A Japanese politician adds fuel to the fire of political tension between Korea and Japan by calling out TWICE Dahyun for wearing a t-shirt that showed support for Comfort Women.
On November 13, Japanese right-wing politician Onodera Masaru asked for the removal of TWICE from appearing in Kohaku Uta Gassen, the annual New Year’s Eve television special by Japanese broadcaster NHK.
The day prior to the politician’s outburst, Japanese broadcaster NHK announced the lineup of this year’s Kohaku Uta Gassen. The lineup included TWICE, who became the first K-pop girl group to appear on the show for two consecutive years.
Masaru wrote on his personal Twitter account, “I recently received a rather unfortunate news. TWICE’s Dahyun, the anti-Japanese activist who wears a ‘comfort woman’ t-shirt, has confirmed to appear in this year’s Kohaku. The shirt is used to raise funds to endorse “inappropriate” activities to support the Comfort Women in Korea.”
Along with the comment, the politician also uploaded a recent picture of Dahyun wearing a t-shirt made by Marymond, a philanthropic design company that use the profit from their sales to provide help for the Comfort Women.
【悲報】原爆Ｔシャツで日本人を敵に回したBTSがNHKの紅白落選！これは朗報だが、実は２回目の出場を決めたtwiceのメンバーのダヒョンさんが「慰安婦Ｔシャツ」を着ていたことが判明。このＴシャツの売り上げは韓国の理不尽な慰安婦活動の資金源に…。NHKはこんな反日活動家を紅白に出場させるのだ。 pic.twitter.com/qkHPGNgIZI
— 小野寺まさる (@onoderamasaru) November 14, 2018
Comfort Women refer to the Korean women who were forced to become the sex slaves of Japanese soldiers during World War 2. For a long time, Japan and Korea had been at odds for a long time regarding this issue.
In 2015, two nations had established the “comfort women” foundation, an agreement between the two nations to end the historical discord about the issue. At the time, the Japanese government offered some $9 million dollars to compensate for the surviving comfort women. However, in September, President Moon Jae-In called the foundation “dysfunctional,” expressing his wish to end it.
Meanwhile, the political tension between Japan and Korea were recently heightened, with BTS member Jimin receiving the accusation of anti-Japanese activities. The member was seen wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Hiroshima atomic bomb and a phrase “Patriotism Our History Liberation Korea” written across the back. As a result, a Japanese music show “Music Station” abruptly canceled the appearance of the group. Afterwards, Big Hit released an official statement, confirming that they had no intention of making offensive political remarks.
Original Article
Translated by Dasol Kim
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