet regularly for silent, unprogrammed worship, and for study and discussion.
The first Quaker text to be translated into Korean was Rufus Jones' Quaker's Faith in 1960. It watranslated by Yoon Gu Lee and printed for distribution among members.
Seoul meeting was eventually recognized as a monthly meeting in 1964 under the care of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), and in 1967 moved into its own Meeting House. As one member of the meeting was blind, the meeting became involved in the welfare of the blind. Some members gathered periodically to transcribe religious articles into Braille and a work camp was organized to repair a road near one of the homes for the blind.
One Korean who had first encountered Quakers through their work in Kunsan was the human rights activist, Ham Sok Hon. Ham was impressed by the Quakers’ pacifism, egalitarianism and their active participation in questions of social justice. Ham started to attend Seoul Quaker meeting and became a member of the Society of Friends in 1967, after attending the Friends World Conference in North Carolina.
“You were already a Quaker before you became one,” an American Friend, Arthur Mitchell, told him.
Ham spoke out against dictatorship and injustice in South Korea. He carried out a hunger strike in 1965, was imprisoned in 1976 and 1979, and was placed under house arrest in 1980. South Korea finally achieved full democracy in 1987. The following year, when the Seoul Olympics were held, Ham was selected to be the head of the Peace Olympiad, which drew up a declaration calling for world peace.
Under Ham’s leadership, and with the support of Mary and Lloyd Bailey, who stayed in Korea during 1983/4 under the auspices of the Friend in the Orient Committee of Pacific Yearly Meeting and continued to correspond with the meeting for many years after, Seoul Meeting flourished. Although membership declined after Ham’s death in 1989, it has revived again since 1998.
Conscientious objection has been a key issue for Quakers in South Korea. In a country still technically at war with North Korea, compulsory military service is considered essential and for many years COs had no option but to serve or to go prison. QUNO (Quaker United Nations Office) and FWCC were among those who campaigned for some form of alternative service to be offered, and this was finally implemented in 2007.
The American Friends Service Committee has maintained a presence in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). They currently run an agriculture programme, helping farmers introduce techniques of rice cultivation adapted to the short growing season in DPRK.
AFSC continues to campaign against North Korean nuclear tests, while warning that isolating or ignoring North Korea is not only unrealistic but dangerous.
Ham Sok-Hon was a Korean Quaker, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by American Friends. His commitment to non-violence earned him the name, ‘the Gandhi of Korea.’
"I am a man who has been 'kicked' by God, just as a boy kicks a ball in the direction he wants it to go. I have been driven and led by Him.”
Ham was born in North Korea and was brought up as a Presbyterian Christian. In 1919, he joined the March 1st Movement, the beginning of Korean resistance to Japanese occupation. This led to his losing his place in high school, so it wasn’t until 1923 that he went to Japan to study to be a teacher.
There he first encountered the Non-Church movement, an indigenous Japanese Christian movement that had no liturgy, sacraments or ordained clergy, spoke out against social injustices and advocated pacifism.
In 1928, he returned to Korea to become a history teacher at his old school. Frustrated by the impossibility of teaching what he described as ‘a series of humiliations, disasters and failures’, he began to write his own history of Korea, from the perspective of an oppressed people. This book (English title – Queen of Suffering: a spiritual history of Korea) led to his being imprisoned by the Japanese for ‘harbouring dangerous ideas’. It called for Koreans to find a spiritual identity, but rejected the path of violence. It closed with the line:
“Put your sword down and think hard.”
During the Second World War, when, as Ham wrote, ‘Anyone suspected of having the least bit of nationalistic thought, or liberal thought was arrested on any number of flimsy pretexts and placed in prison "to rot"’, he was imprisoned for a year in 1940 and again in 1942. Korea gained its independence from Japan in 1945, but within a month of liberation, the country was occupied by the Soviet Union in the north and the US in the south. Now, as a Christian activist who refused to cooperate with the Soviet military government, Ham once again found himself in prison.
