NHK apologizes over tweets said to fan discrimination against Koreans

NHK is a laughingstock. And yet they keep asking me for money.

NHK is a laughingstock. And yet they keep asking me for money.

Can't believe they're still doing that, One guy put his foot in my door to prevent me from closing it.

Good on the Koreans and the few Japanese who won't let the right-wing Japanese revisionists get away with their lies!

I stopped watching NHK news. Under Abe it has turned into zingoistic media brainwashing the Japanese public. Every news story is concluded with their moral comment on it. Domestic covid news is covered over with foreign covid news.

The Japanese need to own their historical sins fully and without obfuscation. Unless they do so, their relations will always be hampered and they won't reach their full potential. They will also be held accountable by a higher power than any on earth.

I wonder if "Shun" was aware that those Koreans were likely used as slave labour and that is why they were celebrating the end of the war in that manner? (if that story is even true at all). The problem with children's viewpoints is that they can be somewhat simplistic and they don't always see the reasoning behind certain actions.

 "We are citizens of a victor country! Get out, (people of) the defeated country!"

Always the victim.

Did't I read about NHK apologizing once before??

This is not the first and it wont be the last.

Island Nations tend to be self centered.

No one hates anyone,but of course there is still grief in the neighborhood countries due to Japanese attitude to avoid taking responsibility of their despicable actions during the war.

Many people always mentions Germany and rightfully so,but also Italy followed the same path and actually it’s constitution is based on anti-fascism.

NHK sadly is not new about such kind of performances.

It is probably unrealistic but I hope that Mr.Edano and the opposition can have a real chance in the future but realistically it won’t happen because the extreme right wing cronies brainwashed the population pretty well to the point to make them apathetic of any political event.

In tweets hypothetically posted on Aug 20, 1945, or five days after Japan's surrender, Shun, while traveling to Saitama from Hiroshima by train, wrote about how a crowd of Koreans forced their way onto a packed train in Osaka by smashing windows and shouting, "We are citizens of a victor country! Get out, (people of) the defeated country!"

Is there any testimony from the time about Koreans smashing train windows and acting in this way? If not, that's a very nasty image to invent.

In tweets hypothetically posted on Aug 20, 1945, or five days after Japan's surrender, Shun, while traveling to Saitama from Hiroshima by train, wrote about how a crowd of Koreans forced their way onto a packed train in Osaka by smashing windows and shouting, "We are citizens of a victor country! Get out, (people of) the defeated country!"

Likely an urban myth. Japanese discrimination against Koreans is well documented.

NHK is purportedly a news service and not a purveyor of fiction.For that reason, I give them a thumbs down for their careless action here...

kohakuebisuToday 08:44 pm JST

In tweets hypothetically posted on Aug 20, 1945, or five days after Japan's surrender, Shun, while traveling to Saitama from Hiroshima by train, wrote about how a crowd of Koreans forced their way onto a packed train in Osaka by smashing windows and shouting, "We are citizens of a victor country! Get out, (people of) the defeated country!"

Is there any testimony from the time about Koreans smashing train windows and acting in this way? If not, that's a very nasty image to invent.

My first thoughts exactly. Did this really happen, or did NHK just make it up? if the latter then it's disturbing indeed.

Ego Sum Lux MundiToday 05:22 pm JST

They will also be held accountable by a higher power than any on earth.

Jurgen Klopp?

In any case, Japanese in 1945 would have been severely brainwashed, to at the worst, hate foreigners and at the very least, to be suspicious of them.

Even if there xenophobia, that would be understandable.

However, In present day Japan, there are those at NHK that are still suffering from the effects of this brainwashing,unfortunately...

While the actual events probably didn’t happen as they are described in the tweets.

Well, if they didn't then NHK is fabricating news. Why would NHK do that?

the emotions and state of mind of the schoolboy experiencing Japan at the end of the war are probably pretty accurate.

Fair enough. Then why not depict them in some other way than by a mob of screaming Koreans? Unless of course NHK wanted to provoke an anti-Korean response in its viewers.

