From a reader:

Dear Jonah,
I write as a white dude who is studying Korean Studies at [A famous British University].
Dear Jonah, I write as a white dude who is studying Korean Studies at [A famous British University]. To put it bluntly, the South Koreans love to bash Japan for the 1910-1945 colonial period, while modern Japanese are vaguely aware of Korea’s existence. Its like, as you once put it, the rivalry between Cornell University and Ithaca College. Yes, the Japanese did nasty things that should not be forgotten, and yes the Japanese are not sufficiently penitent, but this is 2005, not 1945, and you and Krauthammer are 100% right about China. The Japanese Empire is not coming back, but in the real world China is the #1 nuclear proliferator. Maybe if Japan had the bomb it would make the Chinese think twice about handing out nuclear technology to evil countries as if it were Halloween candy. And, for the record, the Chinese ARE expansionist (Tibet, Xinjiang, bits of Mongolia) and they have recently declared that the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryeo, which today is roughly all of North Korea, was actually Chinese. Total lies of course, but this is what China said before it occupied Tibet. The fear is that if North Korea starts to collapse, China will move in and “reconquer” its “ancestral homelands.” Would that be “fairly decent” of the Chinese? I am a longtime fan, keep up the good work. Please withold my name, if you post any of this, I dont want a blacklisting in the academic community.