Letter bombs (15): Flagrant fouls
Posted by ampontan on Wednesday, February 2, 2011
READER Andrew in Ezo sent in the following to the Comment section. It deserves wider reading:
“I was interested in seeing the reaction from the Asian press (and the inevitable Western mirroring of opinions) about the winning goal scored by Lee Tadanari in the Asia Cup football finals. Being that Tadanari is a naturalized Japanese of Korean descent, it would generate more than usual interest from non-fans, I assumed. Sure enough, here is an article from Straits Times:
Headline: “Japan embraces ethnic Korean star but many face discrimination”
“But there is no mention of said discrimination in the article body, and there is a weak caption mentioning “a minority of Japanese netizens were unhappy that the winning goal had come from a naturalised Korean player”. I guess that’s evidence that Japanese hate Koreans and discriminate relentlessly against Zainichi, kind of like how white Americans are all secret racists, based on the number of US-based extremist hate groups and their web presence.
Sheesh…”
- AIE
*****
It’s worth reading the article, if only to remind oneself of the egregious nonsense published every day throughout the world masquerading as serious journalism about Japan. (That sentence works just as well without the last two words.)
This article in particular is remarkable for its incoherence, starting with the headline.
*****
Another article in the Dong-A Ilbo is only marginally better. As is typical with South Korean newspapers (and rather unlike the Japanese mass media), they’ll never pass up an opportunity to complain about their neighbors. The article gets off to a promising start, however, by citing an example of positive discrimination:
“Keikyu Aburatsubo Marine Park, an aquarium located in the southern part of the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa, Japan, started a unique event Tuesday to celebrate Japan`s win in the Asian Cup soccer finals. The event allowed free admission to the aquarium by people who have “Ri” or “Lee” in their names to honor Tadanari Lee, who scored the winning goal against Australia in the tournament final.”
They quickly revert to form by following up with an interview of the soccer player’s father. A great deal seems to have been lost in translation, but Lee the Elder is a bit lost himself:
“Many in Japan are still unaware of why ethnic Koreans live there.”
Considering that 90% of the forebears of the ethnic Koreans in Japan came voluntarily–economic opportunity beckoned–one wonders who is unaware of what.
“Negative sentiment prevails in Japan on ethnic Koreans because they`re considered poor and violent. I`m happy that my son contributed to breaking down such prejudice.”
We all share his sentiments about his son. But the Straits Times article did mention the most common perception of ethnic Koreans in Japan:
“The ethnic Korean Japanese player…turn(ed) the spotlight once again on Japan’s ethnic Korean community and their strong presence in sports and entertainment.”
Yet there’s another side to the story. In the September 1996 issue of the monthly Ronza, the late Takayama Tokutaro, the ethnic Korean head of the Aizukotetsu gang (birthname: Kang Oe-su), was quoted as saying:
“About 30% of yakuza are Koreans. My group is 20% Korean.”
In those days, ethnic Koreans accounted for 0.45% of the Japanese population. When that interview took place, Takayama’s group was engaged in a feud with Japan’s largest gang, the Yamaguchi-gumi. It involved gunplay in the streets. The membership of ethnic Koreans in the Yamaguchi-gumi in those days was estimated to be 10%.
The author of an article for the monthly Gendai in January 2001 reports that the National Police Agency told him seven of the 33 designated yakuza groups from 1993 to 2000 were led by ethnic Koreans.
Perhaps there is a reason for the perceptions Mr. Lee mentioned. If those perceptions have a basis in reality, it will take more than a flash of athletic glory to erase them.
That reality is inconvenient for the Dong-A narrative, however–as are the sentiments of Lee Tadanari himself:
“I was born in Japan and brought up in Japanese culture. To win as a member of the Japanese team is the supreme happiness.”
- A.
Tony said
While I’m don’t think this falls into the dictionary definition of “racism”, Lee did have to face a bit of a strange interview by NHK on Monday. They had Lee and another national team player on to talk about the Asian Cup win and before asking Lee anything the NHK reporter made a point of prefacing his question with the fact that Lee was a 4th generation Korean (I think the name gave that away but apparently it needed explaining anyway) and that he had naturalized over 10 years ago. Following that lead in the reporter’s first question was to ask Lee why he naturalized. After he answered that they finally got down to the soccer goal and his playing for the team.
Is that racism? I don’t think so but is likely discrimination as from that interview one might think that Lee’s ethnicity and choice of citizenship were of greater or as great as importance to NHK than the reason for having him on TV in the first place.
———–
T: What it is is misguided political correctness, which is a form of racism, but that’s probably not how NHK sees it. The Americans still do similar stuff in baseball with some players on Jackie Robinson’s birthday.
- A.
Tony said
How is it political correctness? And I don’t think political correctness is necessarily racism, although it is always discrimination.
——–
T: Making a big deal out of ethnicity to promote the view that ethnicity shouldn’t be a big deal is a common practice among the news media and politicians worldwide.
- A.
Harry said
Lee says that when he was a member of the U-19 South Korean national team he was called ban-jjokbari, literally “half pig-foot”, a derogatory term referring to Zainichi Korean “traitors”, presumably because he’s not good at speaking Korean.
His naturalization was in 2007. Is it any wonder he chose to play for the Beijing Olympic team of Japan, not South Korea?
I find it odd that the South Korean media suddenly seems “proud” of his achievements like it is their own.