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baolongtrann | 6 years ago

Have to admit I am clueless about the history between these two. Why don't they like each other?

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theaustinseven|6 years ago

Japan invaded the Korean peninsula as well as a sizeable portion of China and enacted horribly cruel war crimes against the citizens of those places. I won't get into details, but this comment would be akin to asking "What's the history between the Germans and Jews? Why don't they like each other?". The primary difference being that Germany had a reckoning with the history of what happened during that time, while the Japanese Government has mostly denied that any of its war crimes even happened which never allowed tensions to drop as much as they may have in Europe.

jpatokal|6 years ago

Actually, Japan has apologized repeatedly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements...

However, Japan has more than its fair share of far-right fruitcakes who deny everything, and in both Korea and China politicians have found Japan to be a convenient whipping boy whenever they need a distraction from domestic problems.

umanwizard|6 years ago

It's worth pointing out, I think, that nowadays most Germans and Jews get along perfectly fine, despite their history a few generations ago.

So just citing that case isn't a full explanation of the enmity between Japanese and Koreans.

jpatokal|6 years ago

Historically, Korea was repeatedly invaded by Japan. More recently, Korea was a Japanese colony between 1910 and 1945, during which the Japanese ruled with an iron fist and did their best to destroy Korean identity by forcing people to take Japanese names etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Japan%E2%80%93Korea...

duckonomy|6 years ago

The identity-destroying part only came after 1938. They were trying to do 내선일체 [內鮮一體] (not sure how to translate this in English).

Before that, they actually helped Koreans learn Hangul. I was also very anti-Japan as a I grew up under typical Korean parents.

But after reading the actual history, there were some good parts during the colonization. Although, I'm not denying the horrific parts caused by war. But that's just war. It's horrible to begin with. Not to mention what Koreans did in the Vietnam War to the locals.

I think part of the hostility from either of the countries is caused by only seeing part of the reality.

edflsafoiewq|6 years ago

Which certainly explains why Korea doesn't like Japan, but why does Japan seem to dislike Korea so much?

max76|6 years ago

One small chapter of the history "The Mimizuka ... is a monument in Kyoto, Japan, dedicated to the sliced noses of killed Korean soldiers and civilians as well as Ming Chinese troops taken as war trophies during the Japanese invasions of Korea from 1592 to 1598."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimizuka

devonkim|6 years ago

Besides more recent events several hundred years ago Japan also tried to invade Korea under Tokotomo Hideyoshi. Japanese Imperialism has a bit of history to it that makes Koreans uncomfortable given the peninsula has been under constant conquest by its neighbors for at least a thousand years now.

TheOperator|6 years ago

Well there was the whole Japan making Korean women into their sex slaves during WWII thing.

nreilly|6 years ago

With the euphemism 'Comfort Women'.