Japan to skip naval event after South Korea protests over ‘Rising Sun’ flag
SOUTH KOREA/JAPAN - Japan has decided not to take part in an international fleet review in South Korea next week after Seoul effectively asked Tokyo not to fly its ‘Rising Sun’ flag on a warship, Japan’s defense minister said yesterday, the latest spat between the two sides. Japan’s relations with both South and North Korea have long been strained by lingering resentment over its 191045 colonization of Korea, territorial rows and the issue of Korean girls and women forced to work in Japan’s wartime brothels.
Japan’s decision comes after South Korea this week asked participating countries not to fly flags at the bow or at the stern of their vessels, Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters.
“When it comes to the Maritime Self-Defence Force ensign, domestic laws and regulations stipulate that it must be hoisted at the stern”, Iwaya said. “Regrettably, we have reached a decision that we cannot help forgoing the participation.”
Many people in both Koreas see the redandwhite flag as a symbol of Japan’s past military aggression and its colonization.
“The ‘Rising Sun’ flag is a warcrime flag that the 20thcentury 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, articles about the controversy are among the most widely read on social media, with the president’s office receiving 250 petitions for the Japanese ship to be barred.
On Friday, the South Korean Navy said Japanese naval ships flew the ensign when they participated in fleet reviews in 1998 and 2008, but it had asked all ships at this year’s event to display national flags and the South Korean flag.
The ‘Rising Sun’ ensign, used by the Japanese Imperial Navy in campaigns around Asia and the Pacific before and during World War Two, was adopted by the Maritime SelfDefence Force in 1954. Variations of the flag are used by the Ground Self-Defence Force and on the fatigues of some Japanese sailors, but some South Koreans liken it to Nazi symbols such as the swastika.
(Reuters)