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The Pervasiveness of anti-Japanese imagery in South Korea

The above picture is from a children’s book found on the shelves of a kindergarten playroom by Matt, an English teacher in South Korea who blogs at Gusts of Popular Feelings. The picture books contained images of Japanese torturing, shooting, and stabbing Koreans. There were also images of heroic Koreans killing Japanese:

These aren’t sophisticated in the least, but then, when aimed at children under ten (they’re available for children under seven at the hagwon), they don’t need to be. Showing these images to children who are too young to critically evaluate them does nothing but inculcate hatred for Japan.

Read the full post here.

[via ROK Drop]

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42 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - November 17, 2009 at 7:00 am

Categories: Anti-Japan Tags:

Noir the Sable

…oh, good grief.

I am Korean myself (Well, Korean-American now I suppose, since I’ve moved to Baltimore for college), and I can’t believe this is going on to such an extent. I knew that there were still rather strong feelings against the Japanese (I think you would need to be blind and deaf to miss that), but I did not think that violent picture books for children like these existed. I thought that was only a North Korea thing.

I suppose I was wrong.
Canadian

Other than that, Korean nationalism is not really nationalism.
Plinko

It’s OK. The Chinese and the Russians are going to over run that whole peninsula anyways.

Canadian

You don’t see this happening. Especially with tons of Chaoxians and Koryo-saram living in both countries.
Jose Antonio

by exporting what product? prostitution and corruption? the two most prevailing ones in those two marvelous places!

hoihoi

Why aren’t their clothes white?

lacrimosa

Because they’re urban residents after the Gwangmu Reformation.

lacrimosa

As a Korean with a partial Japanese ancestry (Japanese grandmother along with some Zainichi Kankokujin relatives)

It’s funny because many Japanese and expats living in Japan will automatically assume almost every Koreans as hardcore nationalists. In reality, Koreans are the least nationalist people by heart because of the several forms of Korean nationalism are all about promoting particular interest groups (be it politicians or anti-politicians) instead of the whole nation. Forms of Korean nationalism are unproductive because they are not nationalism in the first place.

Koreans laugh at Japanese criticizing Korean nationalism because they don’t know that it is an <> nationalism over there.

But I personally don’t like to criticize both Korea and Japan, so I’ll end this here.

lacrimosa

[Koreans laugh at Japanese criticizing Korean nationalism because they don’t know that it is an nationalism over there.]

“they don’t know that it is an empty nationalism over there.”

Correction

bounty

I can see no end to this.

Both side carping their counterparts and not a few ended with sinister altercation.

I saw both countries as marvelous nation, in most respect… other than pompous stances over each other and other less developed countries.

However, I still love Korean Drama, Wonder Girls, 소녀샤대, on Korean side, anime, manga, and Ghibli on Japanese side.

Hey you two Great Nations, I hope you can get along well, regardless of few people question on the going concern of your relationship, a larger part of the world is looking up to you!

Brian

Just about every Japanese person I know that is kind of iffy on Korea is that way for the same reason that a lot of white people in America are iffy about black people. It’s not that they are racist or dislike Koreans, it’s just that they (for logical reasons, I think, what with the media coverage and all) are tired of people pulling the race card, and they don’t want to be baselessly called racist.

Really, in every country that I’ve seen, while there are some truly racist people, it mostly follows an endless cycle:

1.) Race A is racist against Race B.
2.) Race B bitches about racism.
3.) Race A’s children eventually stop being racist against Race B.
4.) Race B continues to bitch about how Race A shouldn’t just forget about racism
5.) The children of Race A are called racist so many times, even though they aren’t, that they get pissed at Race B.
6.) Go to Step 1.

seiray

As far as I know, the Japanese invaded East Asia by using bicycle, not horse (at least in Southeast Asia they did). Anyway, when will the Koreans stop with their anti-Japanese obsession anywhere? The SEA countries were also invaded by Japan, but you don’t see us doing such thing. Sure, the animosity is still there, but not as extreme as South Korea and China. Don’t they have other things to do?

