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yogopig t1_iw9fwb2 wrote

Reply to comment by GomNana in South Korea, Japan seek better 'ties' amid North Korea missile tensions by Srishanvi

Why is there even any beef between JP and SK? From an ignorant outsiders perspective they seem to be extremely similar and you'd thing they'd have similar goals when it comes to international relations?

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jampbells t1_iw9g9hn wrote

World War 2 atrocites. In some ways Imperial Japan made the Nazis look calm by comparison.

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thethunder92 t1_iw9vmxn wrote

Actually it started even before world war 2, Japan basically enslaved Koreans and used their women as sex slaves for a couple decades

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castiglione_99 t1_iw9zjhd wrote

Not just WWII atrocities. prior to the end of WWII, Japan had colonized Korea, a period in which the Korean language was suppressed, etc. and the Japanese tried to turn the Koreans into Japanese people. Pretty much the same story as elsewhere in the world, but with the Europeans and local brown people swapped out for Asians from here, and Asians from over there.

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GomNana t1_iw9jics wrote

It's a very complicated issue, but Korea was occupied by Japan for 35 years. It wasn't only during the war. The occupation only ended when Japan was defeated at the end of WW2.

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Tokishi7 t1_iwakmdg wrote

Goes further back than that even. Many Koreans still find issues with the first invasion back hundreds of years ago.

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QuixoticDino t1_iw9k1a1 wrote

In addition to the war crimes others mentioned, Korea was also under imperial Japanese rule for a number of years, during which they were generally oppressed and attempts were made to attack Korean culture (e.g. the Korean language was banned, Korean cultural artifacts were taken from the country, Koreans were forced to take Japanese names, etc).

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StewofPuppies t1_iwapa2h wrote

SK were like the Jews and Japan were like the Nazis but in Asia. This is oversimplification of it and it was a different kind of genocide.

Japan never really apologized or rather when they (politicians or leader figures) tried, it was often taken back or trivialized by other Japanese politicians or anonymous civilians making death threats to politicians who made attempts to apologize. There is still a strong alt right wing Za Warudo cult following in Japan that believes they did Korea and China a favor raping the women by the thousands and mutilating them because they brought industrialization.

While Japanese civilians are great and completely different from back then, politicians and the upper-echelon types are different. Remember when Ukraine compared Hirohito to Hitler and Mussolini? The comparison is pretty accurate and apt, speaking as a Korean myself who has Japanese relatives not by the war but by relatives marrying. Japan got angry at the comparison and demanded they apologize. The attitude of how Japan treats their atrocities of the past vs how Germany is very different. Let's be real; if Ukraine never apologized for that comparison of Hirohito = Hitler/Mussolini, Japanese government probably would have rescinded a lot of what they would later donate soon after the apology as aid in the war.

I think SK and Japan definitely can be allies and get to a better place. But the issue is everyone just wants to ignore these big elephants in the room and pretend the problems will solve itself. A lot of people will for example try to paint some of the resentment I feel as propaganda from China or CCP shilling which I have been called before. But until we address the elephants in the room and reconcile with these facts, we aren't going to get anywhere productive.

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chlamydia1 t1_iwe3yf4 wrote

>This is oversimplification of it and it was a different kind of genocide.

I wouldn't even call it different. Japan systematically murdered between 3 and 14 million civilians from across East Asia, on the basis of their "racial inferiority".

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Biosterous t1_iwaincf wrote

There's a podcast called 'Blowback' that's hosted by 2 investigative journalists who do deep dive histories into US conflicts and how said conflicts turned out so poorly for the USA. Their most recent 3 season was on the Korean war. While it's very history dense and not for everyone, if you listen to just the first episode of season 3 you'll get a great understanding of why Koreans harbour a lot of resentment towards Japan. If you like it and keep listening, you'll learn even more.

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