3 ms·

Please admonish me for an ignorant question if needed, but what are the tensions between South Korea and Japan?

ojbyrne 5y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93South_Korea_relations https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93South_Korea_re...
yongjik 5y ago
I wouldn't say there's a military tension - well, other than the island of Dokdo (aka Takeshima) that's stupidly blown out of proportion, but I hope nobody's stupid enough to go to war over it. However the two countries don't exactly have an amicable history. I hope we get along well with each other (and we kind of do, more or less), but Japan still has many right-wing politicians who downplay their past war crimes. On our side, some South Korean politicians love to use Japan as a convenient scapegoat and blame Korea's every social problem on past Japanese occupation. It's less about direct military conflict between the two, and more about who gets a larger voice in any kind of issues. With the two Koreas, China, Russia, and Japan crammed in such a small area, East Asia is a tough place. You need to be seen as someone others cannot ignore.
michael1999 5y ago
Japan ruled Korea 1910 to 1945 with all the brutality typical of imperial Japan. I'm not Korean, but I might bear a grudge if my grandfather had been worked to death in slavery, and my grandmother raped endlessly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule
- nemo44x 5y ago
  I was at a park in Seoul that had a mural running around it that illustrated very graphically this history. It was a very old mural. I think it becomes less an issue if it’s your great grandfather and less and less each generation removed.
numpad0 5y ago
None of the East Asian countries are friendly like US and Canada are. Different ancestries, history of invasions, colonial rules, “liberation”, etc.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93South_Korea_relations https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93South_Korea_re...

yongjik 5y ago

I wouldn't say there's a military tension - well, other than the island of Dokdo (aka Takeshima) that's stupidly blown out of proportion, but I hope nobody's stupid enough to go to war over it. However the two countries don't exactly have an amicable history. I hope we get along well with each other (and we kind of do, more or less), but Japan still has many right-wing politicians who downplay their past war crimes. On our side, some South Korean politicians love to use Japan as a convenient scapegoat and blame Korea's every social problem on past Japanese occupation. It's less about direct military conflict between the two, and more about who gets a larger voice in any kind of issues. With the two Koreas, China, Russia, and Japan crammed in such a small area, East Asia is a tough place. You need to be seen as someone others cannot ignore.

michael1999 5y ago

Japan ruled Korea 1910 to 1945 with all the brutality typical of imperial Japan. I'm not Korean, but I might bear a grudge if my grandfather had been worked to death in slavery, and my grandmother raped endlessly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule

nemo44x 5y ago
I was at a park in Seoul that had a mural running around it that illustrated very graphically this history. It was a very old mural. I think it becomes less an issue if it’s your great grandfather and less and less each generation removed.

numpad0 5y ago

None of the East Asian countries are friendly like US and Canada are. Different ancestries, history of invasions, colonial rules, “liberation”, etc.