Dr.Yu

“Anyway, when will the Koreans stop with their anti-Japanese obsession anywhere?”

I have the same question about the japanese racism against koreans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5rKUwC9lFo

This is another anti-korean tread masked as “anti-japan” tread.

The Overthinker

Since it deals with Korean anti-Japan attitudes, it is not masked at all. It is about anti-Japan ideas. It is critical of those ideas being aimed in this form at children, but that doesn’t mean it is a primarily anti-Korean topic.
helical

The hooting at uninvolved tourists is wrong, but you do understand why the animosity is there in that video, right? I hope?

This isn’t about history or racism, but regarding an ongoing ridiculous claim by a segment of the more extreme Koreans that Tsushima is Korea.
I don’t think most Koreans think that way, but the Koreans who do are loud enough that it’s ruffling the feathers of those in Japan who are ticked off by that kind of rhetoric. And unfortunately, some thought it was a good idea to yell at tourists to express their outrage.
k9

dear dr Yu

i agree with you. so, please don’t miss what korean right wings did at this japanese island before this stupid JP right wing made the pathetic speech. in the first place, its waste of time to criticize each other about behaviors of each typical right wings in jp and Korea.(i think)

Koreansentry

This actually happened and I encourage more of these pictures to be publish through out school texts. Japanese are distorting the war crime on their history.

The Overthinker

Excellent point. It happened, so needs to be taught to impressionable children to foster hatred. Always good to brainwash the kiddies – they’re so malleable at that age.

Dr.Yu

Isn’t it funny?
Koreans “brainwash” their kids to hate the Japanese but you don’t see those kids marching in the streets rallying against the Japanese or in black vans chanting anti-foreign slogans against foreigners. On the other hand the Japanese teach their kids to “love their neighbors”, to live in peace and harmony with the rest of the world, etc, but their kids revere criminals and stage demonstrations against the rest of the world in public.
What’s wrong with Japan?
Korean ultra-nationalist must be the most incompetent brainwashers of the world, while their Japanese counterparts are undeniably the best in this educational field.

http://billowykimono.blogspot.com/ Senor Science

Uyoku groups in modern Japan are a marginalized and fringe group, it’d be as if I’m going to say the KKK is a good representation of American society at large.

‘On the other hand the Japanese teach their kids to “love their neighbors”, to live in peace and harmony with the rest of the world, etc, but their kids revere criminals and stage demonstrations against the rest of the world in public.’

Where’s evidence of this?
fh

As long as we’re dealing with gross over-generalizations, I’ll say this:

It seems the current Korean attitude is to “remember the past while promoting hatred”, while the Japanese attitude is to “forget (parts of) the past while promoting peace”. Neither attitude is perfect. In this difference of attitudes between Korean and Japanese relations, it will take the cooperation of both sides to reach the goal [of remembering the past in a manner that promotes peace, such that history does not repeat itself].

This does not apply only to government leaders and officials, but to individuals such as commenters posting on this and other blogs. If you’re inspired to make your voice heard, you should use it responsibly (in the way suggested above). If you only want to capitalize on one subject in order to shift blame or demonize a group, you are making yourself part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Regarding the article, I firmly believe that discussion about historical events is necessary, but these kinds of discussions are to be made between adults, not towards children. Media that targets children should be careful not to promote ideas that could easily be misinterpreted or overexaggerated — doing so is not only irresponsible for the group it slanders, but also unfair for the children it effectively brainwashes.

Putting it differently, the existence of these kinds of storybooks is just another reason for Japan to ignore requests to revise its textbooks.
A long lived Korean in America

I have to ‘somewhat’ agree with your part about “brainwash” although I sense that such term is little bit too extreme.

I don’t know, Dr. Yu, if you know about Korea’s past. Since Korea was divided into two separate regions with two different political views with two militarily devastating powers, the government had no choice but to promote nationalism in order to keep their “soldiers” ignited while they seek for “reunification” other way.

