JO-2020: Seoul calls on the IOC to ban a controversial Japanese flag

Seoul (AFP)

South Korea on Wednesday urged the International Olympic Committee to ban the use of a controversial Japanese flag during the Tokyo-2020 Games, which has been seen in much of East Asia as a symbol of Japanese military aggression during the Second World War.

"We explained the story behind the flag and demanded that it be banned during the Games," said the South Korean Sports Ministry, where resentment remains keen on the colonization of the country. Japan from the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

The flag of the "rising sun" with red sunbeams - distinct from the official flag of Japan with a simple red circle on a white background - has been used as the flag of Japan's maritime self-defense force since 1954.

But for the neighbors of Japan, it refers to the flag planted during the Japanese colonization.

This flag represents "a clear political symbol" that wakes up painful memories of Japan's wartime atrocities, the ministry added, likening them to the "nightmares the Nazi swastika gives to Europeans".

Last week, organizers of the Tokyo Olympics assured that the flag had no political significance and said it would be allowed during the competition next summer.

These historical disputes between the two neighbors have been poisoning their relations for ages and in early August led to the establishment of reciprocal trade restrictions.

The Japanese government is furious that South Korean courts are demanding that Japanese companies compensate South Koreans who were forced to work in their factories during the Japanese occupation until the end of the Second World War.

In South Korea, some parliamentarians argued for a boycott of the Tokyo Olympics and a ban on travel to the country because of the alleged radiation risks eight years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The South Korean Olympic Committee announced last month that it has lodged a complaint with the organizers of the Tokyo Games about radiation risks at sites around Fukushima, as well as the possibility of food grown in the region being served. Olympic Village athletes.

© 2019 AFP