Anti-Japanese sentiment
[a]
in
Korean
society has its roots in
historic
,
cultural
, and
nationalistic
sentiments.
The first recorded anti-Japanese attitudes in Korea were effects of the
Japanese pirate raids
and the later
1592?98 Japanese invasions of Korea
.
[1]
Sentiments in contemporary society are largely attributed to the
Japanese rule in Korea
from 1910 to 1945. A survey in 2005 found that 89% of those South Koreans polled said that they "cannot trust Japan."
[2]
More recently, according to a BBC World Service Poll conducted in 2013, 67% of
South Koreans
view Japan's influence negatively, and 21% express a positive view. This puts South Korea behind mainland China as the country with the second most negative feelings of Japan in the world.
[3]
Historical origins
[
edit
]
Japanese invasions of Korea
[
edit
]
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(
January 2011
)
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During this time, the invading Japanese dismembered more than 20,000 noses and ears from Koreans and brought them back to Japan to create
nose tombs
as
war trophies
.
[4]
[5]
[6]
In addition after the war,
Korean artisans
including
potters
were kidnapped by
Hideyoshi
's order to cultivate Japan's arts and culture. The abducted Korean potters played important roles to be a major factor in establishing new types of pottery such as
Satsuma
,
Arita
, and
Hagi ware
.
[7]
[8]
[9]
This would soon cause tension between the two countries; leaving the Koreans feeling that a part of their culture was stolen by Japan during this time.
[
citation needed
]
Effect of Japanese rule in Korea
[
edit
]
Korea was ruled by the
Japanese Empire
from 1910 to 1945. Japan's involvement began with the 1876
Treaty of Ganghwa
during the
Joseon Dynasty
of Korea and increased over the following decades with the
Gapsin Coup
(1882), the
First Sino-Japanese War
(1894?95), the assassination of
Empress Myeongseong
at the hands of Japanese agents in 1895,
[10]
the establishment of the
Korean Empire
(1897), the
Russo-Japanese War
(1904?05), the
Taft?Katsura Agreement
(1905), culminating with the 1905
Eulsa Treaty
, removing Korean autonomous diplomatic rights, and the 1910
Annexation Treaty
(both of which were eventually declared null and void by the
Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea
in 1965).
Japan's cultural assimilation policies
[
edit
]
The Japanese annexation of Korea has been mentioned as the
case in point
of "
cultural genocide
" by Yuji Ishida, an expert on genocide studies at the
University of Tokyo
.
[11]
The Japanese government put into practice the suppression of Korean culture and language in an "attempt to root out all elements of Korean culture from society."
[11]
"Focus was heavily and intentionally placed upon the psychological and cultural element in Japan's colonial policy, and the unification strategies adopted in the fields of culture and education were designed to eradicate the individual ethnicity of the Korean race."
[11]
"One of the most striking features of Japan's occupation of Korea is the absence of an awareness of Korea as a 'colony', and the absence of an awareness of Koreans as a 'separate ethnicity'. As a result, it is difficult to prove whether or not the leaders of Japan aimed for the eradication of the Korean race."
[11]
After the annexation of Korea, Japan enforced a
cultural assimilation
policy. The Korean language was removed from required school subjects in Korea in 1936.
[12]
Japan imposed the
family name
system along with
civil law
(
S?shi-kaimei
) and attendance at
Shinto
shrines. Koreans were formally forbidden to write or speak the Korean language in schools, businesses, or public places.
[13]
However, many Korean language movies were screened in the Korean peninsula. In addition, Koreans were angry over Japanese alteration and destruction of various Korean monuments including
Gyeongbok Palace
(景福宮, Gyeongbokgung) and the revision of documents that portrayed the Japanese in a negative light.
Independence movement
[
edit
]
On March 1, 1919, anti-Japanese rule protests were held all across the country to demand independence. About 2 million Koreans actively participated in what is now known as the
March 1st Movement
. A Declaration of Independence,
[14]
[15]
patterned after the
American version
, was read by teachers and civic leaders in tens of thousands of villages throughout Korea: "Today marks the declaration of Korean independence. There will be peaceful demonstrations all over Korea. If our meetings are orderly and peaceful, we shall receive the help of President Wilson and the great powers at Versailles, and Korea will be a free nation."
[16]
Japan repressed the independence movement through military power. In one well attested incident, villagers were herded into the local church which was then set on fire.