Many of you here might have difficult time to grasp how strange situation both N. & S. Korea was put in to since 1953. To simply put, on the S. Korea’s perspective, they had to adopt American way of thinking such as freedom of speech, religion, etc. or in general, “democratic system” and “Christianity”. On the other hand, N. Korea, as many of you know, adopted what they call “democratic people’s republic” or “communism” and “Juche”, although it became a totalitarian gov. nowadays.

The point is, S. Korea cannot directly use anti-North Korea’istic propaganda to promote nationalism since it might merely result second war for N. & S. Korea. They don’t want that. So, though it might be a just ‘one factor’, anti-Japanese sentimentality might possibly used to strengthen South Korean’s binding force. However, I personally really can’t argue that the government purposely promoted it, rather I doubt it. Since what Japanese have done in China, Korea, and many other Asian countries won’t disappear, and the descendants who have grown listening to about Japanese’s cruelty will stay with them until they are gone.

If you are curious about how deeply Japanese soldiers upset people in the past, I suggest watching some documentary films, reading related books, or listening to stories of Korean or Chinese elders if they are around you.

Jose Antonio (Hate-filled moron)

Mr. Blogger/editor: I think you have presented a very weak argument. If you are insulted or put off by all these imageries, then you should be equally insulted by the Japanese government’s inability to 0WN what they did, as they repeatedly try to hide, deny and manipulate it, and have even removed any references of this in their textbooks.

There is no difference whatsoever to what the Koreans have done here to what the Jews, the Armenians and every other group who has been victimized by mass murders has done. At least the koreans haven’t made an industry out of it! Why would we feel more sorry for the jews or the Armenians than the Koreans who died in the hands of brutal Japanese savages? The best way for you to prove this wrong and speak about what the Japanese have done about it is to point out ANY of the efforts that the Japanese have made to mend these atrocities. Sorry, but the Japanese continue to be the most racist individuals on earth, banning foreigners from entry into restaurants, bars, etc and on top of it now they enlist half-truth tellers like you to make the rest of us feel bad for them? As a non Asian they tell me constantly how much better they are than the Koreans, blame every psycho who kills in their country on the Korean, the litter on their beaches on the Chinese and Koreans and it goes on and on. They are passive aggressive liars who cannot stand that they were put in their place by the Americans in WW2 and now continue to be outsmarted by the Koreans in technology, education and other areas. Screw the Japanese! Come on, find a more worthy cause, my friend!
Jose Antonio

i didn’t realize that if you say something to disagree with the bloggers, they add insulting epithets to the sender’s name! Mine happens to be “hate-filled moron” I have been called worse, so I take no offense, but maybe our beloved blogger here doesn’t understand or believe in freedom of speech. Time to change careers or hobbies, buddy. I hear Chavez in Venezuela is looking for a secretary of the Press!
SK the Lemon

So much of Korean national identity is caught up in a fiction of resistance, resistance to the Mongols, resistance to the Japanese, resistance to communists in the North. Korean perpetuation of Japan as enemy says more about Korea than it does about Japan, and anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea is usually manipulated for internal political gains or as a means to achieve leverage in negotiations with the Japanese government.
Not to mention that in the immediate post-World War 2 era, MacArthur and the Yanks actively sought to nurture and manipualte Korean anti-Japanese sentiment, startingfrom fishing disputes in the late 40s.
Koreans think that being anti-Japanese nmeans being tru to Korea, because that is the myth the founders of post WW2 Korea perpetuated, in part to cover their own asses as they were all Yangban class Japanese collaborators anyways, guys like Park. So much of modern Korean politics is a result of this collaboration, just ask the late Roh about that.
It is time for Korea to move on.

lacrimosa

[Not to mention that in the immediate post-World War 2 era, MacArthur and the Yanks actively sought to nurture and manipualte Korean anti-Japanese sentiment, startingfrom fishing disputes in the late 40s.]

Korea has that particular problem. True. Japan still has this blindly-worship-America-without-questions public mentality right since the defeat of World War 2 to today. There is a reason my distant Japanese relatives stopped voting for the LDP for right after then end of the Cold War.

