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Anti-Japan rally

37 Comments

South Korean university students wearing masks of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe march during a rally marking the March First Independence Movement Day, the anniversary of the 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule, in Seoul, South Korea, on Sunday.

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So, you think Korea were the aggressors in... ummm... their colonization and the rape and murder of many citizens? Interesting.

The Japanese administration in Korea has done more to advance the interests of Korea than any other government has done to advance the interests of any country in the world. And if Korea were a self-governing country instead of a Japanese colonial dependency, be hailed throughout the Western world as an astounding example of national progress.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

So those that side with Japan are right wingers, and those that side with Korea are 100% correct. Are you sure you're not blinded by your k-wife?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

DaDude: "Most of us are on Japan's side living here but I wonder what ex-pats living in Korea think about Japan...."

You're wrong. Most expats in Japan will admit that Japan has some serious atoning to do, and will point to Germany as an example of a nation who has atoned for its past and enjoyos friendly and prosperous relationships with its neighbors, who were former enemies. I've met VERY few who side with Japan, in Japan or otherwise, and they are usually for some reason people who just wish they were 100% Japanese and share the right-wing sentiment here.

As for expats in Korea, I can say that everyone I know sides with South Korea 100% on this issue, and rightly so. Why would they not, when South Korea is correct? Of those people, it should be noted, many also admit that the protests can be over the top, and that the textbooks there are also white-washed as they are here.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Most of us are on Japan's side living here but I wonder what ex-pats living in Korea think about Japan....

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@smithinjapan

No, he was met with the majority being against him RESCINDING the apology, so he stopped (not 'refused', as you call it). And now he is making his own little REVISED apology, or what is it you think he is doing, exactly, hokkaidoguy?

What are you on about now, smith?

What apology, specifically, has Abe set about revising? You do know what "revising" means, don't you?

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hokkaidoguy: "Why is it that despite clearly knowing that Abe refuses to change the official Japanese Apology, you have spent the last year accusing him of continuously planning to change it?"

'REFUSES' to change it, eh? No, he was met with the majority being against him RESCINDING the apology, so he stopped (not 'refused', as you call it). And now he is making his own little REVISED apology, or what is it you think he is doing, exactly, hokkaidoguy? This is kind of akin to you saying Abe is "refusing to change history" or "leaving history alone" when cutting things out of the history books (ie. references to sex slaves).

Reformedbasher: "I could answer on his behalf but my reply might get removed due to it's offensive, yet honest, nature."

"honest"! haha... I like that you have to try and qualify your own comments. They clearly must be honest, then.

CGB Spender: "In South Korea playing the victim card is part of the education it seems."

So, you think Korea were the aggressors in... ummm... their colonization and the rape and murder of many citizens? Interesting.

-3 ( +2 / -6 )

Yawn... another week another protest.

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Readers, please stay on topic. Comparing atrocities between the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese Army is not relevant to this particular discussion.

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The most important message I am trying to covey is that JAPAN NEEDS TO FULLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRUTH and not try to get away with as much as they can. That is what the victims, their families and fellow countrymen want most of all! Denial & trying to raise doubts of such sheer horror despite much evidence is the way of the cowards & the way of the psychopaths. That is the reason why this has not been not laid to rest. It is long overdue that you don't deprive your future generation of your wartime past in order for them to learn from the mistakes and for history not to repeat itself!

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

In South Korea playing the victim card is part of the education it seems.

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Um, Mongols come to mind off the top of my head. So too the British Empire...

The Mongol empire, certainly. The British empire has its bad points but at no time did it institute a system of sexual slavery like Japan did. At no time did it work POWS to death building railways in the jungle. Japan's inability to come to terms honestly with what it did meant that rallies like this are continuing. On the other hand Germany has atoned - thus France, Belgium, Holland, Poland etc are free of anti-German demonstrations. This is the lesson that Japan needs to learn

-3 ( +2 / -6 )

@Rainrain

No war in history (not even the Germans) has surpassed the evil committed by the Japanese imperial army.

Um, Mongols come to mind off the top of my head. So too the British Empire...

