A promotional video for the Rising Sun Flag produced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has been criticized as a Korean advertisement on YouTube in Korea.
In October of last year, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs produced a video (youtu.be/9ONIe8vgg-A) titled 'The Rising Sun Flag as Japan's Old Culture' in Korean, English, and Chinese and posted it on the official YouTube channel.
As of the 27th, the number of views reached 1.19 million.
The video shows "The Rising Sun Flag is a part of Japanese culture, and the traditional culture that has been passed down for hundreds of years is still being passed down in the present day", "The Rising Sun Flag encourages morale in sports cheering and prays for victory", "The Rising Sun Flag pattern is unique to Japan It is full of beautifying contents of the Rising Sun flag, such as "It is not only one thing, but has been accepted and widely used in many countries around the world."
A bigger problem is that this video has recently appeared as a Korean advertisement on YouTube in Korea.
The online community has provoked a strong backlash.
Netizens reacted violently, such as "I reported it as soon as I saw it, but I still don't get angry", "If I don't get my head around, I'll come back to the Japanese colonial era", and "We need to campaign for a ban on YouTube altogether."
In response, the cyber diplomatic mission VANK immediately sent a letter of protest to YouTube Korea and requested a ban on advertisements.
Vank said, "The Japanese government emphasizes that the design of the Rising Sun flag adopted as the flag of the Japanese Army in 1870 and the flag of the Japanese Navy in 1889 is a 'traditional pattern', but hides the fact that the Rising Sun Flag is an imperialist war criminal flag used in the war of aggression. There is,” he criticized.
He continued, "Japanese imperialism escalated the war under the rising flag, and not only took the lives of 20 million Asians, but also concealed the fact that it committed various crimes such as forced labor, sex slavery, and exploitation," he pointed out.
The Rising Sun Flag is the 'flag of war criminals', and it is said that it is like the 'Hackenkreuz' of Nazi Germany to Asians such as Korea and China who suffered from Japanese imperialism 100 years ago.
Hakenkreuz, meaning 'clawed cross' in German, is widely known as a symbol of Hitler and Nazism.
Vank strongly criticized, "It is a problem for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to upload a video promoting the Rising Sun Flag on YouTube, but it is a bigger problem to advertise such a distorted video on YouTube channels around the world, especially Korean channels watched by Koreans."
YouTube's advertising policy stipulates that 'content that promotes racism or hate is prohibited as an advertisement'.
Park Ki-tae, head of BANK, insisted, "According to the rules set by themselves, YouTube Korea should immediately ban Rising Sun Flag advertisements that are content that promotes racism and hate."
(Photo=provided by VANK, Yonhap News)