the Koreas, Japan, the US & Hofstede

(part three)

Historical context

   Some immediate insight gleaned comes from the relatively obvious. Of the Koreas, Japan and the US, only the US is not in Asia. As we saw, the US tends to be somewhat different, with the others more alike. Given what Hofstede would have stood on such considerations as location are noteworthy. Similarly, the Koreas form a peninsula and Japan is made up of four islands; obviously, relationships with the water are strong. Again, despite two wonderful coastlines the US interior furnishes more of a basis for culture. And size matters; Japan is approximately the size of California, North Korea is approximately the size of Pennsylvania, while South Korea clocks in at about Kentucky (C, 2008)(Wall, 2010)(, 2010). The contrast between America's open plains, and Japan's mountainous islands, finds Japan with more people per square foot than most countries. This latter acknowledgment, obviously, has implications for avoidance uncertainty, individualism and cultural distance (proximity of one to others).
   From a historical perspective, the three or four countries in question have crossed paths in the last hundred years; with interesting fallout. Spoken of earlier, Japan had invaded Korea; the US later opposed the Axis powers (including Japan), “freeing" Korea. Nearing a century on, most hard feelings have faded away. The oppressed Koreans harbor the longest memory, remaining tentative with Japan. There is not the sense that Japan harbors similar animus toward the US, having been the only ever target of an atomic weapon. This may be in part due to the Marshall plan.
   To begin a passage about the Koreas, or either Korea, it serves to go into their history to when they were last as a whole. The Yi dynasty began at the end of the 14th century; lasting approximately 500 years until the formal annexation by Japan in 1910 (Japanese occupation had actually begun 15 years earlier in the course of the Sino Japanese war). In one of the more bizarre turns of historical events, the Allied powers relieved Korea of its Japanese occupation. In 1945 at Yalta President Roosevelt and Premier Stalin began to address what became the Potsdam conference agreement; Japan would surrender to the Soviets in the north, to the US in the South. Stalin's postwar goals, by default, seemed to be the annexation of as much as possible; certainly Korea, (as its position was seen by Stalin) as strategic. There was a three-year nonviolent effort made to leech into the South. That having failed, a former guerrilla from the Japanese occupation days, Kim Il Sung, with the support of the Soviets, took control in the north and in 1950 invaded the South. Although the war never ended, three years later there was truce signed.
   The Communist experiment was full on since, with China taking an active role in the north from early on. Which brings us current.