I could write a list, but how about you actually study History instead?

Might make your "arguments" more convincing to anyone over the age of 12.

Zenny, you beat me to it. Unfortunately what you write is true. Some of the worst atrocities have never been heard of by the general public.

@hokkaidoguy

Why is it that despite clearly knowing that Abe refuses to change the official Japanese Apology, you have spent the last year accusing him of continuously planning to change it?

I could answer on his behalf but my reply might get removed due to it's offensive, yet honest, nature.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Maybe that is what they want, but it would be very naive to think that anti-Japanese protests and anti-Japanese propaganda would stop even if the Japanese government would do all these things.

Maybe, maybe not. But it's what all the Japan apologists and revisionists can't seem to grasp: if an unequivocal, irrevocable apology were to be given then the wind would be taken out of South Korea and China's sails. Japan's peaceful record for the last 70 years would then become an asset. Japan would in effect take the moral high ground. Until that happens these protests will continue until the end of time

-1 ( +3 / -6 )

All I could read in their poster was,

위안부는 생노에가 아니라

"ianfu are not sex slaves."

0 ( +4 / -4 )

The article says so little, yet there's a lot of Korean bashing. It's just a rally, not like the ones held by sick psychos from Japan with hate speeches.

Leave the history as is. Korean victims are not asking for money. So there's no need to be whitewashing, which will surely aggravate the victims. Learn from Germans, and learn to move on!

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

@smithinjapan:

Abe stepped away from trying to revise the Kono statement a year ago.

“With regard to the comfort women issue, I am deeply pained to think of the comfort women who experienced immeasurable pain and suffering, a feeling I share equally with my predecessors,” Abe told a parliamentary committee, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). “The Kono Statement addresses this issue… As my [Secretary Suga] stated in press conferences, the Abe cabinet has no intention to review it.”

That's from the diplomat, March 14th 2014. The japantoday story has been removed, but your comments on the story remain.

Why is it that despite clearly knowing that Abe refuses to change the official Japanese Apology, you have spent the last year accusing him of continuously planning to change it?

3 ( +6 / -3 )

The world is starting to see that South Korea will never change its tune on history, and never move on. Japan gets more sympathy from third party nations whenever this happens.

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tinawatanabe: "What do they want?"

People like you to stop denying the actual facts (not "Abe facts"), for starters. For seconds they want people like Abe to stop trying to rescind or change former apologies, which we all know will include Japanese lies about the past and try to paint Japan as a victim and not the aggressor. You say that people in the past have apologized and that is enough, but if the apologies are sincere and should not be contested by South Koreans, why the need to change them by right-wingers who admit they are nationalists and have denied atrocities in the past?

Tina, why do you think the past apologies are enough but agree with Abe changing them and then ask why Koreans are dissatisfied?

-1 ( +7 / -9 )

Isn't that clear by now? Let's see.......an official, unequivocal apology to the sex slaves from the Japanese government (they could save time by apologising to the ones from other Asian countries while they're at it) The kind of apology that can't be denied or revoked. Compensation would be nice as well (for the sex slaves. The previous treaties on forced labour that Japan signed were not covered by the 1965 treaty - and thus claims for compensation are still valid. Oh, and teaching of historical facts that are accepted by pretty much the rest of the world would be a big bonus. So in that light, keep it up South Korea

Maybe that is what they want, but it would be very naive to think that anti-Japanese protests and anti-Japanese propaganda would stop even if the Japanese government would do all these things.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

What do they want?

Isn't that clear by now? Let's see.......an official, unequivocal apology to the sex slaves from the Japanese government (they could save time by apologising to the ones from other Asian countries while they're at it) The kind of apology that can't be denied or revoked. Compensation would be nice as well (for the sex slaves. The previous treaties on forced labour that Japan signed were not covered by the 1965 treaty - and thus claims for compensation are still valid. Oh, and teaching of historical facts that are accepted by pretty much the rest of the world would be a big bonus. So in that light, keep it up South Korea

-2 ( +6 / -9 )

noypikantoku

but it worries many a lot [...] That Abe is potentially doing the same thing again

People who think that seriously think Abe is stupid or has a death wish. Japan and South Korea are both members of the UN. A war between those two will not happen.

everything Japan did was great...

