Hi no Maru Gaisen Otome

Some of the issues mentioned here are viable, primarily the Senkaku islands dispute with China, the Kuril island dispute with Russia, and Liancourt Rocks dispute with S. Korea.  The Senkaku islands are most noteable as they were annexed by Japan in 1895 during the first Sino-Japanese war, controlled by the US following WWII, and then returned to Japan in 1972.  China currently argues that the islands should have been returned to China, and agressively challenge Japan's right to the former Chinese territory (especially now that it has been found to be near a sizeable oil deposit hoo-boy).

The Kuril islands, known as the "northern territories", is an opposite situation representing an ongoing dispute with Russia who annexed the islands during the tail end of WWII.  According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty Japan was to relinquish control of the "Kuril Island chain", but Japan argues that the four southernmost islands nearest Hokkaido are not part of this chain and thus not covered by the treaty.  As many of the particulars in this acquisition were largely unclarified in written treaty it's become a fairly contested issue.

Finally is the Liancourt Rocks, also known as "Dokdo" and "Takeshima" depending on the side, which likely has the most to do with the chapter.  Both Japan and South Korea make historical claims which are muddied by the fact that ancient record-keeping has not proven to be the most reliable of sources, and it is difficult to determine which of the two countries administered the islands prior to the 20th century.

This is actually just a bit of backstory, just for those curious.  I otherwise claim "no comment" for the rest of the content.

I'm going to take the less traveled road and say that i actually like how this manga is done and can see the perspective of what the mangaka's trying to express.

 

Sure, people will (and have) decried it as fascist, nationalist propaganda but seriously people, if this was a manga looking at things from a hard leftist perspective i dont think there would even be 1/10th of the outrage thats been written.

 

Yes, in the past the japanese did some epically horrible shit all around asia but thats in the past. All of the people responsible are long dead and buried. Compensation has been paid and apologies (mostly) made.

 

I have to agree with Takaogunz here. at some point in history, every country/racial group/ethnicity has done extremely horrible shit to someone else. something like continuously demanding compensation, like what happens today in some issues, just smells of abject absurdity.

 

tl;dr: leftist hatestorm and QQ influenced by giant bias and hate motivated idiocy.

 

and people wonder why right wing parties around the world are gaining in popularity?

 

oh hey, i'm Australian, i have arrived

There is a problem with your reasoning. Societies that try to deny and ignore their past wont ever change.

I talk from experience. I live in Spain, we had a fascist goverment after a gruesome civil war and then we had an artificial transition towards democracy, there was a general amnisty and no one paid for their crimes during the dictatorship, no one repented or was held responsible.

The result was an inmature society that hasnt really changed, we may live on democracy now but most of the population still live on that fascist regime inside of their minds and values. And Japan, even in its chaotic highly consumist society hasnt changed that much either.

Whoa, this must be the most racist manga that I've read. 

>unironically translating this shit

Wew

Fuck you japan

I was really curious why this was rated so low.

 

After reading it, I now know.

 

This is the typical xenophobic and racist Japanese propaganda that's spewed by those black van ultranationalist retards.  Except now its an accessible manga for kids with a cute main girl character.

 

What a load of shit.

Why are all you bluepilled leftycucks on a manga forum? You swine are no true otaku. Manga is the culture of Japan, a rightwing xenophobic racially and ethnically homogeneous country with a redpill for a flag.

I'm going to take the less traveled road and say that i actually like how this manga is done and can see the perspective of what the mangaka's trying to express.

 

Sure, people will (and have) decried it as fascist, nationalist propaganda but seriously people, if this was a manga looking at things from a hard leftist perspective i dont think there would even be 1/10th of the outrage thats been written.

 

Yes, in the past the japanese did some epically horrible shit all around asia but thats in the past. All of the people responsible are long dead and buried. Compensation has been paid and apologies (mostly) made.

 

I have to agree with Takaogunz here. at some point in history, every country/racial group/ethnicity has done extremely horrible shit to someone else. something like continuously demanding compensation, like what happens today in some issues, just smells of abject absurdity.

 

tl;dr: leftist hatestorm and QQ influenced by giant bias and hate motivated idiocy.

 

and people wonder why right wing parties around the world are gaining in popularity?

 

oh hey, i'm Australian, i have arrived

Bringing sound logic and informed opinions. Very good. I agree with what you're saying as well. Now get back to shitposting.

