Japan, Seoul in new colonial spat

SOUTH KOREA: TOKYO ‘WON’T BE PART’ OF FLEET REVIEW

Seoul

Japan is likely to skip an international fleet review in South Korea next week, Japanese media said yesterday, after Seoul asked Tokyo to reconsider flying its “Rising Sun” flag on a warship – the latest spat over the countries’ colonial history.

Japan’s relations with both South and North Korea have long been strained by lingering resentment over its colonisation of the peninsula, territorial rows and the issue of girls and women forced to work in Japan’s wartime brothels.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference Japan’s defence ministry was considering whether to take part, but public broadcaster NHK said Tokyo had already told Seoul it was unlikely to do so.

Many people in both Koreas see the red-and-white flag as a symbol of Japan’s past military aggression and its colonisation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

“The ‘Rising Sun’ flag is a warcrime flag that the 20th-century Japanese imperialists used when executing their barbaric invasions into our nation and other Asian nations,” North Korea’s state-controlled Uriminjokkiri website said.

“Planning to enter flying the ‘Rising Sun’ flag is an unbearable insult and ridicule to our people.”

In South Korea, the president’s office received 250 petitions for the Japanese ship to be barred.

The “Rising Sun” ensign, used by the Japanese Imperial Navy before and during World War II, was adopted by the Maritime Self-Defence Force in 1954. – Reuters