Japan comic books fan hatred towards China By Norimitsu Onishi (The New York Times) Updated: 2005-11-21 09:35 Mr. Nishio, who wrote a chapter in the comic book about South Korea, said
Japan should try to cut itself off from China and South Korea, as Fukuzawa
advocated. "Currently we cannot ignore South Korea and China," Mr. Nishio said.
"Economically, it's difficult. But in our hearts, psychologically, we should
remain composed and keep that attitude."
The reality that South Korea had emerged as a rival hit many Japanese with
full force in 2002, when the countries were co-hosts of soccer's World Cup and
South Korea advanced further than Japan. At the same time, the so-called Korean
Wave - television dramas, movies and music from South Korea - swept Japan and
the rest of Asia, often displacing Japanese pop cultural exports.
The wave, though popular
among Japanese women, gave rise to a countermovement, especially on the
Internet. Sharin Yamano, the young cartoonist behind "Hating the Korean Wave,"
began his strip on his own Web site then.
"The 'Hate Korea' feelings have spread explosively since the World Cup," said
Akihide Tange, an editor at Shinyusha, the publisher of the comic book. Still,
the number of sales, 360,000 so far, surprised the book's editors, suggesting
that the Hate Korea movement was far larger than they had believed.
"We weren't expecting there'd be so many," said Susumu Yamanaka, another
editor at Shinyusha. "But when the lid was actually taken off, we found a
tremendous number of people feeling this way."
So far the two books, each running about 300 pages and costing around $10,
have drawn little criticism from public officials, intellectuals or the
mainstream news media. For example, Japan's most conservative national daily,
Sankei Shimbun, said the Korea book described issues between the countries
"extremely rationally, without losing its balance."
As nationalists and revisionists have come to dominate the public debate in
Japan, figures advocating an honest view of history are being silenced, said
Yutaka Yoshida, a historian at Hitotsubashi University here. Mr. Yoshida said
the growing movement to deny history, like the Rape of Nanjing, was a sort of
"religion" for an increasingly insecure nation.
"Lacking confidence, they need a story of healing," Mr. Yoshida said. "Even
if we say that story is different from facts, it doesn't mean anything to
them."
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