[17]
The official Japanese count of casualties include 553 killed, 1,409 injured, and 12,522 arrested, but the Korean estimates are much higher: over 7,500 killed, about 15,000 injured, and 45,000 arrested.
[18]
Comfort women
[
edit
]
Many Korean women were kidnapped and coerced by the Japanese authorities into military sex slavery, euphemistically called "
comfort women
" (慰安婦, wianbu).
[19]
[20]
Some Japanese historians, such as
Yoshiaki Yoshimi
, using the diaries and testimonies of military officials as well as official documents from Japan and archives of the
Tokyo tribunal
, have argued that the
Imperial Japanese military
was either directly or indirectly involved in coercing, deceiving, luring, and sometimes kidnapping young women throughout Japan's
Asian colonies and occupied territories
.
[
citation needed
]
[21]
In the case of recruiting Japanese comfort women(日本軍慰安所 從業部 等 募集에 關한건) (1938.3.4), the Ministry of Army records that the method of recruiting military "Japanese Military Sexual Slavery" in Japan was "similar to kidnapping" and was often misunderstood by the police as kidnappers.
[22]
Contemporary issues
[
edit
]
According to
Robert E. Kelly
, a professor at
Pusan National University
, anti-Japanese racism in South Korea stems not just from Imperial Japanese atrocities during the colonial era, but from the Korean Peninsula's division.
[23]
As most Koreans, north and south are racial nationalists, most South Koreans feel a kinship and racial solidarity with North Korea as a result.
[23]
Due to this perceived racial kinship, it is considered bad form for a South Korean to hate North Korea, to run the risk of being called a race traitor.
[23]
As a result, Kelly says, South Koreans take out the anger rising from Korean division against Japan.
[23]
This view is supported by another professor,
Brian Reynolds Myers
of
Dongseo University
.
[24]
[25]
Japanese textbook revisionism
[
edit
]
Anti-Japanese sentiment is also due to various
Japanese textbook controversies
. On June 26, 1982, the textbook screening process in Japan came under scrutiny when the media of Japan and its neighboring countries gave extensive coverage to changes required by the
Minister of Education
. Experts from the ministry sought to soften textbook references to Japanese aggression before and during World War II. The Japanese invasion of China in 1937, for example, was modified to "advance". Passages describing the fall of Nanjing justified the Japanese atrocities by describing the acts as a result of Chinese provocations. Pressure from China successfully led the Ministry of Education to adopt a new authorization criterion - the "Neighboring Country Clause" (近隣諸??項) - stating: "textbooks ought to show understanding and seek international harmony in their treatment of modern and contemporary historical events involving neighboring Asian countries."
[26]
In 2006, Japanese textbooks stated that the
Liancourt Rocks
is Japanese territory. This island is
disputed territory
claimed by both Japan and South Korea. The head of the
South Korean Ministry of Education
,
Kim Shin-il
, sent a letter of protest to
Bunmei Ibuki
, the Minister of Education, on May 9, 2007.
[27]
In a speech marking the 88th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement, South Korean President
Roh Moo-hyun
called for Japan to correct their school textbooks on controversial topics ranging from "inhumane rape of
comfort women
" to "the Korean ownership of the
Liancourt Rocks
".
[28]
Effects of sentiments
[
edit
]
Society
[
edit
]
A 2000
CNN
ASIANOW article described popularity of Japanese culture among younger South Koreans as "unsettling" for older South Koreans who remember the occupation by the Japanese.
[29]
In South Korea,
collaborators
to the
Japanese occupation government
, called
chinilpa
(親日派), are generally recognized as national traitors. The
South Korean National Assembly
passed the
special law to redeem pro-Japanese collaborators' property
on December 8, 2005, and the law was enacted on December 29, 2005. In 2006, the National Assembly of South Korea formed a Committee for the Inspection of Property of Japan Collaborators. The aim was to reclaim property inappropriately gained by cooperation with the Japanese government during colonialization. The project was expected to satisfy Koreans' demands that property acquired by collaborators under the Japanese colonial authorities be returned.
[30]
Under such conditions, one who has pro-Japanese sentiment seems to try to hide it.
[
citation needed
]
According to an anonymous survey done by the
BBC
in March 2010, 64% of South Koreans are actually supportive of Japan.
[31]
While some South Koreans expressed hope that former Japanese Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama
would handle Japanese-South Korean relations in a more agreeable fashion than previous conservative administrations, a small group of protesters in Seoul held an anti-Japanese rally on October 8, 2009, prior to his arrival. The protests called for Japanese apologies for World War II incidents and included destruction of a Japanese flag.