In 1947, he fled to South Korea, where over the next forty years he persistently criticised a series of corrupt and dictatorial regimes there.
Ham had read about Quakers when he was still at school but his first major encounter with them was in 1953, in a relief camp in Kunsan. He was impressed by their pacifism, egalitarianism and their active participation in questions of social justice. At the time, however, Ham was still involved with the Non-Church Movement. In 1958, he helped to set up Ssi-al Farm, which was intended to be a community modelled on Gandhi’s Ashram.
Shortly after this, something happened that led to Ham being ostracised by the Non-Church Movement. Ham himself described it as a ‘sin’; his biographer wrote that they rejected him for views they perceived as heretical. Whatever the cause, this was the point that Ham started to attend Seoul Quaker meeting, which had been set up in1958.
“You were already a Quaker before you became one,” an American Friend, Arthur Mitchell, told him.
Between 1961 and 1963, Ham attended both Pendle Hill in America andWoodbrooke in England. He became a member of the Society of Friends in 1967, after attending the Friends World Conference in North Carolina.
During this time, Ham continued to speak out against dictatorship and injustice in South Korea. He carried out a hunger strike in 1965, was imprisoned in 1976 and 1979, and was placed under house arrest in 1980. South Korea finally achieved full democracy in 1987. The following year, when the Seoul Olympics were held, Ham was selected to be the head of the Peace Olympiad, which drew up a declaration calling for world peace.
American Quakers twice nominated Ham Sok-Hon for the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1979 and 1985, something of which he himself felt quite unworthy. His own name for himself was ‘Foolish Bird’, after the Japanese name for the Albatross, which cannot catch its own fish but lives off scraps. Others knew him affectionately as ‘Teacher Ham’.
In 2000, Korean’s selected Ham posthumously as a National Cultural Figure.
Nitobe Inazo was a Japanese Quaker who became the first Under Secretary General for the League of Nations.
“Let it be far from me to turn Quakerism into Oriental mysticism. Quakerism stays within the family of Christianity. ... Unlike Orientals, George Fox and his followers conceived ... of light as a person, but by making their person eternal and existent before the world was, Quakerism came to much the same conclusion as the old mystics.”
A Japanese View of Quakerism, Nitobe Inazo, lecture given at the University of Geneva, 1926.
Nitobe was born into a samurai family on Honshu, the main island of Japan. He first became a Christian while attending Sapparo Agricultural College on Hokkaido. Asked why he wished to study English as well as agriculture, he replied that he wanted to be ‘a bridge across the Pacific’.
He attended Tokyo University for a time but, dissatisfied with the teaching, he persuaded his uncle to fund post-graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, a university which had a Quaker foundation. There he began attending Quaker meetings, telling friends, “I very much like their simplicity and earnestness.”
In 1885, he and a fellow Japanese student were invited to Philadelphia by the Women’s Foreign Missionary Association of Friends to advise them on establishing a Quaker mission in Japan. This visit was to lead to the establishment of the Friends Girls School in Tokyo, as well as agricultural missions in Iberaki Province. It also led to his meeting his future wife, Mary Elkinton. He formally became a Quaker in 1886.
Having obtained his PhD at Halle University in Germany, he returned to Philadelphia in 1891 to marry Mary, and then took up a teaching post at Sapporo College. He set up a secondary school in Hokkaido and became its headmaster, and he and Mary (known in Japan as Mariko) also established a night school for poor working youth, known as the Distant Friend Night School.
In 1900, while on a stay in California, he wrote Bushido: The Soul of Japan, a series of essays that attempted to explain Japanese values to Westerners.
In 1911, he was appointed Professor of Colonialism at the Tokyo Law Faculty. He saw no intrinsic evil in colonialism but taught that, “the final objective… is to be beneficial to the aboriginal people of that land,” through the provision of hospitals, schools, railways.
He was a champion of women’s rights in Japan, and supported several women’s colleges. In 1918, he became the first president of the Tokyo Women’s Christian College. “Perfect equal opportunity, if given, will develop [woman’s] hidden and unsuspected power of intellect,” he wrote.