Link below is to a screenshot of one of the offending tweets, supposed to have occurred on 16 June 1945. Something about Koreans bragging that Japan would lose the war, and Shun's feelings in reaction.

https://twitter.com/eun_gong/status/1296787138189484038/photo/1

"The article says clearly, The tweets were based on diaries kept by a 13-year-old boy, a housewife and a newspaper reporter in Hiroshima 75 years ago. There’s your testimony from the time."

Definitely NOT a good enough excuse or rationalisation for what happened here. The diary entries upon which these tweets were supposedly based should have been made public by NHK, of course with the consent of the writers of those entries or their descendants in case the writers are deceased. No consent, no fake tweets supposedly based on them getting uploaded the way they were.

Just because there's 'testimony' from the time, does not mean that A) the testimony is true, or that B) editorializing won't insert errors, fantasies, and outright falsehoods in the sake of a desired narrative.

Yeah it seems more like some right-wing historical fiction fantasy where the closet nationalists at NHK got a wee bit too comfortable and said the quiet parts out loud.

Although judging from some of the most popular Tweets and the quantity of Twitter replies from ordinary Japanese people (even those not afraid to show their real faces in their profile pics) who seem to think they did nothing wrong, "quiet parts" might be a bit too generous to describe a pervasive societal sentiment that almost certainly enjoys sympathy among a majority of the population.

On a related note, it's kind of disheartening that Japanese left-wingers and liberals are comparatively silent on social media and not given the same level of support, when their voices are needed the most to push back against these racist narratives.

Is there any testimony from the time about Koreans smashing train windows and acting in this way? If not, that's a very nasty image to invent.

My first thoughts exactly. Did this really happen, or did NHK just make it up? if the latter then it's disturbing indeed.

If public broadcaster made this up, that’s absolutely disgusting. If they related this story without testimony, that isn’t much better.

This is very grubby business all round.

the imagination to see what will happen in current Japanese society where discrimination is rampant if such posts are made."

and even when they’re not!

Most countries in today's world had either been invaders or Colonies. So much injustice have happened. All because the stronger bullied the weaker. Past is past. Learn the lesson and move forward. As it is important for all of us to know and understand the history so that we hope it will not be repeated again. Today's citizens should learn to understand or acknowledge the past, accept it as it was and move forward with mutual respect so that the future can be bright. It is not right to stereotype different races and discriminate them or blame the today's generations for what happened in the past.

About the diary entries upon which these tweets are supposedly based: "Diary entries by Shunichiro Arai, whose writing forms the basis for Shun's tweets, are being published on the Hiroshima Timeline official website, but there is no mention of 'Korean people' in the original text." Full story can be read at https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200824/p2a/00m/0na/021000c

There you have it. NHK uploaded a bunch of embellished tweets that made Koreans in Japan at the time look arrogant and threatening. Question is, who added the fake text and who signed off on uploading a bunch of fake tweets?

> cleoAug. 25  11:15 pm JST

Is there any testimony from the time about Koreans smashing train windows and acting in this way? If not, that's a very nasty image to invent.

The article says clearly, The tweets were based on diaries kept by a 13-year-old boy, a housewife and a newspaper reporter in Hiroshima 75 years ago. There’s your testimony from the time.

Yes, the article says clearly 'based on,' which does not mean a copy of the texts. The tweets are a mish-mash editorialized version of ideas presented in them, combined with the Tweet writer's own ideas. That does not mean that the events in the texts actually occurred.

The movie 'Braveheart' has William Wallace impregnating a French princess, and starting an affair with her after the Battle of Falkirk. The movie is 'based on' the life story of William Wallace. Yet the princess in question was roughly 3 years old and in France when the Battle of Falkirk happened, and the son that she implies is Wallace's was in fact born 7 years after Wallace's capture and death.

'Gladiator' uses elements from the real-life history of the Emperor Commodus to create a movie. Yet Commodus certainly was not killed in the Colloseum, nor was he killed by a wronged Spanish general mere months after he took over from his father. In fact, Commodus had been co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius for 5 years prior to Marcus' death, and ruled solo as emperor for 10 years afterwards.

