Japanese and Korean students unite to protest Abe

Posted on : 2019-08-08 16:14 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Citizens from both sides express solidarity and reiterate that they’re not enemies
Korean and Japanese students gather in front of the Hyundai U-Plex Department Store in Seoul to protest the Shinzo Abe administration’s economic retaliation against South Korea on Aug. 7. (Kim Jung-hyo
Korean and Japanese students gather in front of the Hyundai U-Plex Department Store in Seoul to protest the Shinzo Abe administration’s economic retaliation against South Korea on Aug. 7. (Kim Jung-hyo

“Peace, No Abe!”

That was the phrase that was formed when a group of 10 demonstrators held their placards together. The demonstrators had gathered in front of the Hyundai U-Plex Department Store in Seoul’s Seodaemun District, at 11 am on Aug. 7.

The demonstrators were university students from the two countries of South Korea and Japan. These like-minded students had come together to organize a campaign called the “peace challenge.”

“There are also Japanese denouncing the Japanese government, and protests about the closure of an exhibition featuring a comfort woman statue are spreading throughout the international community. Koreans and Japanese aren’t fighting other, but coming together to rebuke Shinzo Abe for inciting war in Northeast Asia,” said Son Sol, chair of the Minjung Party’s human rights committee.

The peace challenge, Son explained, is an appeal “for people to write the words “peace challenge” by hand and post the message to their social media accounts to show their commitment to bringing peace to Asia.”

One of the people at the demonstration on Wednesday was a Japanese foreign exchange student named Akari, who explained that he’d come to Korea this past February to study Korean culture. “The current Japanese government apparently wants to hide the truth about its history of aggression and to pretend that it never happened. I came out today to condemn the Abe administration for its failure to show remorse for [Japan’s] war crimes,” Akari said.

When asked about South Koreans’ boycott of Japanese products, Akari said, “The Japanese press is reporting that the boycott is based on hatred and anti-Japanese sentiment.” Akari added that he hopes this campaign will help correct that misunderstanding.

Koreans starting to differentiate between Japan and Abe administration

As the Japanese government’s retaliatory measures kick off an “economic war” with South Korea, South Korean citizens are increasingly distancing themselves from unconditional opposition to Japan (“No Japan”) and calling for the focus to be placed on opposition to the Japanese prime minister (“No Abe”). As initial frothy fervor about “getting the better of Japan” subsides, Koreans are taking a second look at the situation. This has prompted proposals to put the brakes on state-led anti-Japanese marketing campaigns, treat Japanese citizens as potential allies, and to even campaign for peace in Asia.

One of the demonstrators who spoke with the Hankyoreh at the “peace challenge” event was Lee Tae-hui, an activist with a group called Peace Butterfly. “During a ‘peace journey’ to Vietnam last winter, I visited the site of massacres of civilians [by South Korean troops] during the Vietnam War. The former sex slaves for the Japanese imperial army and the survivors of massacres in Vietnam want the same thing — ensuring that such a war never happens again. But Abe is trampling on the voices of the victims and inflicting emotional wounds on the survivors,” Lee said.

The same motivations inform a campaign by overseas artists and feminists to protest the decision by the organizers of the Aichi Triennale 2019 to close an exhibition titled “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” In this campaign, protesters dress up like the comfort woman whose statue triggered the closure of the exhibition.

“This is what solidarity is all about,” tweeted one individual on Twitter (@groun****). Another Twitter user (@Sylph****) wrote, “Legitimacy can elicit this kind of voluntary participation by third parties.”

Lee Yeong-a, an executive with People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, said that such developments exhibit “Koreans’ resistance to the central and local governments’ efforts to use the boycott to stir up anti-Japanese sentiment and their mature opinion that the Abe administration and the Japanese people shouldn’t be conflated.”

“Ordinary Koreans seem to be much more level-headed about the current crisis than politicians who are making extreme remarks fueled by patriotism and anti-Japanese sentiment,” Lee said.

“The citizens appear to be resisting the state’s attempt to meddle in their voluntary boycott and to mobilize them for its own ends. The point of the boycott is not to ruin Japanese companies, but to voice the demand for the Abe administration to retract its economic retaliation,” said Seol Dong-hun, a professor of sociology at Chonbuk National University.

By Lee Yu-jin and Kim Min-je, staff reporters

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

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