In 1920, he was appointed the first Under-Secretary General of the League of Nations, under Sir Eric Drummond. He became a favoured spokesman for the League. Drummond said of him, “he gives his audience a deep and lasting impression.”
Hostility to Japanese immigrants in California was growing, and in 1924 the US Congress passed the Oriental Exclusion Act, which forbade further immigration. Nitobe was appalled, and spent much of the rest of his life trying to build understanding in the international community of Japanese issues.
He retired from the League of Nations in 1927 and was appointed to the House of Peers, Japan’s Upper House. He supported the growth of unions and played an important role in establishing Japan’s universal medical care system.
Nitobe resigned from the cabinet in 1929 over Japan’s growing militarism, declaring that “preparedness in foreign relations should be cooperation, not armament.” In 1931, he openly condemned Japan’s bombing of the South Manchuria Railroad. Nevertheless, he felt that the West’s attitude to Japanese actions was hypocritical. Later that year, he toured North America defending Japan’s role in Manchuria, clashing with many former friends who feared he was abandoning his former liberalism.
On his final trip to North America in 1933, he collapsed and died in Victoria, Canada, where there is now a Nitobe Memorial Garden. Mariko took his ashes back to Tokyo where a Quaker memorial service was held, attended by 3000 people. Japan Yearly Meeting later established the annual Nitobe Inazo Memorial Lecture. Today, his face can be seen on the 5000 yen note.
In 1942 1 was served with a warrant for my arrest by the Gestapo. The warrant alleged that I was "corrupting the unity of the German people during wartime."
I appealed against this warrant of arrest but heard absolutely nothing more about it. On 5 October I arrived in Buchenwald after having spent two nights in a prison in Halle. In Halle there was very great overcrowding and incredibly bad food. There too, as in all prisons in which I had been, there were plenty of vermin.
At Buchenwald
Our reception in Buchenwald was not exactly welcoming. First, our personal data and possessions were taken and the experience with the SS man was not exactly pleasant. Then to the so-called bath house of the camp where we had to completely undress, leave our clothes in a heap, and take a bath. From there we were delivered into the hands of the barbers who shaved the hair completely off the head and all parts of our bodies. After a medical examination, we were passed to another department where vests and pants, trousers, jackets and caps were thrown at us. Stockings and socks did not exist, but we were given wooden clogs which soon made our feet raw with blisters. We stood up in the zebra striped uniform "pyjamas" and could hardly recognize ourselves or our mates. We were then given numbers and colors for identification. There were several different kinds-red for political prisoners, green for habitual criminals, black for those regarded as asocial, pink for homosexuals, violet for Jehovah's Witnesses and, of course, the yellow "Star of David" for the Jews.
We were then taken to a barracks in which all contact with other inmates of the camp was prevented. We were not only Political prisoners but all kinds of thieves and criminals. There were 42 different nationalities in Buchenwald. At the time of my committal, the concentration camp was not very big, about 8 000 to 10 000 prisoners, whereas later the population increased to 47 000. During the first few days we were allocated all kinds of unskilled work and eventually I came to a work team which was doing some ground levelling in Weimar where some factories were being built. Apart from the dreadful pain in my feet as a result of the wooden clogs I had to wear, I also had great trouble with my hands which were not used to working with a pick and shovel. I was then transferred to the penal group-something I still don't understand. These people were accommodated in special barracks separate from the rest of the camp. The treatment in these barracks was for the most part meted out by prisoners which defies any description. It was not only the SS who made most trouble for me, but rather some of the old lags who were in command. When one had the chance to discover something about their past, one could really understand that they were the sort of people from whom society should be protected. Later still I came to work in the stone quarry company which was building one of the crematoria of the concentration camp.
