Everybody who knows a bit of history, knows that the relations between South Korea and Japan are not the best out there. Japan ruled over Korea from 1910 to 1945, and the colonial rule broke with the end of World War II.

But while the political relations might be strained, the Japanese population still has a lot of love for K-pop and K-drama stars. A lot of the K-pop artists and groups often release special Japanese albums, hold concerts and appear on their television programs.

But recently, the South Korean boyband BTS was involved in a controversy when a television appearance of theirs was cancelled almost at the last minute due to a controversial shirt worn by one of the members of the band.

As per the New York Times, the famous band was going to appear on the Japanese television TV Asahi for a live performance on Thursday 8th November 2018, but that was cancelled suddenly when news came out of one of the band members wearing a T-shirt that netizens claimed to be anti-Japanese and celebrated the atomic bombing.

What Was The Jimin Shirt Incident?

Chatter on the social media and online started on Wednesday and Thursday, when out of nowhere, a picture of BTS band member Jimin popped up with him wearing a T-shirt about the liberation of Korea.

The t-shirt had the line, “PATRIOTISM OUR HISTORY LIBERATION KOREA,” repeated on the back of the shirt, along with the historical image of the mushroom cloud that rose after the bombing of the Japanese city Nagasaki, and another image of the Korean people celebrating their independence.

This apparently, angered a lot of Japanese people online who felt that it was mocking the tragic incident when Americans used atomic bomb against Japan and ended WW II.

After the commotion this caused, news came out that BTS had cancelled their flight to Japan for that day and shortly, TV Asahi also came out with the statement as to why the band would not be performing at Music Station, a program at the network.

It stated that, “After we talked to the band’s agency about the member’s intention in wearing the T-shirt, we have regrettably decided to call off their performance at this time.”

Big Hit, the agency managing the band also came out with a statement where they apologised to fans, who were waiting for the show, but they did not talk about the shirt at all.

Conveniently Shifting Blame To BTS

Apparently, it seems that the shirt was not exactly to blame for the cancellation, as instead another program called the ‘Kohaku Uta Gassen’ by NHK network, a popular end of the year Japanese music festival had cancelled the performances by BTS and another K-pop group TWICE.

It was reported on 6th November that the performances, which would have been the first time that K-pop groups were on the festival, were cancelled because of the rising tension between Japan and South Korea over the recent issue of wartime forced labour and the recompensation that the latter was asking of the former.

The fans are also talked about how suspicious it was that a shirt that Jimin wore last year in 2017, while filming for their annual reality style travel show called ‘Bon Voyage’ and their YouTube red series ‘Burn The Stage’ was only now coming up.

Along with this, the August 6th and 9th 1945 bomb that dropped on the Japanese cities also led to the end of the colonial rule that Imperial Japan had over the Korean peninsula and led to their freedom.

The Koreans, both North and South, celebrate August 15th as Liberation Day or Victory Over Japan Day, as that was the day that the Japanese finally surrendered.

It would make sense that an event that led to their freedom would be celebrated in Korea and naturally as Korean citizens, BTS could also wear merchandise remembering that iconic time.

Fans, Japanese ARMYs (a name that is given to fans of BTS) especially talked about how the Japanese media was trying to put all the blame on BTS and that single shirt and trying to shift focus away from the real thing.

Read More: Why Is K-Pop Still So Regressive To Have Only 1 Publicly Gay Artist?

 

What Was The Real Issue?

The real issue that the Japanese media was not putting into focus was actually the recent verdict by the South Korean Supreme Court demanding that a popular Japanese steel-maker company compensate the Korean men taken as slave labour over to Japan and made to work there forcefully at the time the second World War was going on.

The company was Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp and the judgement by the court was towards 4 South Koreans who should be paid about 100 million won (about $87,700) each since their reparation rights were not totally finished by the treaty signed by the two countries in 1965.

Where Japan stated that the treaty had resolved the issue “completely and finally,” and the Japanese government is asking the South Korean government to take back the verdict, the latter is also not backing down easy.

Even the designer of the T-shirt brand called Ourhistory, had apologised and said that the shirt was not meant to be anti-Japanese.

The Relations Between Korea And Japan

Japan and South Korea relations have always been a little tense due to the wartime incidents and that according to Koreans, the colonial rule had Japan acting in atrocious ways towards the former.

As per reports, from a total of about 150,000 wartime forced labour only 5,000 victims are alive.

Another would be the Japanese term ‘comfort women’ who were Korean women taken by force to the colonial country and made to work in Japanese military brothels.

