The EPITOME of Rape Culture, The Trauma of the Rising Sun flag – and why it should be BANNED at the 2020 Olympics

The flag of the rising sun is a flag that was used by the Imperial Army of Japan during and before World War II. Many pacific countries have complicated opinions about the flag. This is because wherever the flag went atrocity, sorrow, and death followed swiftly, mostly as a package deal. After the endless carnage, the flag would be posted up around the fallen kingdom in high places, banning the one belonging to the country, a symbol of dominance, nationalistic pride, and triumph. This flag had spread throughout Pacific Eurasia, including but not limited to Korea, China, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In the eyes of Imperial Japan the people they invaded were treated as beings less than human – playthings, literal objects of pleasure, bullet catchers, slaves. Worthy only of use and death, the usual when it comes to war crimes. The only problem is that this flag, a symbol of atrocity, is still flown today.

In Japan today, the flag is heavily present in mixed-media, as well as in many cultural aspects. To name a specific case, the far-right of Japan often sport this flag, much like how the confederate flag is appreciated in some parts of the US, despite the past that is held with it. Many conservatives in Japan seem to see it as a symbol of heritage and history which originates from even before imperialist rule, completely ignoring the history that it has been tainted with. The history that still affects the lives of millions of people around the world today. It’s not unfair to say that the rising sun flag holds the same connotations as the Nazi flag. The Swastika was originally a symbol of good fortune in hinduism, buddhism, as well as many other religions and cultures. Both were appropriated by nationalistic and ruthless leaders and ideals who used it as a symbol of their hatred and greed. Now it is almost synonymous with hatred in North American society.

If the Nazi flag was banned in most parts of the world, why isn’t this one? The flag presided over the same kinds of tragedies, to the same amount.

Many extreme far-right, anti-China/anti-Korean groups like the zaitokukai fly this flag at their hate rallies and paint the flag on their speaker trucks that blast propaganda music. It is still used as a symbol of their nationalistic pride, and prejudiced hatred.

But the flag is only a small part of the problem. Even still, the Japanese national leadership only feeds these sentiments of “Make Japerica Great Again”, especially Shinzo Abe. He is part of the far-right that believe that the way things are supposed to be is when they are in absolute power, the heaviest hammer in the shed. His ideal Japan is one that didn’t have anything to worry about, and was able to trod over the entire world at their very whim, and the present state of Japan appears extremely lacking in his eyes. His ideal Japan is the Japan of 1910.

Is he evil? No. He is simply blinded by the sorrow of living as a member of the uncommon few, and having to work for a living. He suffers from living in a world where everyone is considered equal, and the people are not given speciality based on their physical attributes. But it is the extremely nationalistic, capitalistic, militaristic, and imperialistic sentiments like these that lead them to still use the rising sun flag on their navy ships and pepper this symbolism into their media and everyday products, while perpetrating the idea that Japan has never touched a hair on another country before. To this day Shinzo Abe and the far-right of Japan deny the war-crimes of late 19th century to mid 20th century Japan. To erase history is dangerous, best conveyed in the famous quote by the morally questionable, but nonetheless "correct-in-this-case" Winston Churchill: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”, and that is what is foreseen by the Korean people.

The Japanese press are of no help either, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, and Kuroda often sarcastically portrays the Korean critics as having “gotten to the point of salivating at the sight of Japan’s naval flag”, comparing Korean critics to Pavlov’s dogs, and presenting the Korean people as people who only act on a pathological instinct – a frail attempt at an ad hominem attack.

Why do Pavlov’s dogs salivate at the sound of the bell? It’s because there has been food after every ring. The people of Korea experience a visceral reaction to the flag that reminds us of all the first hand accounts that our grandparents have told us, the scars that they’ve shown us, and the humiliation that haunts them to their death. The first hand accounts that told of invasion, death, and sorrow after every sighting of the flag.

Journalism should be an objective conveyance of fact-based information, but Kuroda’s article simply is not. He tries to paint the efforts of the Korean people to remember history and keep their athletes safe as “Japan-bashing”. That's rich coming from a blatant Korea basher.

Calling someone a dog has very specific connotations in Asia that doesn't hold the same connotations in America. Dogs are known as incestuos and amoral creatures that will hump anything in sight, eat their own vomit and feces, and have no sense of what's right and what's wrong. This is because of streetdogs doing just that out in the street, which is uncommon to see in public in North America. All of these connotations are included when calling someone a dog, regardless of context. Dogs were very low on the social ladder, and symbolize obedience and something to be tamed, as well as dirty and stupid. This is to the point that the worst thing you could call a person in Korea is “offspring of a dog”. Even in North America, I’m sure one could bring to mind a very common and similar phrase. Thus he expresses his ongoing anti-Korean thoughts and tarnishes his objectivity. His dislike for Korea is nothing new. It’s the same as 100 years ago – thinking that other people are lesser beings.

Ma ma Kuroda-san. Sore wa hontoni zan'nen desuyo ne?