Every now and then I found people who were well intentioned towards me, but the condition of my health deteriorated steadily. I had no particular complaint, it was mainly weakness probably due to lack of food. I had no news from home, and was not allowed to write. It was, therefore, a great joy when, at the end of November, an inquiry came from Mary addressed to the commander of the camp. To begin with they were angry and shouted at me asking why I had not written home and when I explained I had not been allowed to, I was ordered to send off a letter that very night. To my great joy a new directive had been issued to the effect that prisoners were allowed to receive parcels of food and essential clothing from their homes. I wrote this to Mary and said that I could do with some boots and other things, and from that time onwards my health improved. While I was in Buchenwald Mary sent me a parcel every week, to the contents of which many kind friends contributed. I can say today with a clear conscience that it is to them that I owe thanks that I am still alive. I could hardly have survived the suffering and brutal treatment had it not been for this material support and the thoughts and prayers of so many who remembered me.
Winter
In the meantime, I was transferred to a different work team-the so-called sewerage and drainage squad. In this team we had to carry out all the drainage operations-that is to say, digging and closing ditches carrying heavy drain pipes and everything that went with it. I generally worked with bandaged hands because I was not very fit to do this work, but somehow I managed it despite great exhaustion. While working out of doors we were particularly exposed to all sorts of harassment by the SS men. They came and went and took the least opportunity to report us and subject us to beatings. During the first winter we had very thin coats which did not afford much protection. As soon as the sky was a little brighter we were ordered to take the coats off and we had to work in the freezing cold. Our day began in the morning at 4:30 and then we were given half a litre of coffee or the so-called morning soup which consisted of boiled bran. An hour later we had to stand for a roll call then the various columns marched to work.
About the tortures and ill treatment meted out to people I will say very little because this is now well known. I can only say that I personally experienced quite a bit of it but in the end by divine providence I was spared the worst.
In Buchenwald the prisoners had to carry out any work, clearing forests, constructing complete huts and factories. Any work between these operations, such as road construction, drainage, electrical engineering, was carried out by prisoners who eventually worked in the completed factories.
In June 1943 1 was put in a works store and eventually became in charge of it. Now I had a chance of achieving a certain personal independence -that is during the working hours of the day. There was a lot of unpleasantness now and then, but I did however manage to cope with it. In the concentration camp itself conditions deteriorated increasingly as so many prisoners came to Buchenwald, especially in the last winter, when the big camps in the East had to be cleared. In November, December and January they arrived in open coal trucks in which they had travelled from six to fourteen weeks. I cannot talk about the misery I have seen. Food was scanty, warm clothes were non-existent and travelling for weeks in an open railway truck without any sanitary arrangements-it is not surprising that many died. The camps were overcrowded so that in spite of all safety measures taken, the prisoners suffered from all sorts of illnesses and the death rate rose alarmingly. Added to this were the many atrocities to which we were subjected at the so-called roll calls. We had often to stand for hours till the result was correct or if anyone was missing till it had been established who it was or until he had been found. These roll calls cost many lives as no consideration was taken whether it was snowing or raining. There is much I could say about this, especially about what happened towards the end. Most of those who came from the camps in the East were again removed in March 1945, this time on foot since the railways were no longer running. Those who couldn't walk any more, or stepped aside, were shot en route. The corpses were left lying in the ditches. In this manner the population of the camp decreased to about 21 000 by the time the allied troops arrived.
Liberation
The camp of Buchenwald was to be gassed and blown up. The orders for this were given by SS Brigade Tirlewanger, but by good fortune the Americans arrived more quickly than was expected. It was with peculiar feelings that I watched the arrival of the "enemy" who had come to liberate us. We started breathing again, and once more realized that we were human beings. The food which in that year had been particularly wretched, became very good since all the stores left behind by the SS had been given to the camp. After a further five weeks during which I assisted American officers in the Commission for releasing the prisoners. I arrived home in Pyrmont on Whit Sunday.
I must praise the Jehovah's Witnesses who, in spite of ridicule and persecution, held in the most wonderful way firmly to their beliefs. I am today of the opinion that we in Germany could only have come to such a state because the religious strength and the inner life of individuals were allowed to deteriorate. We will always find that the men and women who frankly confess their belief in their God without hesitation will be given the inner strength, even in these times, to hope for a better future.