Just because there's 'testimony' from the time, does not mean that A) the testimony is true, or that B) editorializing won't insert errors, fantasies, and outright falsehoods in the sake of a desired narrative.

War! Good God y'all, tell me what is it good for? Absolutely nothing - say it again.

First I want to know is is there any historical validity to the episode of the train window smashing and the chants of "We are citizens of a victor country"?

If there is then there are but two points. 1) Does NHK also equally or fairly present negative incidents of Japanese during that period? and 2) Is everyone mature enough to handle a historically based work of fiction?

I am afraid the answer to both question is no and sadly, that tars both sides. That said though, the ball is in NHK's court. Until it fairly or equally presents the reality of both sides, it deserves to be called out for pushing only the negative reality of the non-Japanese side.

> cleoToday  06:42 am JST

I don’t remember any great outcry, wringing of hands or vilification of filmmakers over the historical inaccuracies in those films, just a few chuckles at the ‘artistic license’ taken by the filmmakers.

No outrage over the implication that French princesses

Because those movies come right out and say they're fictionalized, and don't try to present themselves as 'history projects' for students to learn from?

I mean, if we're going by NHK standards, then I have period evidence that a young man from Brooklyn named Steve Rogers became Captain America and personally took on the Nazis, punched out Tojo, and did it all while carrying nothing but a round metal shield. That's a history project as well, right?

This is simply a hypothetical situation, NOT reality. There was no need for NHK to apologize to anyone.

No read it again well. On the contrary the story was just conveyed from the true experience. It WAS reality. But in that sense again no need of apology cuz the truth is the truth. It's totally different from the case of the black matters, in which NHK spoiled themselves with their childish creation.

Nevertheless how damn fool japanese yong people are. They can't understand the war without the fictionalized story with Twitter????

Lol, South Korea worried about another country fanning discrimination. When you thought you've heard it all...

I’ve spent quite a lot of time in China, a very long time in Japan, and I’ve had a few coworkers who’ve spent time in Korea.

We all agree on just how similar they are regarding what you posted. The idea of the narcissism of small differences is so true.

I think the most important thing for people, especially children, in 2020 to know about 13 year olds in 1945 what kind of upbringing they will have had. Schools at the time would have been little military academies with bayonet practice and kids being programmed that dying for the Emperor was the ultimate honour. Any parents who complained would be visited by the secret police (kempeitai) or their neighbourhood association (tonarigumi) and disappeared if necessary. Learning about this is much more important than imagining how nasty Koreans must have gloated when it was over.

You can see Japanese people from the time say the above in their own words here. I bet NHK has way more footage that Thames TV had access to in the 1970s, so there is even less need for them to invent or embellish.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x69c3v6

Looks like dinosaurs aren't extinct after all, they're holed up in NHK.

I wish there'd be enough people out there who would stop paying NHK TVRF to send them a message that they're a national broadcaster with 'responsibilities'.

NHK is a racist organization.

Island Nations tend to be self centered.

Fog in the Sea of Japan: Eurasia cut off.

All because the stronger bullied the weaker. Past is past. Learn the lesson and move forward. 

The angels of our better nature, especially after major conflagrations, always counsel against repeating the same mistakes that resulted in calamity. Before the dust has even settled, the same instinctual and history honed drive to accrete ever more wealth and power once again takes over. Twas ever thus that while societies would never willingly accede to being the bullied subordinate, they have much less hesitation when it comes to exercising the prerogatives of dominance.

That works both ways.