I know where this is going.

another long rant done

The past is in the past.

That's why I support this extreme right-wing propaganda emblazoned with the antiquated WWII-era war flag of the Imperial Japanese Army that regurgitates disinformational talking points to justify continuing hatred of century-long-oppressed minorities depicted only as racist caricatures.

I say this very confidently as an ethnic Korean: Our people are not meant to be politicians. Only the worst of us seem to go for the job. Maybe I'm being too cynical, though.

That's every country. I live in the U.S.A. and it looks like we're going to have to choose between a pompous jack-o-lantern and a crazy cat lady.

The disputes between China, Japan and Korea have long past been anything more than base politics. If you get involved then you are either a politician or a fool. 

 

I like how the story actively plays with perceptions and bias but does so sympathetically to the Japan Right. 
I'm going to avoid the political discussions though (Seriously, I lived in Japan for 3 years and its politics make my head hurt) and simply focus on the object lessons one can take from this. 
The setup is interesting, and the execution of the story is instructive on biases. 

I'm going to take the less traveled road and say that i actually like how this manga is done and can see the perspective of what the mangaka's trying to express.

Sure, people will (and have) decried it as fascist, nationalist propaganda but seriously people, if this was a manga looking at things from a hard leftist perspective i dont think there would even be 1/10th of the outrage thats been written.

Yes, in the past the japanese did some epically horrible shit all around asia but thats in the past. All of the people responsible are long dead and buried. Compensation has been paid and apologies (mostly) made.

I have to agree with Takaogunz here. at some point in history, every country/racial group/ethnicity has done extremely horrible shit to someone else. something like continuously demanding compensation, like what happens today in some issues, just smells of abject absurdity.

tl;dr: leftist hatestorm and QQ influenced by giant bias and hate motivated idiocy.

and people wonder why right wing parties around the world are gaining in popularity?

I'm just waiting for Australians to arrive in the manga. That's usually when it gets fun.

oh hey, i'm Australian, i have arrived

How could there be anti-leftist manga when manga is leftist by nature

 

Mind boggles

i wouldnt really call manga leftist by nature. if anything, most (but not all manga) is neutral in nature, depending on the subject matter.

You made remember that infamous beheading competition between two japanese officials in China, I don't know if stuff like that is ever going to be forgotten or forgiven, Assyrian brutality is still famous to this day and even if the hatred has faded away since the victims and the victimaries have been gone for millenia, that memory persists, probably that is how things like the Holocaust and the japanese war crimes are going to be remembered, a dark chapter of the human history that is so distant in time that people could believe that things like that could not happen in the present, but sadly that brutal way in which we are able to treat each other is a trait that will remain until we disappear or somehow we manage to create some kind utopia.

Well, you have a point that WW2 especially will remain in our memories because it's pretty much the biggest man-made event in history. Not so sure about the Assyrians. Most people don't even know they ever existed and modern Assyrians don't receive discrimination for events that happened thousands of years ago (though they do, it's more to do with being Christian and not assimilating).

The point is, most people have put that behind them despite realising what a terrible, sad, bloody war it was. On all sides. Hell, I grew up hearing stories about my grandpa being tortured by Japanese in their camps. It doesn't mean I hold any hatred or expect any apologies or anything from Japan and its government - the people who did the torturing are long since dead. Why should the people in Japan today, be held responsible for actions a previous generation committed? It's ridiculous.

Edit: This kind of turned in to a rant, and what you said didn't warrant it. Sorry. Though I do think you're wrong about how WW2 will be remembered. The best example is Genghis Khan. Dude and his army killed millions, they spread the black plague (though this may be apocryphal) and caused human misery on a massive scale. Many people, historians included, say that old Genghis did a good thing, because his massive empire opened up trade networks, brought peace and stability to a large region of the world etc etc.

While long-term, it might have indeed been beneficial, what they forget is the massive atrocities that had to occur for that to happen. WW2 may one day be seen this way too: "Sure, it was bad, but it led to a greater desire for peace, more international co-operation, the advancement of medical, military technology etc." In fact, I can guarantee you people are saying this today.

How could there be anti-leftist manga when manga is leftist by nature

Mind boggles

Yeah, and if you think the Korean attitude to Japan is bad, try China, where the government allowed race riots to happen. Thankfully not many Japanese live there so the most that happened was Japanese cars being burned (lol). Honestly it seems to be an issue in the region - demanding apologies and reparations for shit that happened 70 years ago; taking the opinions of a few people as representative of a nation of 100+ million.