America needs a better diplomatic contribution to make peace between Japan and Korea, or else America will likely be a victim of their diplomacy. I don’t want America like this.

[Koreans think that being anti-Japanese nmeans being tru to Korea, because that is the myth the founders of post WW2 Korea perpetuated, in part to cover their own asses as they were all Yangban class Japanese collaborators anyways, guys like Park.]

If there weren’t Chinilpa（親日派）people holding power during the American military governance in Seoul, Japan-Korea relationship would be better than today.

KoreanSentry

Actually Korean resistance was always there. Otherwise there wouldn’t have been tens of thousands died from it.

No, Korea doesn’t need to change, it’s time for Japan to come up clean and change.

bounty

this reminds me of two quarrelsome kids.

Japanese who lived in Korea for over 2/3 of her life

well um for those who say Korean nationalism is overexaggerated, I kinda disagree. Yes, for the most part, Koreans are really nice people who are really welcoming and really kind and help you out when you’re in trouble. That is, on a personal level. Then you get them into a group and when everything becomes more generalized, you get quite a lot of nationalism. I’ve lived Korea from quite a young age, and though I did attend an international school, I was quite aware of the history (we had those (children) books for tourists about Korea that had pictures like the one above) and for a long time, I hated being Japanese. I wasn’t brainwashed or anything, but learning about the Occupation, etc, I felt responsible (this was when I was in elementary school!) because I was Japanese and once I even burst into tears during Korean Culture class… Now I’m older, so I can face the topic more maturely, but I can personally attest that the emphasis they place on history and historical problems and Dokdo/Takeshima/Liancourt Rocks in Korea can be rather influential on an impressionable child.
Of course, Japan has its faults too (yes, right wing morons in black vans, I’m looking at you!).

lacrimosa

But it’s very true that Korean nationalism is over-exaggerated. Why? Mainstream Korean nationalism doesn’t benefit any South Korean in the long run. It’s a very obvious and common fact that anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea is really only directing towards the right wing Japanese politicians (esp. during the PM Koizumi era).

FYI, anti-Japanese sentiments DECREASED a lot since Hatoyama came into power.

As for the Liancourt Rocks issue, there is a growing number of evidence that the American military officials perpetuated the conflict to artificially create problems right after World War 2 between Korea and Japan to prevent anti-American sentiment in South Korea and Japan. This explains minor issues during the 1965 diplomatic establishment between Japan and South Korea later on.

To be honest with everyone, I’m not anti-American but I’m keep seeing America being the culprit that has perpetuated conflicts between Japan and South Korea. For that matter, I wish America could promote better ties between Korea and Japan.

Japanese who lived in Korea for over 2/3 of her life

Well I actually don’t know how Korean nationalism is portrayed to the world, having been more in the midst of it… and I suppose being in the midst of it and having random Korean people I meet on hikes/taxis/bus stops question me about my stance on the Liancourt rocks just because I was Japanese and seeing people burn themselves up and kill random birds because they had the misfortune of being Japan’s national bird (though they were killing the Korean Pheasant… -_-;;) makes me question that Korean nationalism is overexaggerated… But then again, I’ve moved back to Japan in August, so I have no idea how things are in Korea now…

http://aki-akiaki.blogspot.com Aki

Japan and America are integral parts of Korean problem-solving machinery, so you can never escape from it.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8xKqFH3gIcw/R4JCAiorhgI/AAAAAAAAAKE/fnd1pD198l0/s1600-h/problem-flowchart.jpg
lacrimosa

Sorry if I have a cynical attitude, Japanese who lived in Korea for over 2/3 of her life.

As a person who has Japanese and Korean heritage, I find it very odd that Korea and Japan DO NOT have independent foreign policies in the American-influenced Sinospheric area (ie. Korea, China, and Japan).

This is why I consider the Liancourt rocks issue an absolute joke.

[Japan and America are integral parts of Korean problem-solving machinery, so you can never escape from it.]