The fact that the Japanese press would express their unobjective thoughts in such a sly manner is what is truly "regrettable", because there is no way that Kuroda could be ignorant to the connotations that the comparison holds, and is the very reason why he uses it.

He's not wrong in saying that our expectations are very much grounded in an already established reality though. He attempts to paint himself as Pavlov who is ringing the bell, the dog’s ruler. In comparing this scenario to pavlov’s dogs where the people have been conditioned to foresee a threat, he is indirectly accepting that Japan has harmed Korea before while flying the rising sun flag – the conditioned stimulus – because if this is truly a conditioned response, as Pavlov says, there had to have been a conditioned stimulus. Kuroda accepts that the flag is the conditioned stimulus. Japan’s attempts to gain military dominance in the pacific didn’t end after World War II. On many occasions Japan has clashed with other countries regarding possession of islands in the pacific. These repeated instances of dispute over territory which provides important military advantage is seen my some as an attempt to gain military advantage in the pacific.

For example, the rock island of Dokdo. 87km from the nearest Korean island, and 166km from the nearest Japanese island in terms of proximity, Dokdo is closer to Korea than Japan. When Russia and China flew military aircraft over Dokdo, the Korean air-force fired 400 warning shots, and 20 flares to discourage the military surveillance aircraft from going further into Korean ADIZ (which is also over the islands). The incident took place around 25km from the actual island itself, but this is justifiable because there are Korean citizens that visit the island everyday. The nearest inhabited Island where Koreans reside is also less than 90km away. If anyone were to attack these islands from the air, the casualties would be detrimental.

Japan described Korea’s actions as “regrettable”. What’s regrettable about Korean aircraft flying in Korean ADIZ, defending Korean citizens? It doesn’t make sense. Japan’s motives to take the island seems to be rooted in wanting to gain more control in the pacific.

The Japanese government claims to have put the produce of Fukushima through extensive caesium detection tests to find that they are within the safety limits, but refuses to present the data when asked by foreign countries. When asked to have an objective third-party examination performed, they refused. Why would they refuse to present the objective truth if there is nothing to hide? If anything the data would grant Japan and Fukushima the definitive image of being free of contamination. But many are not happy with the government’s stance and feel that the government is hiding something for political and monetary gain. It wouldn’t be the first time that any government has lied to its people. What reason do the people have to believe that the food is safe besides "We checked it"? What do they gain from "safe produce"? Lots and lots of money. What we need is someone who has nothing to gain from either result to verify the results. I would love to know that the produce from Fukushima is safe to eat, but until there is definitive proof without a shadow of a doubt, we cannot be sure.

But this isn’t a case of classical conditioning. It’s a trauma that every single person throughout the Korean peninsula has a thorough grasp of. It's recognizing when a pattern could be forming, like when someone tries to take your land and build a pipeline, or bury nuclear waste that would ruin the land.

This flag represents the very lowest point of our nation as a whole, which gave birth to the greatest. We’d be stupid not to be rejective of it, and it has no place in an event like the olympics that is all about new beginnings and peace. To this day, many in Korea who were living in Korea at the time of the invasion tell of unthinkable tales, reliving their traumatic past at the sight of the flag. Being forced to speak Japanese, being taken as forced labourers, forced soldiers, forced sex-slaves. What this flag represents goes far beyond national disputes. It's a humanitarian issue as well as an issue of feminism.

During the time of the occupation from 1910-1945, imperial Japan abducted and tricked tens of thousands of young girls and women from occupied countries who would become "comfort women". The immediate image that probably comes to mind when hearing "comfort women" may be "kawaii" young women dressed as maids working in a cafe and clearing their client's earwax, or workers dressed in uniforms who cuddle with their clients, because the term is simply a euphamism, a coffin painted white, to hide a much more sinister history. A history that Shinzo Abe vehemently denies, and desperately wants to erase.

These so-called comfort women were essentially women who the Japanese military treated as human rape dolls. "Forced Military Prostitute" isn't even a correct term because they were not paid for their "services", although no amount of money could ever be enough to atone for this atrocity. Some of the far-right in Japan perpetuate the notion that they were paid in full, but this is not true. And even before the question of whether they were paid or not, it was not consensual, and that's what is most important in any physical interaction – including prostitution. Every single person, regardless of sex, class, nationality, or whatever else deserves the choice of whether they consent or not. Because we are all one race – the human race, and no one is better than anyone else.

Their womanhood, their humanity, strictly denied. Even though feminism as a concept existed in Japan since 1886, the emphasis on individual autonomy was extremely lacking. Through the lack of even considering consent, the view from atop the high horse is very clear.