 

Apologies/reparations are only useful if the victims are alive. When all the people involved in the crime are dead, you really need to just fucking let go. Unfortunately the victim complex will not disappear until the governments peddling this shit stop. Which won't happen, because it's too useful.

You made remember that infamous beheading competition between two japanese officials in China, I don't know if stuff like that is ever going to be forgotten or forgiven, Assyrian brutality is still famous to this day and even if the hatred has faded away since the victims and the victimaries have been gone for millenia, that memory persists, probably that is how things like the Holocaust and the japanese war crimes are going to be remembered, a dark chapter of the human history that is so distant in time that people could believe that things like that could not happen in the present, but sadly that brutal way in which we are able to treat each other is a trait that will remain until we disappear or somehow we manage to create some kind utopia.

Yeah, and if you think the Korean attitude to Japan is bad, try China, where the government allowed race riots to happen. Thankfully not many Japanese live there so the most that happened was Japanese cars being burned (lol). Honestly it seems to be an issue in the region - demanding apologies and reparations for shit that happened 70 years ago; taking the opinions of a few people as representative of a nation of 100+ million.

Apologies/reparations are only useful if the victims are alive. When all the people involved in the crime are dead, you really need to just fucking let go. Unfortunately the victim complex will not disappear until the governments peddling this shit stop. Which won't happen, because it's too useful.

I am just loving this little space of the internet, thanks to this backwards propaganda material I was able to learn a lot about a kinda recent and dark part of our modern history and the people posting have expressed themselves in a clear and respectful way, if the rest of the internet or more like if the rest of the world were a little more like this, stuff like this manga probably would not even exist in the first place; so, even if sounds a little odd, thanks Hi no Maru Gaisen Otome for being a thing even if it is just to provoke positive reactions that debunk the very core argument of its negative message.

I'll go one at a time.

Spoiler

education/workplace culture: korean students are expected to be at school from 7 am to 9 pm (sometimes as late as 11pm!). This is partly created by, partly creates a situation where there is extremely stressful, extremely competitive school culture where kids take their stress out on each other (rampant bullying), or on themselves (suicide). It's a society where your grade on a test all but determines your life. Not that it gets much better, since you're expected to work for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. You know Samsung? Their employees have buses running at 11pm to accommodate their work schedules. It's an insane system that makes you think "no wonder the birthrate is so low, the suicide rate so high, and the alcohol consumption greater than all but eastern europe." You do NOT want to be a worker in Korea. Reparations: What you're referring to is the Asian Womens fund, which is a Japanese government administered charity to raise money for comfort women. I believe $10 billion were raised and distributed since 1994. War crimes denial: While it is true that public officials have stated their opinions that go against conventional narratives about japanese war crimes, often at the expense of diplomatic relations, the Japanese government has not officially denied any war crimes. I do not find it proper to dismiss official japanese government apologies for the war crimes due to some esper-like ability to read their sincerity. Textbooks: It is true that there are japanese textbooks that do not mention or under play warcrimes. They total a whopping 1% of all the world history textbooks in use in Japanese schools. There are more schools in america actively teaching children that evolution is a hoax than schools in japan leaving out comfort women. Colonization: I'm under no illusion that colonization was all sunshine and roses. Asians are nationalistic to a fault, and being colonized is a serious blow to pride. And considering how Japan treated her own citizens, Koreans, who were legally considered Japanese citizens during the period, would not get much better (political suppression, censorship, etc). Thing is, Koreans were using bows and arrows when the Japanese came. Japanese colonization brought Korea from the medieval age to the modern era in a couple decades. Roads, schools, hospitals, factories, infrastructure, science, women's rights, the list goes on. A lot of this was blown up in the Korean war, which is why South Korea was so dirt fucking poor, along with the fact that all the manufacturing was in North Korea (which was actually superior to South Korea economically and militarily for much of the early Cold War). Koreans have a lot to thank the Japanese for, for better or for worse. Japanese narratives, war crimes, etc: while it's true that Koreans were forced into the war, there were also Koreans who volunteered. Japanese people were drafted as well, but they were not relegated to prison guard duty and hard labor like the Koreans. It is true that many koreans were charged as war criminals at the end of the war, as well as many Koreans victims of Japanese war crimes. I disagree that I'm taking the Japanese nationalist narrative. I don't have a time machine and I can't prove them right or wrong. I think the war crimes DID happen and were quite serious. What I'm actually saying is that japanese apologies for these war crimes fall on deaf ears because the Korean establishment is much more interested in a strawman to bash than an actual dialogue with Japan about events transpired 70 years ago. What should be a discussion for academics in universities has become fodder for politicians and talking heads, and it's doing a lot of harm between countries with a mutual interest in communist containment. Japanese nationalists see this as an attack on their nation, and seek to defend themselves against these "charges," not realizing that they're playing into the hands of Korean politicians by even engaging in the debate in the first place.

