The "anti-Japanese racism" referred to in this book is a shamanistic worldview that has been built up from lies with no factual basis and has become the standard view of Koreans today regarding the history of Japan's rule over Korea.
August 29, 2019
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Movements against anti-Japanese sentiment
Until now, Japan has continued to back down and remain silent in the face of South Korea's repeated criticism of Japan and unreasonable demands.
The problem has grown to this extent because Japan has continued to adopt a passive and negative attitude.
It was only with the Abe administration that Japan changed its attitude to a more proactive one.
It is a crucial thing.
The problem was not only caused by the irresponsible words and actions of South Korean intellectuals who exaggerated and distorted history but also by the distorted historical views of Japan's "conscientious intellectuals," as is well known.
In the so-called forced labor issue and the comfort women issue, they spread false information and caused great misunderstanding among the people of both Japan and South Korea.
The Abe administration has also taken a firm stance in response to such developments.
In the so-called forced labor issue, it is only natural that the Abe administration strongly urges the Moon administration to implement the Japan-Korea Agreement on the Settlement of Problems Concerning Property and Claims.
When I consider the long-term Japan-Korea relationship, it is good that the Japanese side took a proactive stance early on.
If the Japanese government had continued to give in to President Moon's unreasonable demands as it has done until now, a healthy relationship between Japan and South Korea would have been impossible.
In that respect, I am optimistic about the future of Korea-Japan relations.
In fact, there are now more and more people in South Korea, both ordinary citizens and politicians, who think anti-Japanese sentiment is not in the country's best interests.
For example, conservative Liberty Korea Party members, such as Representative Chung Yu-sup and Party President Noh Kyung-hwa, have begun to question the Moon administration's anti-Japanese stance.
In September last year, I set up the 'Association for Opposing the Installation of Statues of Comfort Women and Labor Mobilization Workers, and in October, I the 'Association for Opposing Anti-Japanese Nationalism.' The membership of the 'Association for Opposing Anti-Japanese Nationalism' has already exceeded 1,000 people.
When I spoke to some members, they said that if they had been to Japan before or had Japanese friends they continued to interact with, they would say that "it was completely different from what was taught in the Korean textbooks."
The office was attacked.
At the Naksungdae Economic Research Institute, where I work, the director, Lee Young-hoon, and I, along with five other researchers, co-authored the book Anti-Japanese Racism. It was released in July in South Korea and has already sold over 30,000 copies.
It's the summer holiday season, and at Kyobo Book Center, the biggest bookstore in Seoul, the top three places in the sales rankings are travel-related books, but the fourth place is this book.
The "anti-Japanese racism" discussed in this book is a shamanistic worldview that has become common knowledge among Koreans today and is based on lies with no factual basis regarding the history of Japan's rule over Korea.
We planned this book to expose the Korean people to the whole process of the origins, formation, spread, and ferocity of anti-Japanese racism and to appeal to them about the dangers of this ideology.
The fact that the book is selling so well is proof that there are Koreans who feel that "anti-Japanese sentiment is wrong" and who want to "study it" and "tell others about it."
It's the summer holiday season, and at Kyobo Book Center, the biggest bookstore in Seoul, the top three places in the sales rankings are travel-related books, but the fourth place is this book.
It is extremely rare for a book in the sociology genre to sell so well in Korea.
Seventeen years ago, I heard that the writer Kim Wan-seop wrote "Excuse for pro-japanese" and that it became a topic of conversation in Japan.
However, in Korea, it was wrapped in plastic so that it could not be browsed and placed unobtrusively in the corner of the bookstore as a harmful book.
However, in Korea, it was wrapped in plastic so that it could not be browsed and placed unobtrusively in the corner of the bookstore as a harmful book.
Compared to those days, Korea has clearly changed.
Of course, scholars, experts, and readers have criticized the book, but there have been no specific criticisms or counterarguments along the lines of "this part of the book is wrong because of this reason."
All of the criticisms have been abusive language such as "he is a pro-Japanese," "traitor," and "Indigenous Wokou."
On July 2, at a symposium held at the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva, I stated the historical facts that "most Korean workers went to Japan to work of their own free will" and that "there was no ethnic discrimination in wages," but after returning to my office, I was attacked by two men.
They called me a "traitor" and spat at me, but that was all they could do.
This article continues.
2024/10/6 in Osaka