Japan is a normal country with its flaws just like Korea is. Both parties are acting like stupid children right now. One is being an enormous hypocrite and a crybaby, the other is being stupid and possibly voiding the apologies of a previous government. Only time will make these differences heal. Maybe our great-grandchildren will see the day those two governments will get along.

Abe honoring war criminals in Yasukuni....

Koreans were celebrating the Vietnam War again last year, too. Vietnam had to ask them to stop. Both have dirt like that on their hands. They both got their share of war crimes. Let's leave it at that.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Giant floating Abe heads with no eyes! It's how I see the LDP! Cardboard cut out politicians!

But there is so much potential for these signs!

Tourists can stick their heads through the eye holes and get their pictures taken at various landmarks.

You can swat a really big fly with it.

Darts!

Make pizza in a wood stove oven!

When kids don't go to bed, tell them if they don't, Abe will get you!

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Korea wants everyone around the world talk about Japan, to judge on Japan. If Japan is correct, there is nothing to worry about.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Korea unmasked.

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bjohnson23

Where is your evidence showing that these protesters are asking for money? bring it on the table, or you are just assuming?

WW2 stories not on History books in Japan, claiming comfort women as not real, Abe honoring war criminals in Yasukuni....yes Japan truly admits their faults during the WAR!

It's not about the MONEY! It's admitting and reminding the future generation that what they've done before was wrong and must not be repeated again!

A Realist

, content to play the eternal victim.

Uhm I think it's the other way around....

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

@tinawatanabe

What do they want?

Better ink-jet printers and access to the grown-up scissors, by the look of it.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

re: but it worries many a lot (including the crowned Prince) That Abe is potentially doing the same thing again" it very well might worry many and the Prince, but if his descendants done the honorable thing publicly in the first place, regardless of what the shadow bosses said, then this wouldn't be happening every other year. This way it would not be an apology but simple put about money. Money of which the Korean government received and spent on themselves and did not inform the victims or their own people.

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

Furan

Yes, because it's the current PM's fault what happened in the past, right?

If this is sarcasm, Indeed it's his not his fault what happened in the pass, but it worries many a lot (including the crowned Prince) That Abe is potentially doing the same thing again...

and of course the Japanophilies above will not agree to this for simply becasue they are Japanophile and everything Japan did was great. ...

-7 ( +4 / -12 )

Halloween early in South Korea. Some things are too scary to put on masks.

1 ( +4 / -2 )

I'm sure their parents who are paying the tuition are so happy that their kid is protesting something that's been over for 70 years and that they neer experienced at all. Freakig hit the books and get a job.

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@ReformedBasher

Agreed. I'm disappointed when I think about the time and effort that gets put into this anti-Japan movement. If only they'd devote their time to something that might actually produce something positive.

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What do they want?

As a country? I'd guess more money. But maybe yet another apology that will get ignored. So.... they can get more money?

As students? Probably peer recognition.

I'll grant making those masks must have taken some effort. Very industrious.

Somehow, I admire the students in Hong Kong fighting for democracy more though.

3 ( +11 / -8 )

Poor Korea. No pride at all, content to play the eternal victim.

4 ( +13 / -8 )

Yes, because it's the current PM's fault what happened in the past, right?

0 ( +6 / -6 )

How sad life must be in South Korea if this is what you do as a university student for a political rally over something that happened almost 100 years ago. Grow up already and start living in the present. How does this rally change anything for the positive today when five seconds later you forget your moment of glory and then feel sad for yourself again about what happened few decades later?!

It seems to me that Korean cultural existence is purely based on a roller-coaster drama queen show of public displays purely for garnering points of nationalistic pride. Why not take all that wasted energy and do something about all the corruption running rampant in your country South Korea?! Oh, right, it's much too much effort to do that so on you go with your pointless whining and drama of the long ago past as if that will make anything improve today.

3 ( +12 / -8 )

What do they want?

-3 ( +6 / -8 )

Typical

1 ( +9 / -9 )

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