One woman emotionally recalls her first night. She had volunteered as a nurse for the Japanese army, to be able to provide for her family by sending money back. This was a way that many young women were baited. She recalled that on her first night, all of them were called into a room and ordered to strip naked in order to perform an "inspection". When no one acted on the order, one of the soldiers picked a woman from the group, forcefully undressed her, and raped her in front of them. Many women tell of endless and tormentful nights of being "used" and discarded by 4-6 men every night for many years. This is what that flag means to all the women who were taken. This is what the flag means to the children and grandchildren of the women who were taken. Many were not even legal adults, sometimes even as young as 9 years old. Lee Ok Seon recalls that she was only 14 when she was kidnapped.

In some cases when the women got pregnant as a result of the rape, they were force-fed abortion pills, and forcefully injected with feticides. When their bodies could not handle the abuse any longer and got sick, or collapsed from fatigue, they were locked away in cold rooms to quietly die by themselves to conserve their medicine. It is told that in some cases when it was a combination of fatigue and pregnancy, Japanese soldiers would slice open the pregnant women, leaving her to bleed out, and her child to die of a lack of care. Not only was their consent denied, they had their children literally ripped away from inside their uteruses as well.

Imagine the toll that this kind of experience takes on a person, not only physically, but emotionally. This says more than enough about where women were on the social ladder under imperialism. Of course this begs the question, is the modern world much better? But that's for another time.

But some say that the Japanese military or government is not at fault for directly abducting these women for their purposes – because what they did was enlist a broker who used contractors who were the ones to abducted the women as "prostitutes", and not the government itself. Is this anything but a straw man? This information is totally irrelevant because the bottom line is that women were taken through threats of violence, employment fraud, and straight up surprise abduction, and members of the military forcefully held them against their will, while raping them multiple times on a daily basis, beat and abused them, and finally discarding them to die when their bodies reached their limits. It wasn't the brokers that did that, it was the military who had the approval of the government. You're as bad as the perpetrator if you know what's happening and don't do anything about it.

To frame this issue as somehow the fault of the women who were taken is absurd.

"Why'd you volunteer as a nurse for your enemy anyway?"

"Why would you walk around alone in an occupied state?"

"You had many chances to escape, so why didn't you?"

What a shameful way to victim-blame in the 21st century.

The problem of the women are a very heated topic, but men had a tough treatment as well. Many young boys and men were taken as forced slave-workers to work in military factories like Mitsubishi, without recieving a penny for their work. The very same one depicted in the Hayao Miyazaki animated film The Wind Rises – which has a strong tilt towards pro-imperialist ideals. The main character of the film, Jiro, definitely has a big part in the bombing of Pearl Harbour, and the factories that build the planes is populated by forced labourers.

These workers would be overworked, underfed, beaten, and not treated like proper human beings. Nothing new in the realm of slavery, and an atrocity nonetheless.

My grandfather was only 15 at the time of Korea’s liberation, and was subsequently drafted into the North Korean army when he was 17. Until his death in 2016, he vividly held with him the painful memories of being born into a country where he wasn’t considered a person, and being used as a pawn in someone else’s war.

The Japanese press also paints the Korean boycott of Japanese products as some sort of act of misguided patriotism, but this is again, misinformation is on their part. This is not about commitment to the state, this is about commitment to our future generations, and making sure they will be able to live as part of a nation that is free. Without having to worry about invasions, or being taken as human rape dolls and human factory machines.

Myself as a Korean don’t hate the Japanese people, but there is undeniably a history that is being denied by the Japanese government that should not be erased. Shinzo Abe’s decision to try and strong-arm Korea through trade policies was a message that was loud and clear, and warned of impending aggression. Anti-Korea sentiments in Japan are nothing new.

"You're welcome," Some Japanese people say. "Because of our occupation you were able to achieve modernization."

Sure, but at what cost?

Essentially what this sounds like is: "You're welcome. Sure, I raped and killed your mom right in front of your face, took your older brother and used him as a bullet catcher, and made your dad work for 48 hours straight without food or water while beating him, BUT I paid for new carpets because my feet slip easily on hardwood. Good trade, don't you think? By the way, you're next so get ready."

No. I don't think so, and neither would any logical person. These modernizations were only put in place for an easier occupation, for the sake of oppression.

Everything that was mentioned in this article is only a part of what vividly replays in the minds of Koreans when they see the flag of the rising sun. It has no place in the progressive modern world. Korea is in full support of the Olympics, but not the Olympics with a hidden agenda that has a chance that could harm our athletes, not the Olympics that gives more money and power to people who crave it. Not the Olympics that puts power in the hands of the Bourgeoise.

Of course Korea has it's own problems with corruption and the disparity between the rich and the poor, but that's for another time.

Kuroda's article: https://japan-forward.com/seouls-use-of-the-olympics-to-stir-anti-japanese-sentiments-will-backfire/

Sources/Additional info.

https://www.pacificatrocities.org/blog/what-does-the-rising-sun-flag-mean

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/06/27/japan-has-a-flag-problem-too/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/healing-trauma-s-wounds/201506/understanding-and-working-flashbacks-part-one

https://www.history.com/news/comfort-women-japan-military-brothels-korea

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3038512/tokyo-olympics-will-food-and-drink-fukushima-be-menu