It seems that the Japanese media along with the particular network had a good party to put all the blame to, while appealing to the general Japanese sentiments.

This was caught by fans and more who pointed out that Koreans had no reason to celebrate the civillian deaths of the bomb since even 70,000 Koreans perished in the attack.

J-ARMY’s stood by BTS even in these times and carried out posts and tweets declaring their support for the group.

https://twitter.com/kku_613/status/1061142403875139586?s=19

https://twitter.com/sugafull27/status/1061085542681579521?s=19

https://twitter.com/sugafull27/status/1060803511259148288?s=19

https://twitter.com/sugafull27/status/1061446362833829888

Not only that, but various other Japanese people also commented on the cancellation of the BTS performance.

A professor stated his opinion,

https://twitter.com/sugafull27/status/1061355433410154496?s=19

Along with him, a famous Japanese neuroscientist also tweeted about it saying that,

https://twitter.com/kocchi/status/1060843355154743296?s=19

Not just that, but J-ARMYs also broke the rule of not visiting the airport or waiting at airports, something that is forbidden at Japanese airports, just to show their support to BTS who finally came to the country for their dome concert.

https://twitter.com/FCKARMERlES/status/1061271667823927303?s=19 (tweet removed now)

They also left encouraging and uplifting messages on the recent posts of BTS on Twitter especially towards Jimin.

Image Credits: Google Images

Sources: Reuters, NY Times, Billboard 

Find the blogger at: @chirali_08

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33 COMMENTS

  7. Thankyou verry much.. This article is verry well written
    Appreciate this verry much.. many media actually took what they see from other media that is trying to use BTS for politics. It is verry dissapointing that they wrote those things without searching up the truth. It hurt us as BTS fans cause all this time BTS and their fans have been trying to send positive message to young people around the world and end up being used for this things. We’re trying to speak up but some media is bringing us down.

    SO THANKYOU FOR THIS MEANINGFULL ARTICLE
    TRUTH MUST BE TOLD

  11. The title of this article is EXACTLY what it is! Its nothing more than a excuse! BTS aren’t those type of people, and if people would just do their damn jobs called “journalism” then things might not have reached this far. It was never about Jimin’s Jersey!

  18. Scapegoating is never the solution to solve the tentions between two countries. As a person who is neither Korean nor Japanese I had a hard time understanding how wearing that shirt seemed ok for either the artist or the stylist who probably picked the item. But when you look at it from a Korean’s point of view, the atomic bomb is what led to the liberation of Korea, so I can understand why the use of that photography (No matter how distasteful it is from an outsider’s point of view) could have seemed for the designer as just an element part of the story of how Korea was freed from the cruel Japanese imperial rule that lasted for decades, not a celebration of death but simply a celebration of independence. From what I understood it was mainly Japanese right wingers with anti-Korean sentiment that made this escalate since the shirt was worn almost two years ago and the group held many events in Japan in the meantime, it’s a shame that that tv station succumbed to the pressure or extremists! It’s sad because it feels like Japan doesn’t totally own up to it’s past cruelty, since this issue only became one after the tragic story of forced workers and comfort women started resurfacing and the victims started claiming compensation, shifting the blame is never a good idea a country must admit to it’s past to be able to move on.

  21. Thank you soo much for stating the facts!! BTS don’t deserve to be used and hurt like that. They’ve done nothing wrong and I really really hope other news/reporter will take exemple of your article and do their researchs before writing about this.
    Thank you again

  22. If jJmn had worn it IN JAPAN I would have called it pure stupidity. BUT if its in korea, I would think thats his business and nothing to do with Japan. Sourness between 2 countries WILL affect a groups standing but not directly though. Just like it the China -Korea strain for EXO. The cant perform in CHina but the fans remain. Art shouldnt die just becoz of country politics

  23. If Jmn had worn it IN JAPAN I would have called it pure stupidity. BUT if its in korea, I would think thats his business and nothing to do with Japan. Sourness between 2 countries WILL affect a groups standing but not directly though. Just like it the China -Korea strain for EXO. The cant perform in CHina but the fans remain. Art shouldnt die just becoz of country politics

  24. Thank you for your detail researched. Your journalism is at most professional. Keep up your good work. The world needs people like you!

  26. Thank you very much for revealing the hidden facts in the distorted appearance. I hope many people have time to think deeply through this article.

  27. This is a “real journal”. I really wanted to read the news which talks the core facts. Thank you sincerely. I wish there are more journalist like you. thank you.

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