Charles R. Jenkins, Rice Salesman
Charles Robert Jenkins, the American soldier who nearly 40 years in North Korea after defecting from his Army unit in 1965, is back in the news. His latest news appearance is not about working at a gift shop or talking about his hate for North Korean dog meat, but rather his love for Niigata Prefecture’s rice. Mainichi has the story:
The 67-year-old Jenkins, who served a month in jail after arriving in Japan from North Korea in 2004, promoted rice from Japan’s Sado island, said Sado city spokesman Takashi Nakahara.
Sado, where Jenkins has been living for three years, is trying to promote local products ahead of the release of rare ibises next autumn from a conservation center on the island.
“When you use chemical fertilizers, you can’t get good rice and ibises can’t live,” Jenkins told Japan’s Kyodo News agency. “I want to spend my whole life on Sado where I can eat tasty rice.”
Advertising is not new to Jenkins. While he was held in North Korea for 39 years, he played devilish Americans in anti-U.S. propaganda films for the communist regime in Pyongyang.
Keigo Honma, who accompanied Jenkins as his interpreter on the promotion tour, said Jenkins was an effective ad man.
“People have been coming up to him to shake his hand and have their picture taken with him,” Honma said.
Here are a couple videos of Jenkins selling rice and shaking hands (the second video also mentions the Black Lab Jenkins and his wife recently received as a gift from friends):
| Related Posts: |
|
Charles Jenkins: hard at work selling souvenirs (Video) Charles Robert Jenkins Pictures |
Full RSS Feed
So what slogan does Jenkins use when he sells the rice?
“Eat Niigata’s rice. If it’s good enough for a coward and a deserter, it’s good enough for you”
Give the guy a break. He joined the Marines when he was just a kid, then thought better about getting involved in the Vietnam meatgrinder. All those years in North Korea are “punishment” enough for whatever crime he is supposed to have committed. Besides, refusing to fight in an unjust war is one of the bravest acts a man can do.
Well, that’s true, it does take courage to stand up against an unjust war… however, running to North Korea isn’t the way to “refuse to fight”, it’s running away.
The US offered “Conscience Objectors” (people who were in the service who didn’t agree with the war – or those who fled to Canada) positions such as logistics, supply management and other positions that were not involved in the war, these options are still available now for those involved with Iraq.
There are two sides to every story. I don’t think he’s a coward, he did go to North Korea. But also, I don’t think it was the right thing to do, perhaps he’ll even agree with that.
Conscientious objector status was not easy to get; one pretty much required documented, long-standing membership in a pacifist church (such as the Quakers or Mennonites); assignment to non-combat categories within the military because of one’s beliefs was probably awarded capriciously and those assigned were at best treated like outcasts, and probably much worse. From everything I’ve heard about Jenkins, he was a foolish kid (he signed up younger than the age limit–at fifteen, I think) who joined the military without really thinking about what it really meant, then panicked (after drinking a lot, I read) at the prospect of going to Vietnam and sprinted for North Korea. How many teenagers really have the maturity to make life-and-death decisions like those required in combat, anyway? How trustworthy are the old men who send those kids in?