SOUTH KOREA: Fingers of Fate

In Seoul last week, 15 men from the city of Chonan, all members of the "Anti-Japanese Anti-Communist Suicide Corps," knelt before the gates of the Japanese embassy. As hundreds of demonstrators watched in horrified fascination, the men one by one raised carving knives and hacked off the little fingers of their left hands as a grisly sign of their anger against Japan. Wrapped in a blood-soaked flag, the severed pinkies were intended for the Japanese ambassador for transmission to Premier Kakuei Tanaka in Tokyo. Before delivery could be made, however, police rounded up the bloodied men and shipped them off...