 

I only thought to give one side since I thought it'd be more interesting to present a side not often seen, as demonstrated by the comments preceeding mine. Of course, there are Japanese politicians who pander to their voters by engaging in dialogue about war crimes, and it does contribute to strained relations. However, their private opinions do not constitute government policy. Nor do they overwrite or cancel out previous official apologies given. I should also mention that I never really argued the veracity of the war crimes, merely the about the politics that have arisen over those events. As for that monument in New Jersey, I find shit like that quite cringe worthy because although the people building them have good intentions, it's quite obvious that the Japanese would see it as a provocation and a means to incite anti-Japanese sentiments. Rather than bring people together, it's caused controversy and divisions. The Japanese reaction was even more cringe worthy: sending diplomats to protest a statue built in some no name towns in New Jersey and California. I just wish everyone would fucking drop it, accept that not everyone's opinions are the same despite official stance being that the war crimes happened and Japan is sorry, and work together on building realistic sex robots. Imagine ordering a waifu online and sticking your dick in her. Fucking glorious. This is the stuff asia needs to work on, not historical arguments.

 

I think most reasonable people have the same sentiments as you, where Japanese apologies fall on deaf ears because Korean establishment is much more interested in a foreign enemy to scapegoat. Interestingly enough, most people debate the brutality of the Japanese colonization of Korea instead-- citing in comparison to Taiwan, which mentions both the good and bad, Korea only mentions the bad and fabricates even more evils. 

Cons: Unit 731, comfort women, annihilation of many cultural heritages and cultural genocide, the Kanto massacre, torture and violent riot suppression, forced labor, ect.

Pros: Explosive increase in population from 16 million to 25 million, indicating better living conditions and eventually becoming one of the most industrialized Asian countries.

I guess Japan didn't even treat its own citizens that well, no doubt many Koreans got similar poor treatment and worse. Japanese nationalists  says they had benevolent rule that was far better than native rulers and they helped Korea grow economically and culturally.... And they also kind of state that any libel from Korea is the result of Korea's historical revisionism. This goes to the point of denying comfort women and stating they were merely prostitutes, which is an extremely unpopular opinion. While Korean nationalists swings the opposite direction, stating that Japanese colonization was horribly brutal and oppressive beyond any means, an attempt to completely destroy the Korean identity and peoples. It's probably something in between in the end.

But ya, they should just agree on some shit, stop arguing, shake hands, then go boogeyman China instead.... who's actually a real threat and going to eventually steal their shit if they don't unite and resist Chinese influence. I've always had an unpopular view about cultural Darwinism-- I hope Japan culture doesn't get extinguished one day in the future, though. Then I will have to masturbate to actual Chinese cartoons.... that will truly be a tragedy. 

I wonder if Japan and Korea would be allies already if Japan didn't do all that fucked up shit and just blame it on, "lol it was war mb bro erryone is doing it". Regardless, a shitton of Koreans probably would have died regardless. Japanese folk forcing their own citizens to commit suicide rather than surrender, starving their soldiers for most of the war(Though, this can't be helped I guess? Both Germany and Japan wanted more living space and food), and eventually getting nuked twice before surrendering. 

Gotta stop with the honorable suicide culture and move on to the GLORIOUS AGE OF SEX ROBOT WAIFUS. It will usher in true peace

-snip-

That's only the short version by blaming the entirety of the dispute on Korea. You gloss over decades of brutal occupation, systematized rape, and wholesale attempted cultural genocide where Japan literally razed Korea's heritage to the ground ("but they built roads on the ashes," you object) and tried to snuff out its independent identity, language, and history. Your timeline for South Korea scapegoating everything on Japan after the North Korean threat abated and only then eliciting a hardline response in Japan doesn't align with Japan's much longer and continuing history of wholesale discrimination against and massacre of Zainichi Koreans. You insist that Korea is dredging up old history, but Japan is trying just as hard to bury it to this day with denialist textbooks, politicians, and diplomats downplaying it in places as far flung and exotic as New Jersey.
 
