Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan

[oakenax]

TOKYO, Nov. 14 - A young Japanese woman in the comic book "Hating the Korean Wave" exclaims, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!" In another passage the book states that "there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of."

manga, news and current events, japan, korea

Comments

[alirose]

That is frusterating, sad and really scary all at once. This kind of close-mindedness is what happens when people refuse to learn from history and insist on keeping their heads up their collective asses.

[itsalljustaride]

I cant read the article because it requires a login, but suffice it to say that there is a small percentage of Japanese, mostly from the extreme, right-wing, and a number of South Koreans (not sure, never been there and havnt heard much except bad stuff) who just can't stop poking at each other.

heres a good example from the Korean side.

http://aog.2y.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1550

[itsalljustaride]

nope, it probably went behind the subscription wall sometime around now. i remember somewhere there was a site where you could look up usernames and passwords to free sites like NYT. i should look for that. I dont feel like signing up for another username and password.

[atelierlune]

Please consider http://www.bugmenot.com to remedy this.

[justlikepoetry]

yeah, and by "built" they mean "raped, pilaged, and suppressed the culture of." and yeah, let's write off the poets and artists and other cultral achievements.

i know i'm not waxing very scholarly on this issue, but it would seem from historical evidence that korea has a bit more reason not to like japan than for japan to dislike korea. not that i want to exhonerate the koreans of any atrocities they might have committed, but it seems overwhelmingly to be badness on the side of japan.

i really think that japan needs to curb this violent xenophobia. it's not an exaggeration to say that japan wouldn't be the country it is without korean and chinese influence (to steal the line back from that character).

blah.

i like japan a lot, and my focus in my major was predominantly there, but sometimes the culture is a little repulsive...

[itsalljustaride]

these views are in the minority. there is a small contingent of right wingers left over from the old regime post WWII who like to shout and yell out of black vans about the divinity of the Emperor and how Korea and China should bow to them, but by and large no one listens to them. they are tolerated because thats what you do when someone screams in Japan, you ignore them and let them make fools of themselves.

of course some of these people have children who carry on the mentality, and kids in Japan will read anything thats provacative enough, but it doesnt necessarily mean that just because one series of anti-korean comics have had a run of popularity that anti-Korean sentiment itself is popular.

The majority of Japanese people know that the cultures of Japan, China, and Korea all share cultural traits, and while some Japanese may regard Korean and Chinese immigrants with a bit of disdain for what they percive as a tendancy for them to cause trouble, by and large this is not an issue, only for the extremists.

[justlikepoetry]

perhaps the extremist views are in the minority, but i'm inclined to believe that a more low-key anti-outsiders vibe still exists, as far as japanese feeling toward china/korea (and really, japanese feeling toward non-japanese). after all, if you look at the battle to represent the rape of nanjing accurately in text books, it hasn't been a full victory. of course, to be fair, most textbooks in any country are probably very biased in favor of themselves. the fact that there is noticeable bias in state policy means that that antagonistic sentiment is still present.

the problem i see with putting this into a manga format is that it makes it more immediately accessible. true, most people might not openly espouse that severe anti-asian sentiment, but once that idea is in there, it has a chance to make a subtle, lasting impact. the manga may just be expressing some offhand opinions about korea and china, but it's still able to affect the person who is being entertained...

[zweckanschauer]

Will someone show this and the drawings done by the Korean kids to all stupid Westerners who treat and think that all Asians are one and the same, no matter whether they're Chinese, Korean or Japanese?

[itsalljustaride]

done

[zweckanschauer]

How so?

[itsalljustaride]

ok, i uhh, i guess i hadnt really thought that one out. my bad. i was in over my head. :)

[mcqueen12]

After having read this article, my curiosity drove me to search the web for a more thorough view of these comics. I didn’t get the whole book, but I found like 10 pages of it. Being a Korean, I found the contents to be extremely disturbing and offensive (naturally), but I was more exasperated by the format it was presented it

[oakenax]

Let us just keep in mind that it is a minority that promotes this kind of thing in Japan.

[mcqueen12]

Yes, it's only a minority that promotes this, but I do believe that the majority accepts it to a certain extent.