[32]
The former
United States
ambassador to South Korea
,
Harry B. Harris Jr.
, who is
of Japanese descent
, has been criticized in the South Korean media for having a
moustache
, which his detractors say resembles those of the several leaders of the Empire of Japan. A
CNN
article written by Joshua Berlinger suggested that given Harris's ancestry, the criticism of his mustache may be due to
racism
.
[33]
In August 2019, Seoul, the capital of South Korea, had planned to install more than 1,000 anti-Japan banners across the city in a move to support the country's ongoing
boycott against Japanese products
. The banners featured the word “NO,” in Korean, with the red circle of the Japanese flag representing the “O”. The banners also contained the phrases “I won’t go to Japan” and “I won’t buy Japanese products.” However, after 50 banners were installed, the city had to reverse course and apologize amid public criticism that the campaign would further strain the relationship between South Korea and Japan.
[34]
[35]
National relations
[
edit
]
Yasuhiro Nakasone
discontinued visits to
Yasukuni Shrine
due to the People's Republic of China's requests in 1986. However, former Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi
resumed visits to Yasukuni Shrine on August 13, 2001. He visited the shrine six times as Prime Minister, stating that he was "paying homage to the servicemen who died for defense of Japan."
[36]
These visits drew strong condemnation and protests from Japan's neighbors, mainly China.
[37]
As a result, China and South Korea refused to meet with Koizumi, and there were no mutual visits between Chinese and Japanese leaders after October 2001 and between South Korean and Japanese leaders after June 2005. Former
President of South Korea
Roh Moo-hyun
suspended all summit talks between South Korea and Japan.
[38]
Education
[
edit
]
A large number of anti-Japanese images made by school children from Gyeyang Middle School, many of which depicting acts of violence against Japan, were displayed in
Gyulhyeon station
as part of a school art project. A number of the drawings depict the Japanese flag being burned, bombed, and stepped on, in others the Japanese islands are getting bombed and destroyed by a volcano from Korea. One depicts the Japanese anime/manga character
Sailor Moon
holding up the South Korean flag with a quote bubble saying roughly "Dokdo is Korean land"
[39]
[40]
[41]
According to a survey conducted by Korean Immigrant Workers Human Rights Center in 2006, 34.1% of the primary school students in the
Incheon
region answered that "Japanese should be expelled from Korea". This rate was considerably higher compared to answers to the same question regarding
Chinese
(8.7%),
Black African
(8.7%),
East Asian
(5.0%),
Black American
(4.3%), and
White American
(2.3%) immigrants.
[42]
[43]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
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1596 Toyotomi Hideyoshi invades Korea for the second time. In addition to brutal killing and widespread destruction, large numbers of Korean craftsmen are abducted and transported to Japan. Skillful Korean potters play a crucial role in establishing such new pottery types as Satsuma, Arita, and Hagi ware in Japan. The invasion ends with the sudden death of Hideyoshi.
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an adjutant to the Japanese Army (1938),
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a
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, Positive vs. Negative views regarding the influence of various countries.
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"
'NO JAPAN' 배너 半나절 만에 撤去…"不買運動 精神 毁損"
"
.
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(in Korean)
. Retrieved
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.
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(in Japanese)
"小泉?理インタビュ? 平成18年8月15日"
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(Official interview of Koizumi Junichiro on August 15, 2006), Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet, August 15, 2006.
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Don Kirk,
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, August 14, 2001.
- ^
and
(in Korean)
"노무현 大統領, “고이즈미 日本總理가 神社參拜 中斷하지 않으면 頂上會談도 없을 것” (英文記事 添附)"
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,
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"Children's drawings in the subway!, How cute"
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"More children's drawings displayed in the subway., The second time is just like the first"
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(in Korean)
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James Card
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,
Asia Times
, Dec 23, 2005, "
The most disturbing images of the year were drawings on exhibit at Gyulhyeon Station on the Incheon subway line...
"
- ^
(in Korean)
初等生에 外國人 選好度 물으니…美·中·동남아·日 順
[
permanent dead link
]
, The Kukmin Daily, 2006.12.13.
- ^
(in Korean)
仁川地域 初等學生의 外國人 認識實態 및 多文化人權敎育 워크샵開催
[
permanent dead link
]
, Korean Immigrant Workers Human Rights Center, 2006-12-12.
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Types of racism
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Manifestations
of racism
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Racism by region
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Racism by target
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Related topics
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