There is a lot that is accurate in your account, but it is fragmentary and one-sided.

Well, I say this as an ethnic Korean living in the US: You have to remove yourself a bit to really see the big picture. I agree generally with what you're saying, maybe with a few nitpick here and there.

Spoiler

And like I said, fear of a foreign bogeyman became ingrained in Korean identity, unfortunately. That's why, in a couple decades, once the japan bashing wears out, Koreans may move onto a new whipping boy. It's a very toxic relic of the early cold war propaganda press. Japanese nationalism tends to be more of the "keep it anonymous" variety, and honestly, it's not hard for a Korean to be friends with a Japanese if he comes with mutual respect and kindness, but the other way around is much more difficult due to this. I think biased, agenda - driven media and politicians trying to distract the people with red herrings are universal phenomena. Perhaps someday a Korean politician will be brave enough to confront the flaws in Korean culture (especially education and workplace), make peace with Japan (or better yet apologize for being sandy cunts to them and their emperor), stand up to communist China, and focus on making Korea great again :^). I wouldn't bet on it though. Just a quick nitpick, though. Japan gave Korea millions in reparations when it was a dirt poor shit hole that looked up to the Philippines as an economic paradise. This money was pocketed by Park Chung Hee and diverted to infrastructure and manufacturing, and the Korean people didn't find out about it until the 90's, when courts in South Korea ruled that the Korean government would be responsible for distributing reparations.

I see, I see. What are the flaws in Korean education and workplace culture that you've mentioned a couple times now? I'm rather curious.

I see; I thought Japan culturally and economically revolutionized Korea when they colonized them, so they wouldn't be that horribly poor. Regardless, reparations were given, and I believe that a fund of 10 million or so was to be redistributed to South Korean comfort women once again in 2016? However, it seems that in every article I read about reparations, it always says that Japan is still "denying" the existence of Korean comfort women while giving them reparations, which I find odd. And most articles I read state that "Japan has never apologized for any war crimes" while there is an entire wiki-page dedicated to formal Japanese war crime apologies. Another thing that's often stated by Koreans that I wonder is true or not, is that Japanese textbooks never mention any of their nation's war crimes.(This is also a common complaint when people talk about U.S history education, but it's a blatant lie. I'm a 90s kid, and all the history books I've read demonized the United States quite a bit.. for fair reason, I guess.)

Lastly, what are your thoughts on the Japanese colonization of Korea? This is something I've read very little about, but it seems a bit contested. The vast majority of people say it was a time of horribly brutal oppression and Korea suffered, while a small minority say that it wasn't that bad and Korea benefited loads. The reasoning for this is that Korea ended up becoming one of the most industrialized Asian nations, didn't suffer many casualties like in other colonized areas when rebelling(600k in Philippines, 20-30m in Congo, ect) while Korea's uprising had a whopping 553 deaths. Apparently first President Syngman Rhee consolidating power(had to remove middle-upper class Koreans who integrated into Japanese society) is wildly blamed for anti-Japanese rhetoric, beginning with Japan stealing trees from Korea, to language, culture, property, ect and this paved the way for Japan becoming South Korea's boogeyman very far in the future. 

Then again, I'm not sure stating that Koreans fought for the IJN would be a plus since it's stated to also be a "War crime" in a sort. Forcing Korean men to work in Japanese factories, fight for the Japanese in their armies, and taking their women to be used as sex slaves. For a Korean, you seem to favor the Japanese narrative quite a bit. 

Ha, so is this the Manga Kenkanryu of the 2010s? Weak trolling in the description.
 

Delicious liberal tears.

And yet the Liberals in Japan are the conservative party, comparable to the British Tories and American Republicans. This is what using labels as insults lead to, you look foolish when trying to apply the same terms to another country.

Not exactly. This reads like a list of all the netuyo memes. Next few chapters will probably be about things like intellectual property disputes, island disputes, the 2002 world cup, etc. Honestly, I can understand where they're coming from, but looking at it from a 3rd party perspective is more informative.