As I left the camp it became perfectly clear to me that I had two great duties,, namely not to forget the 51 000 dead left in Buchenwald, and secondly to help show to the world that the German people are not what the Nazis and criminals made them appear to be.
Source: Reprinted from The Journal of Historical Review, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 85-89.
Published with permission of and courtesy to the Institute for Historical Review (IHR).
제주 롯데호텔 정원에서 요한 갈퉁 박사와 김영희 대기자가 대담하고 있다. 갈퉁 박사는 한반도의 평화를 위해서는 남북한이 지금의 통일정책을 버리라고 충고했다. [사진 박종근 기자]
수학자로 출발한 노르웨이 출신 평화연구가 요한 갈퉁 박사는 ‘평화학(Paxology)의 아버지’로 불린다. 그는 자신을 평화학의 할아버지쯤 될 것이라고 말한다. 그는 지금까지 150개 이상의 크고 작은 전쟁을 중재하고 97권의 단독 저서를 냈으며, 1600건의 평화 관련 논문을 썼다. 이재봉원광대 교수와 공저로 『한국 : 통일에의 험난한 길(Korea : The Twisting Roads to Unification)』을 내기도 했다.
그가 지난 5월 제주 평화포럼에 참석했을 때 대담하고 정원에서 따로 대화를 나눴으며 e메일로 보충 질의를 교환했다. 그는 자신은 반미주의자가 아니라고 주장하지만 그의 발언은 한·미 동맹에 익숙한 우리 기준으로는 반미로 들린다. 오바마를 거짓말쟁이(Liar)라고 부르는 것은 근세까지의 유럽에서라면 결투의 대상이다. 분쟁의 현장을 그렇게 많이 누빈 사람치고는 한반도 문제에 대한 해결책은 관념적이다.
Q : 김영희(이하 김)=갈퉁 박사께서는 지금까지 수많은 분쟁을 중재하고 학문적으로도 연구를 하셨는데 모든 분쟁의 원인에 어떤 공통점이 있습니까? A : 요한 갈퉁(이하 갈퉁)=나는 이걸 원하고 당신은 저걸 원하는 식의 양립할 수 없는 목표들입니다. 어떤 사람들은 북한이 붕괴되기를 바라고 북한은 살아남기를 바랍니다. 어떤 사람은 남한의 붕괴를 바라고 남한은 살아남기를 바라는 것같이. 양립할 수 없는 목표가 갈등의 공통 요소인데 목표가 상반되면 태도는 증오, 행동은 폭력으로 나타납니다.
Q : 김=이마누엘 칸트(1724~1804)는 『영구평화론』이라는 작은 책에서 공화국들끼리는 전쟁을 하지 않는다는 민주평화론을 주장했습니다. 그러나 박사께서는 『평화적인 수단에 의한 평화』라는 저서에서 민주국가들을 호전적인 나라들의 맨 윗자리에 올렸습니다. 칸트의 진단이 오늘날에는 통하지 않습니까? A : 갈퉁=칸트 얘기 해서 고맙고 범죄자 마키아벨리 얘기 안 해서 고마워요. 칸트는 철학적 오류를 범했습니다. 공화정은 왕정의 반대인데 왕정이라고 다 호전적이지 않고 공화정이라고 다 민주적이지 않아요. 또 하나 칸트가 잘못 생각한 것은 무역 상대국을 파괴하는 것은 제 나라를 파괴하는 것이라고 주장한 겁니다. 칸트는 무역은 공정해야 한다, 어느 한쪽이 일방적으로 불이익을 당해서는 안 된다는 점을 충분히 강조하지 않았어요.