That's pretty much what I said. Neither side is willing to look at the truth, which is their own ugly histories, but its the Japanese denials and crimes that are the most outrageous. So long as Japanese refuse to accept that Imperial Japan was responsible for starting the horror and responsible for most of the horror, Koreans are not going to hear a single word about the ills of their own people. Its like me minding my own business and you come over and kick me in the head. We start fighting, and I lose, go home angry and slap one of my kids for nothing. Next day, you kill my kid for nothing. 30 years later you are dead, but your whole family say its too bad my kid died, but you know life sucks. Besides, I hit my own kid that one time anyway so I am bad too. If you have zero sense of magnitude, then it might make perfect sense. It seems Japanese do have zero sense of magnitude. Few outside of Japan are giving them a drop of credence for it. Would you honestly expect different?

NHK’s refreshingly candid admission that it could have done a better job of trigger warning the easily triggered doesn’t appear to sit well with those who like their history sanitized to the nth.

I don’t remember any great outcry, wringing of hands or vilification of filmmakers over the historical inaccuracies in those films, just a few chuckles at the ‘artistic license’ taken by the filmmakers.

No outrage over the implication that French princesses

1) Then-current Japanese in cities evacuated to rural area around the end of WW2 to escape from US raid. Most of cities were burnt and the boundaries of ownership became unclear. Koreans who had no place to evacuate occupied valuable areas to build Pachinko parlor.

2) Administration systems such as police were disassembled and Koreans committed crimes such as burglary, rape, etc with calling themselves Chosen Occupation Forces. So the US ordered Japan to send them back to peninsula but some of them were hiding. Such is current Zainichi.

The Koreans were on the rampage, that's a fact.

The Yamaguchigumi, Japan's largest yakuza gang, was formed as a right-wing vigilante group to oppose them.

The existence of Yamaguchigumi itself is proof of the Korean riot.

NHK's Hiroshima broadcasting station has apologized over a series of Twitter posts it made in the name of wartime residents as part of a history project for young people following criticism that they fanned discrimination against Korean residents.

The apology over the tweets, which were based on residents' diaries, follows the public broadcaster's apology in June over a Twitter video that came under fire for presenting racist stereotypes about black people.

NHK - Naturally Hate Koreans

NHK - Naturally Hate Koloured

They should apologize for stealing regular people's money for decades is what they should really be focusing on.

Oops, hit post by mistake

No outrage over the implication that English princesses make a habit of getting it on with enemies of the state or that Roman emperors we’re somehow immune from injury, or whatever.

Just a shrug of the shoulders and a ‘Nah, didn’t happen like that’.

While the actual events probably didn’t happen as they are described in the tweets, the emotions and state of mind of the schoolboy experiencing Japan at the end of the war are probably pretty accurate.

Trying to understand how people felt then - including their false fears - is a step to understanding how something as vile as a war plays out, and hopefully helps us avoid it happening again. It surely helps avert discrimination and prejudice rather than encourage it.

I guess, had any SMS been available (alongside free speech guaranteed) during that war time, more hating and prejudiced messages could have been posted from both Japanese and ethic Koreans, from both US and Japan, from colonial powers as well as colonized. NHK's accounts appear to me yet largely reserved, insufficient and unreal in this regard.

Vanessa Carlisle

First I want to know is is there any historical validity to the episode of the train window smashing and the chants of "We are citizens of a victor country"?

That works both ways. Perhaps one should also question the validity of some of the anti-Japanese "I was there" stories that are perpetuated by the other side.

If there is then there are but two points. 1) Does NHK also equally or fairly present negative incidents of Japanese during that period? and 2) Is everyone mature enough to handle a historically based work of fiction?

Again, that works both ways. How many Korean media outlets highlighted the Korean traitors who betrayed their own countrymen to the IJA or the parents and pimps who sold their own daughters as comfort women for money? Or the women who offered themselves freely for money because it was a more lucrative business than toiling out in the fields?

How many on their side can handle the truth that not all of them were victims and some actually aided and benefited from selling out their own people to the IJA?

If it's true and historically accurate, then what's wrong with discussing it? The only reason being if you're Korean and you don't like how it portrays you. In the area I live in Japan I've also heard lots of negative stories about Korean behavior at the end of WWII.

Again, if it's historically factual and true, then what's wrong with discussing it?

The truth shall set you free!