 

The simple rundown of it all is:

Spoiler

The South Korean government draws more of its inspiration from imperial, militarized Japan than modern Japan. The man who built modernized South Korea, Park Chung Hee, was an officer in the IJA born in Japan, and brought an imperial Japanese military mindset to rule over South Korea during the 60's and 70's. This meant propaganda, suppression, but on the other hand economic prosperity. For most of the latter half of the 20th century, South Korean propaganda was based around the North Korean threat. This gave the South Korean people a sense of identity and purpose, that they would have to reunite Korea in order to combat the threat of the red menace. The problem is, they went a little too far and opposition to a foreign bogeyman became ingrained in Korean identity.

 

Fast forward a few decades later and the constant threat of North Korea begins to lose its effect on the South Korean people. South Koreans, nowadays, view North Korea as more of a charity case than before and the impact of the red menace isn't enough to scare them (kinda like if you live in an area around tornadoes/earthquakes/hurricanes/etc long enough, the threat of these disasters becomes more commonplace than terrifying). So then, the government and media decide to drum up events that transpired over 70 years ago, trying to frame Japan as this unapologetic, barbaric peoples that secretly have no regrets whatsoever about their role in WW2 (even though Korea was a part of Japan, Japan built schools roads hospitals and infrastructure, Japan modernized Korea culturally and economically, and many Koreans fought for the IJA/IJN, but hush hush), and possibly wish to invade Korea in the future once again. Thing is, the Japanese government, and the current emperor as well, have issues dozens of apologies for these events in the past, and even offered restitution and compensation, making them effectively legally and morally in the clear. When this is pointed out, Koreans, who were informed that such apologies were insincere by their media, saw this as an affront to their national identity, and protested back. Japanese nationalists faced with accusations of being aggressive warlords seeking to undermine other nations' sovereignty, doubled down.

 

So now, we have a situation where the Korean government and media, considering Japan a pawn, use Japan as a whipping boy to distract the people from the destructive education/work culture and the encroaching influence of communist China. The Korean government couldn't care less how Japan or her citizens react, since any apology will be called insincere and any doubling down will be called evidence of a warmongering Japan. The Japanese see this as an attempt by the South Korean government to undermine their sovereignty and bring down Japan, as you saw in the manga, while in actuality the South Korean government couldn't give less of a shit about Japan and just want their own people distracted from actual problems (a la "Saddam Hussein has WMDs" and "abortion is murder (ignore the corruption please)"). Japanese and South Korean nationalists see each other as seeking to undermine each other's sovereignty, when in actuality simply dropping the subjects and moving on with their lives would contribute far more to an end to nationalist tensions (though this must be mutual). Basically, South Koreans need to accept Japan's apologies, sincere or not, and shut the fuck up about history and those damned islands, and Japanese need to shut the fuck up about history and those damned islands. North Korea and communist China are far greater threats to both countries.

 

Oh, and as an added bonus, the "9cm" refers to a paper published in a Korean Journal of Urology, which measured the average lengths of South Korean penises to be 9cm. The thing is, the lengths measured in the study were flaccid lengths, not erect (for those of you that don't know, flaccid lengths and erect lengths are not correlated, and many Asians are "growers"). No one checks the sources, though, so Koreans settle for getting flustered and being mad while the Japanese, who also don't check the sources, accept it as fact and laugh in glee. Japanese nationalist will often cite the average Japanese penis length as 5.1 inches, though they'll never tell you that the source is a survey conducted by a Japanese masturbatory products company that collected self-reported values. Basically, the Japanese nationalists like to compare self-reported values submitted to a faptoys company to a measurement of flaccid penis lengths at a single South Korean hospital. "There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there's statistics."

 

And yes, that's the short version.

That's only the short version by blaming the entirety of the dispute on Korea. You gloss over decades of brutal occupation, systematized rape, and wholesale attempted cultural genocide where Japan literally razed Korea's heritage to the ground ("but they built roads on the ashes," you object) and tried to snuff out its independent identity, language, and history. Your timeline for South Korea scapegoating everything on Japan after the North Korean threat abated and only then eliciting a hardline response in Japan doesn't align with Japan's much longer and continuing history of wholesale discrimination against and massacre of Zainichi Koreans. You insist that Korea is dredging up old history, but Japan is trying just as hard to bury it to this day with denialist textbooks, politicians, and diplomats downplaying it in places as far flung and exotic as New Jersey.

There is a lot that is accurate in your account, but it is fragmentary and one-sided.