It’s a tricky way of thinking but if that’s the case, then America is the clear and present source of numerous Korean-Japanese conflicts.

Perhaps Benjamin Fulford (a conspiracy theorist living in Japan) is very right.
Japanese who lived in Korea for over 2/3 of her life

did I say it was important? Personally, the rocks could go up in smoke right now and I wouldn’t care… well laugh a bit maybe
lacrimosa

But anyway. I have my reasons to believe that the Liancourt rock dispute isn’t Korean or Japanese in origin.

The more I understand about this dispute, the more I believe that both Korea and Japan got framed. Territorial disputes in eastern part of Asia don’t benefit anyone.

ponta

さっき、I came across this video by chance

“Program introducing various countries’ text book. This one cut introduces DPRK text book. ”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udUkI3Q6Ny4&feature=player_embedded#
Alo

that picture up there ISN’T A LIE.

Japanese did come over to Korea and ruled Korea for 35 years.
and they did horrible, disgusting things to Koreans.

For example, the Japan government even ordered to kidnap Korean girls and call those girls “spirit girls”, and what the Japan government ordered the Japanese soldiers to do with those girls was to basically RAPE the girls so it can RAISE THE JAPANESE SOLDIERS’ SPIRITS.
Those so called, “spirit girls” are still alive to this day.
(most of them were killed and were thrown away by the Japanese soldiers, though)

and in the video that ‘ponta’ put on,
the North Koreans teach children to hate America and Japan and all that, right? But the North Koreans are probably saying that they hate Japan and America of the OLD DAYS. The Japanese did commit a lot massacres at their imperial empire time. (I don’t know about America, but I’m sure that Japan did)

Don’t you ppl think that it would be rather STRANGE for Koreans if they FORGET those horrible memories of Japan?

It’s true that Koreans should move on from the past and try to make their country stronger, so that they can protect themselves from any other army,
but Japanese didn’t even apologize to the Koreans for doing those messed up things to the Koreans.

It’s the Japan government that LIES to their children.
they tell their children something like “the Japanese invaded Korea because the Chinese told them to” or “the Japanese were just trying to help out Koreans”.

and from all of you people who wrote comments here are the proofs that Japan government is doing a remarkable job of “brainwashing” people to believe that Japanese didn’t do bad things to Koreans.

they should admit that they did do bad things to Koreans,
just like the Germans! you see, Germans DID ADMIT that they did horrible things to the Jews. They don’t try to ERASE the past.

Sometimes, Koreans do hate Japanese TOO much,
but Japanese are the ones who started it all.
If they just APOLOGIZED to the Koreans and actually ADMITTED and DIDN’T LIE to their children, there was a high possibility that many Koreans would have had tried to forgive the Japanese.
bounty

Being part of other Asian Country that use to be occupied by Japan, I understand what the Korean feels.

My grandfather used to be low-laborer called romusha. He use to told me his experience during the occupation, the Japs kept a heavy hand to those who resist their will…. it was the most appalling days for him. Despite being daunted by Japs Imperialist, he inspire no hatred for his children and great grand children.

Is that where the different of Korean and other occupied Asian countries lies, the fact that the Korean intentionally bequeath past animosity to their ancestor?

We must forgive, but we should never forget.
History may filled with vast records of invasion and war atrocities, but being begrudged only reaffirm inferiority.

Why don’t Korean forgive regardless if Japan never apologize? (which I learned they have), that will show that the Korean have a big heart…
For the people of petty heart an apology is not enough though.

Unforgivingness leads to no where but further misfortunes.

See how easily the Korean being agitated over the issue?
Is there any precedent in history that show animosity is beneficial?
It might have spurred for a while, but it won’t last, the backlash will double the gain.

I Love Korea for their delicate sense of beauty, but the perfection is spoiled by their animosity toward it’s neighbors.

bounty

Forgive me for my being too critical over Korea than Japan.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m taking side with Japan though. It obviously not the case.