It's understandable that the Korean press is more aggressive as Japan invaded Korea and other Asian nations not the other way around. Korea has never invaded Japan. What Koreans should stop is continually asking for money. Also nice to see some Hiroshima citizen groups taking umbrage about these parts in the broadcast.

Is there any testimony from the time about Koreans smashing train windows and acting in this way? If not, that's a very nasty image to invent.

The article says clearly, The tweets were based on diaries kept by a 13-year-old boy, a housewife and a newspaper reporter in Hiroshima 75 years ago. There’s your testimony from the time.

How sad that political correctness has infested Japan as well.

Some individuals are so eager to find any excuse to attack Japan, that they don't even realize the irony of their behavior. In this particular instance, NHK did absolutely nothing wrong in showing that Japanese citizens held anti-Korean sentiments during those time periods. You would think the anti-Japan crowd would actually embrace this line of thought, to expose Japan's 'racism.'

Silly all around.

"I’ve spent quite a lot of time in China, a very long time in Japan,"

I've heard that salt is an effective way to kills leeches and migratory, invasive pests.

So despite of the recent typical downvoting when it comes to point out wrong Korean POVs, what we have here is a simple experience of a Japanese at that time. It's written down, that's fact, in a diary and all NHK did was to put it into a modern tweet. What could be more wrong to accuse NHK of racism here!? Because some Koreans didn't like to read about their behavior (again), although all that happened was citing a diary from that time and it was even marked as such. Same goes for pointing out uncomfortable events in the Korean history like some commentators did here.

And yet, South Korean television stations show zero concern for perpetuating anti-Japanese sentiments. Go figure.

Lol, South Korea worried about another country fanning discrimination. When you thought you've heard it all...

Koreans want to avoid talking about this part of history. How dare you talk about Koreans in a negative way.

We only focus on Japan bashing. It's the only part of history we want you to focus on.

In a statement it posted on its website, it said it "did not pay full consideration to the possible reaction by a modern-day audience" to posts about what a 13-year-old saw and heard during the war and its aftermath.

Perhaps this should read: it "did not pay full consideration to the guaranteed reaction by a modern-day Korean audience" to posts about what a 13-year-old saw and heard during the war and its aftermath.

We shouldn't be too judgmental on historic events in our present-day values. I agree on an extra note of explanations/disclaimers inserted into the controversial accounts (and trusting readers' literacy levels in understanding contexts between lines).

It's understandable that the Korean press is more aggressive as Japan invaded Korea and other Asian nations not the other way around. Korea has never invaded Japan. 

Why blaming always and solely Japan? In looking at its history as a whole, Korea (historic regimes in the Peninsula) had been most often invaded and controlled over centuries by its continental neighbors namely Chinese dynasties. Even after the end of Japanese rules, Korea suffered the civil war and subsequent division for which the Communist China is chiefly responsible. Yet the current SK seems still lenient even kowtowing to "master" Beijing. Overall Korea's anti-Japanese sentiment is unfair, inconsistent, and unreasonable.

Telling the truth is not racism. After the war, there were some Koreans who did very bad things in the US occupied Japan.

the tweets could be used to justify discrimination against Koreans.

Only in the minds of those who think anything that happened three-quarters of a century ago in any way reflects the mindset of people today.

Nothing justifies discrimination.

inadvertently contained the message that it is OK to reject Korean residents of Japan because some of them committed violence in the past

No such message unless, again, the thought is already there. Most current Korean residents of Japan weren't even alive at the time and could not have committed any acts, violent or otherwise.

they were meant to convey the situation at the time 

Which they did.

There was no need for NHK to apologise.

Invalid CSRF

This is simply a hypothetical situation, NOT reality. There was no need for NHK to apologize to anyone.

"completely lacked awareness about the violent nature of the tweets, and the imagination to see what will happen in current Japanese society where discrimination is rampant if such posts are made."

Nothing violent would possibly happen, this compainant is imagining things. Japan is more tolerant toward minorities than just about anywhere, especially Korea and Communist China, countries where ethnic minorities are openly disrespected.