Korea-Japan friendship flag

I think this is lovely and I applaud Brian’s efforts. I’ve seen (and heard) a lot of hatred vented from both sides, but plenty of mutual goodwill and friendship too. I’d happily cite examples, but I’d run out of room.

Clearly he meant unification, or “tongil.” The “Japan is ours ground” came next, as you can tell since it’s out of center. Probably just typed 땅 into the dictionary, which means “land/ground/earth,” and meant to say the more natural “Japan is our land.” Not exactly an uncommon idea . . . there are some students at my schools who study Japanese, or who are interested in Japan for various reasons, but many have a hatred that’s instilled from a very early age.

The antagonism is mutural, of course, since Japan routinely does things to get Korea riled up. And Japan has repeatedly been unable to examine it’s own history honestly (though that’s true throughout Asia). Neither I nor other Korea-based writers try to deny that Japan tried to exterminate Korean culture, or that Korea doesn’t have legitimate reasons to dislike Japanese history . . . but we do question the authenticity of the victim-mentality and we do question what is worse: having a violent and destructive 20th century or conditioning children to create a violent and destructive 21st? Surely the constant hate does no bit of good, and it’s truly alarming both how readily Korean children hate and how quickly that hate shifts to different targets. Now it’s Japan b/c of Dokdo . . . a few months ago it was the US b/c of Mad Cow Disease . . . then it was Japan again . . . for a few days it was China because of the torch protests . . . then Japan again . . . then Switzerland because the ref made a controversial call in a soccer game . . . then foreign English teachers . . . then Japan . . . then China for its history . . . then the US for a controversial Olympics’ decision . . . and on and on and on. One detects a theme, and as a foreigner living in Korea the readiness with which Koreans target foreign countries is alarming.

…so, since Japan supposedly hates Korea, it’s okay to foster hatred in Korean students and make them draw pictures expressing their hate for Japan?

There is an anti-korean minority in Japan (e.g. the guys on 2chan who are extremely racist) but it is confined to various subcultures like the otaku culture. In Korea it a mainstream thing with, as we have seen, even school children drawing disturbing pictures like the first one in this post.

Take a look at the History books incident

Even that textbook by Tsukuru-kai still does mention the things like the Nanking Massacre, albeit briefly. Does Chinese history textbook ever mention the Tiananmen? Does South Korean history textbook mention the massacre in Vietnam by South Korean soldiers? And remember, that textbook was still regared as “far right” in Japan, so adopted only by the 0.097% of Japanese high schools, while those history textbooks in China/South Korea are used in the 100% of schools each.

This whole “incident” just tells you how Chinese/Koreans have big problems, rather more so than Japanese.

the anti-Korean novels that have become HUGE hits in Japan

Could you name exactly which novels?

In South Korea, they have anti-Japanese novels such as:
- The Mugunghwa Has Bloomed (무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다, 1993), a novel later adopted into movie. North and South Korea work together to develop an atomic bomb, and drop it on Japan. Sold more than 2 million copies.
- The Kingdom of Wrath (분노의 왕국, 1992), a TV drama depciting a Korean who shoots Japanese Emperor.
- Hanbando (한반도, 2006), a novel later adopted into movie. The movie was viewed by more than 3 million viewers.

Can you name even one Japanese novel (or whatever) that comes close to these mainstream popularities?

I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s “mainstream”. The truly anti-Japanese population is hardly a majority, but they have loud voices. There are constant tensions, but even out in the boonies of Korea where I used to live, people were generally interested in Japanese culture, and a lot of people study Japanese. (Much more than Japanese people study Korean)

The main problem is that there is no communication, so both anti-Korean Japanese and anti-Japanese Koreans start lashing out at a fantasy rival in which they envision an entire country of evil racists. Blame the media for playing up the hype on both sides of the Sea of Japan / East Sea.

Just to let you know, the only two countries where anti-Japanese sentiment is notable are China and Korea. This is hardly “most of Asia.” Your post shows a shallow understanding of the issue based largely on blogs and media.