Q : 김=박사께서는 같은 책에서 민주국가일수록 그 나라 지도자와 국민들은 독선적이고 그들이 독선적일수록 호전적이라고 썼습니다. 그렇다면 가령 민주국가인 미국이 중국이나 러시아보다 더 호전적이라야 하는데요? A : 갈퉁=미국은 신의 선택을 받은 국가라는 우월감을 가지고 세계를 지배하려고 합니다. 지난 1000년 동안 일어난 전쟁을 보면 미국, 이스라엘, 영국, 터키 순으로 전쟁을 많이 했어요. 그 나라들의 공통점은 유대교, 기독교, 이슬람교같이 아브라함의 종교를 믿는 나라들이라는 것입니다. 그 세 나라 중 미국, 이스라엘, 영국은 기독교국가 아닙니까. 특히 미국과 이스라엘은 선민의식이 강해요.
Q : 김=한반도는 언제 터질지 모르는 화약고 같습니다. 분쟁 중재의 풍부한 경험을 가진 박사께서는 핵무기를 포함한 북한 문제를 어떻게 풀 수 있다고 생각하십니까? A : 갈퉁=내가 보기에 북한은 공산국가이기 전에 효(孝)에 바탕을 둔 유교원리주의 국가입니다. 김씨 일족의 권력세습도 그 때문이죠. 남한도 유교국가 아닙니까. 이 심층문화(Deep culture)에서 유사점을 찾아 활용할 수 있지 않을까요. 일단 대화를 해야 합니다.
Q : 김=북한의 핵·미사일 개발과 대남 도발도 그들의 유교문화와 관련이 있다는 겁니까? A : 갈퉁=북한은 이라크와 리비아를 기억합니다. 두 나라 모두 핵을 버린 뒤 미국의 침공을 받았어요. 그래서 북한은 핵과 미사일을 가져야 한다고 생각할 겁니다.
Q : 김=그러나 핵·미사일 개발에 국가예산을 쏟아붓는 사이에 경제가 거덜 나고 백성들은 기아에 시달립니다. A : 갈퉁=나는 북한의 대량살상무기 개발을 정당화하는 것이 아닙니다. 한반도의 분쟁은 남북한 사이가 아니라 북한과 미국 사이의 분쟁입니다. 미국은 아주 단순한 이유로 북한을 증오해요. 미국은 1812년부터 1953년까지 141년의 기간에 치른 모든 전쟁에서 이겼는데 한국전쟁에서는 이기지 못했어요. 미국은 1801년부터 284회나 남의 나라에 군사적으로 개입했습니다.(갈퉁은 베트남에서 미국의 패배는 언급하지 않았다.)
Q : 김=갈퉁 박사께서는 경제제재가 빈곤층과 노인과 어린이들부터 희생시킨다는 이유로 제재 자체에 반대를 하시는데 제재 없이 북한의 핵·미사일 개발을 어떻게 저지합니까? A : 갈퉁=인도, 파키스탄, 이스라엘도 핵무기를 개발했는데 왜 그 나라들은 제재하지 않고 북한만 제재합니까. 한(恨)이라는 걸 생각해 봐요. 개를 실컷 두들겨 패면 개는 미쳐서 패는 사람을 물어요. 개를 잘 다루면 바로 효과가 날 것을 장담합니다. 미국이 하느님에게 “제발 북한이 붕괴하게 하소서”라고 기도만 하면 북한은 무너지지 않아요. 한·미 합동군사연습을 중단해야 합니다. 남한에서 핵무장론이 일어나고 있는데 남한까지 핵무기를 가지면 핵전쟁이 일어나요. 한반도엔 지금 우행(愚行·Stupidity)이 충만합니다. 북한이 어리석은 짓을 더 많이 합니다.
Q : 김=서울과 워싱턴에서 고개를 드는 북한 붕괴론에는 동의하시지 않는다는 말로 들립니다. A : 갈퉁=북한 붕괴론은 바보 같은 말입니다. 붕괴라는 것이 일어난다면 붕괴론 자체의 붕괴가 먼저 일어납니다.