My attention towards Korea only means one thing; it’s as if seeing a beautiful lady, impeccably beautiful…. it seems, but then a little disappointed by her begrudging behavior toward the great-grandson of the neighbor who happened to commit wrong-doings upon her deceased great-grandmother, who also has been dead.

It’s just so disheartening to see to see such stance spoiled her beauty.

Katie

But, it is true. This picture shows what happened at that time.
You cannot deny that. Korean children should know about this because it is one part of Korean history. It is better that teaching distorted history like Japan.
Marcus Gratton

Let’s not get it twisted. Successive military dictatorships in South Korea fed the people a constant diet of myth and distortion of Korean history.The unceasing anti Japanese hatred and its portrayal in the education system and much of the media reflects the Korean inability to come to terms with the widespread collaboration of Koreans with Japan. The ruling classes, intellectual classes and emerging middle classes found it convenient at first and then became enamoured of the idea of a ‘pure Korean race’ ruling the world with the Japanese colonisers.

Unfortunately I can’t consider the present ROK much different from the deprived and ignorant Korean society of the not so recent past because there is no real attempt made by scholars or people in power to redress this imbalance and cease the lies and propaganda. Japanese forces were actually invited in to Korea in the 19th century to deal with problems and defeated the Chinese.

Before that for centuries what is actually proclaimed as a ‘superior’ Korean culture was in fact a Chinese culture transplanted by the elites into Korea. There is little that is actually native to Korean culture and society except for peasant traditions. Even Hangeul was modelled on the Sanskrit language and brought over by Buddhist monks who went to India.

Likewise every development that dragged Korea out of backwardness and deliberate isolation into the world of 19th century progress was from outside Korea despite the shrill and ridiculous attempts to claim inventions that certainly never existed in a society based on outdated feudalism, extreme shows of wealth by the elites and extreme poverty of the masses, and demonstrating that old Chinese norms such as categorising certain people as untouchable and unclean were alive and well (these unclean were also like a caste in Japan because of Chinese influence).

Underneath all the technology etc we are dealing with a very ignorant society that possesses racialist assumptions that are celebrated in their constitution and school system. It would be nice if Ban Ki Mun used his UN position to try and get his country into the 21st century instead of feeding itself on this constant diet of the Korean version of leftover Japanese imperial mythology.

The inviting of Japanese forces into Korea set the stage for the concerted colonisation, leading to the Japanisation of Korea up to and including WW2 in which Korean military and prison guards etc were infamous for their brutality and eagerness to match the Japanese in their imposition of ‘superiority’ over Asia. Collaboration was widespread among the privileged and relatively privileged Koreans, which is why the denial is so widespread and irrational and the insistence on distortion of history so difficult to counter.

As for Korea as a ‘nation’ – there is little historic evidence for that. The 3 kingdoms period was that of warring tribes and the triumph of one of them saw the enslavement of the defeated. This set the precedence for slavery in Korea, an ugly truth of slave families for centuries that is never dealt with in school textbooks properly if at all nor in the media.

Most people in Jeollanam Do apart from the privileged come from slave backgrounds for example.Funny how Korean schoolbooks play up Black slavery in the US – again the same old mentality at work of focusing most on those things that happen to be true about Korea but trying to deflect attention away from the negative elements in Korea.

Too the comments by middle school and high school students about the Japanese and the Korean sex slaves betray how their school system fails to tell them that sexual slavery has an old history in Korea and predated the Japanese.

I wish the US would leave South Korea because it is a society that is very much ultranationalistic and failing to develop beyond that. The technology etc is jut the exterior – underneath is a mentality that thrives on state sponsored propaganda that encourages hate and odd notions of victimhood. In its own way it is nearly as bad as North Korea and far more culpable because it does not exist in the isolation North Korea does. The west needs to start refusing to give military aid and buy South Korean products if its form of fascism keeps being promoted.

Concerned Filipino

It’s funny how one of the most wired countries in the world, known to be a leader in information technology, can be called a “backward”, “very ignorant”, and “ultranationalistic” society. Hooray for generalizations!

The Pervasiveness of anti-Japanese imagery in South Korea

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