Japan has decided not to take part in an international fleet review in South Korea next week after Seoul effectively asked Tokyo not to fly its "Rising Sun" flag on a warship, Japan’s defense minister said on Friday, the latest spat between the two sides. Japan’s
Japan has decided not to take part in an international fleet review in South Korea next week after Seoul effectively asked Tokyo not to fly its “Rising Sun” flag on a warship, Japan’s defense minister said on Friday, the latest spat between the two sides.
Japan’s relations with both South and North Korea have long been strained by lingering resentment over its 1910-45 colonisation of Korea, territorial rows and the issue of Korean girls and women forced to work in Japan’s wartime brothels.
Japan’s decision comes after South Korea this week asked participating countries not to fly flags at the bow or at the stern of their vessels, Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters.
“When it comes to the Maritime Self-Defense Force ensign, domestic laws and regulations stipulate that it must be hoisted at the stern,” Iwaya said. “Regrettably, we have reached a decision that we cannot help forgoing the participation.”
Many people in both Koreas see the red-and-white flag as a symbol of Japan’s past military aggression and its colonisation.
“The ‘Rising Sun’ flag is a war-crime flag that the 20th-century Japanese imperialists used when executing their barbaric invasions into our nation and other Asian nations,” North Korea’s state-controlled Uriminjokkiri website said.