Q : 김=갈퉁 박사께서는 미국을 공화국과 제국으로 구분해 2020년까지는 미 제국은 멸망한다고 예언해 많은 논란이 있었습니다. 2020년까지는 4년밖에 안 남았는데 그 예언 변함 없습니까? A : 갈퉁=제국주의가 뭡니까. 식민주의는 자국민을 보내어 남의 나라를 지배하고 그 나라 사람들의 재물을 뺏는 것입니다. 미국의 제국주의 전략은 달라요. 미국은 피지배국의 엘리트들을 매수해 미국이 원하는 일을 시킵니다. 미국을 대신해 피지배국의 국민들을 죽이기도 하지요. 결과는 어떻습니까? 미국은 중남미를 잃었어요. 북대서양조약기구(나토)를 점차 잃어가고 있어요. 프랑스와 독일은 미국을 대신한 살상을 거부합니다. 우크라이나를 보세요. 쿠바와는 57년째 적대해 왔지만 피델 카스트로는 아직도 건재해 11번째의 미국 대통령을 상대하고 있어요. 미 제국은 붕괴한다는 내 예언은 적중하고 있습니다. 서반구에서 미국의 우방은 캐나다뿐이잖아요. 오바마는 쿠바에 굴복했어요. 그는 북한의 어리석음에도 굴복할 겁니다. 11월 대선에서 힐러리 클린턴이 당선되면 북·미 간에 전쟁이 일어날 겁니다.
Q : 김=트럼프는 미국은 세계의 경찰 노릇을 그만하겠다고 합니다. 미국과 멕시코 국경에 담을 쌓고 이슬람계 이민을 차단하겠다고 해요. 그가 대통령이 되면 미국은 고립주의에 빠지는 것 아닙니까? A : 갈퉁=그는 많은 선택지(Cards)를 갖고 있어요. 선거 유세 중 그의 발언만 가지고 대통령 트럼프의 대외정책을 판단하기는 이릅니다. 그는 전쟁은 하지 않습니다. 나 자신은 그가 하는 발언의 대부분에 반대해요.
Q : 김=군·산·정 복합체(Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex)가 미 제국의 붕괴를 보고만 있을까요? A : 갈퉁=미국 스스로 살상을 하는 건 대가가 너무 커요. 남을 시키는 게 부담이 적어요. 트럼프의 주장은 미국은 더는 살상을 계속할 형편이 못 된다는 겁니다. 오바마는 미니핵무기(mini-nukes) 개발을 계속하고 있어요. 오바마는 직업적인 거짓말쟁이에다 위선자예요. 그는 핵군축을 말하면서 더 많은 핵무기를 만듭니다. 세계가 그에게 등을 돌리고 있어요.
Q : 김=오바마가 거짓말쟁이라니, 예를 하나 들어 보십시오. A : 갈퉁=좋아요. 그는 프라하에서 핵군축을 제안하고 러시아와 재래식무기 감축을 위한 협정에 관한 협상을 시작했어요. 그러고는 바로 그 주, 또는 한 달 뒤에 현대식 무기를 더 생산하기 위한 예산 15억 달러를 책정했어요. 그 예산은 국방예산이 아니라 에너지부 예산에 슬쩍 숨겨서 책정한 겁니다.
Q : 김=그래도 오바마에게 노벨 평화상을 준건 갈퉁 박사의 모국 노르웨이입니다. A : 갈퉁=맞습니다. 그러나 그 상은 노벨도 아니고 평화도 아닙니다. 그건 오로지 노르웨이의 정책노선에 맞는 정치를 하는 정치인들에게 주는 정치적인 상일 뿐입니다.
Q : 김=갈퉁 박사의 말씀대로 미 제국이 무너지면 중국이 수퍼파워의 지위를 계승합니까? A : 갈퉁=중국은 미 제국의 지위를 계승하기에는 너무 오만해서 안 돼요. 중국은 우월감에 도취되고 너무 중화중심적입니다.
