Japan protest over Korean assassin Ahn Jung-geun memorial

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frigidmagi
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#1 Japan protest over Korean assassin Ahn Jung-geun memorial

Post by frigidmagi »

BBC
Japan has criticised a memorial built in China to commemorate a Korean independence activist who assassinated a prominent Japanese statesman in 1909.

Ahn Jung-geun shot dead Hirobumi Ito, four-time prime minister of Japan and the first resident governor of then Japanese-run Korea.

A Japanese government spokesman branded him a "terrorist" after the Chinese-Korean memorial hall opened in China's Harbin city, where Ito was shot.

He is celebrated as a hero in Korea.

"The co-ordinated move by China and South Korea based on a one-sided view [of history] is not conducive to building peace and stability," Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

But China said that Ahn was a "famous anti-Japanese high-minded person" and South Korea's foreign ministry said Ahn was a "widely respected figure", describing the assassination as a "courageous act", the AFP news agency reports.

Yasukuni controversy
All parties in the row have tried to adopt the mantle of diplomacy.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it hoped the museum would "set the path for genuine peace and co-operation based on correct historical awareness".

Mr Suga, on the other hand, said the "extremely regrettable" monument was "not contributing to building peace and cooperative relations in this region".

The Ahn memorial is just the latest act to lay bare the acrimonious legacy of Japan's occupations of China and the Korean peninsula, which took place in the first half of last century and resonate to this day.

He was hanged for killing Ito but decades later he was awarded a prestigious civil decoration in South Korea for his efforts for Korean independence and there are many memorials to him there.

The row comes after Shinzo Abe was condemned by China and South Korea for visiting the Yasukuni shrine that honours Japan's war dead, including some convicted war criminals.

Mr Abe insisted that he visited the shrine in a personal capacity and also to pledge that "never again will people suffer in war".

Nevertheless alarm has been growing in recent months over deteriorating relations between China, Japan and South Korea, who are also embroiled in a number of disputes over territory in the East China Sea.
You know, I like Japan. I know that must be hard to believe given how critical I am of their government's policies and certain social practices of their's but I'm critical for the same reason I tend to be critical of certain writers. I have high expections and want them to do better. That said... Japan, sweetie... You can't complain about other people making memorials to people you don't like... Not as long as Prime Ministers keep visiting shrines that celebrate war criminals. And the I dressed up in someone else's uniform to kill the enemy type that everyone has, but honest to God, Holy Shit he's a supervillian types.

Plus I'm ending up having to take the side of the People's Republic of China... I DON'T LIKE THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PRC! So I feel somewhat annoyed when I have to defend them! *goes back to Venezuela thread to be petty some more*
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
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