Q : 김=오만하기는 미국도 마찬가지 아닙니까. 미국이 서반구를 통치해야 한다는 ‘자명한 운명(Manifest destiny)론’, 먼로 독트린, 미국은 하느님의 선택을 받은 나라라는 선민의식은 미국인들의 오만의 표상 아닙니까? A : 갈퉁=맞습니다. 그러나 미국과 중국의 오만의 성격이 달라요. 중국은 자신이 다른 모든 나라의 위에 군림한다, 하늘과 땅의 중간에 있다는 인식을 갖고 있어요.
Q : 김=단도직입적으로 묻습니다. 남북한이 통일된다면 언제, 어떤 방식으로 될 걸로 보십니까? A : 갈퉁=국민(Nations)의 통일과 국가(States)의 통일을 구별해야 합니다. 국민의 통일은 국경을 개방하고 서로 협력하고 이산가족 상봉으로 시작할 수 있습니다. 국가의 통일은 남북한이 한 사람의 대통령을 갖는다는 의미에서 문제가 있어요. 김일성은 누가 그 한 사람의 대통령이 되어야 하는가에 대한 분명한 구상을 갖고 있었어요.
내가 할 수 있는 충고는 남북한 국민 간의 질시와 이기적 습관을 버리고 국민통합을 먼저 이루라는 것입니다. 남북한의 두 국가가 점점 접근하면 한국인의 공동체가 성사되고 언젠가는 한국연합(Korean Union)이라고 부를 만한 체제가 성립될 것 아니겠습니까. 그렇게 되면 판문점에 남북한 공동 시설을 만들고 비무장지대에 100㎢의 방대한 공원을 만들 수도 있겠지요.
국가통일만 계속 고집하는 건 문제입니다. 평화가 우선되어야 하는데 한반도에 평화를 실현하려면 서로 상반된 방식의 통일을 주장하는 남한과 북한이 통일정책을 버려야 합니다. 통일이라는 단어가 남북한 통일의 걸림돌이 되는 것은 아이러니입니다. 남북한이 지금의 단계에서 추구해야 하는 것은 통일이 아니라 화해와 협력입니다.
Q : 김=화제를 바꾸겠습니다. 이슬람국가(IS)의 추동력은 뭡니까? 무엇이 세계의 젊은이들로 하여금 IS에 가담하게 만듭니까? A : 갈퉁=이라크나 시리아는 사소한 문제입니다. 16억5000만 무슬림들은 가톨릭의 바티칸같이 이슬람의 성지 메디나를 갖고 싶은 겁니다. 미국의 동맹인 부패하고 무기력한 사우디아라비아가 아니라 메디나가 상징하는 진정한 이슬람국가 말입니다. 지금같이 무슬림을 계속 죽여나가면 내일 아침에는 1000개의 IS가 생길 겁니다. 그들을 존중하고 그들과 협상해야 해요. 나는 절대 반미주의자가 아닙니다. 나와 내 아내는 미국인들을 사랑합니다. 요한 갈퉁은…
1930년 오슬로에서 출생한 수학자·사회학자·정치학자로 20~21세기 평화연구의 선구자. 젊은 시절 양심적인 병역기피로 형무소행을 선택했다. 제2차 세계대전 때 오슬로 부시장이던 아버지가 나치군에 체포되는 것을 목격한 뒤 평화 연구에 몰두하기 시작했다. 평화 구축과 분쟁 해결을 개념화해 세계의 유수한 대학에서 평화학을 강의하고 평화연구소를 세워왔다. 그가 쓴 평화에 관한 책은 공저 포함, 무려 160권. 『평화적인 수단에 의한 평화』(1996)가 대표작 중 하나다. 재혼한 일본인 부인과 40여 년째 스페인에서 살고 있다. 글=김영희 국제문제 대기자 사진=박종근 기자
![제주 롯데호텔 정원에서 요한 갈퉁 박사와 김영희 대기자가 대담하고 있다. 갈퉁 박사는 한반도의 평화를 위해서는 남북한이 지금의 통일정책을 버리라고 충고했다. [사진 박종근 기자]](http://t1.daumcdn.net/thumb/T430x0ht.u/?fname=http://t1.daumcdn.net/news/201606/17/joongang/20160617013507137ocrv.jpg)