Korean Diplomatic Hospitality

Every time I think I've seen the most exasperating demonstration of Korean grudge-holding and hostility towards the Japanese yet, I'm trumped by the discovery of another even more outstanding gem of idiocy. This time, it's a TV event, amongst whose participants is Japan's ambassador to Korea, Shotaro Oshima, the recipient of a rather special sort of attention. Pay particular heed to the closing portion of this clip and listen carefully: even if you don't understand a word of Korean, you ought to be able to recognize at least one word there.

Yes folks, if you were listening carefully, what you heard was indeed a head of beer foam being compared to the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, right in front of Japan's ambassador, and very clearly for his particular consumption (that's why the camera repeatedly returns to his face). To his credit, he gave this rude, childish display the response it deserved - silence - but I think it, along with the never-ending bellicose rhetoric over Dokdo - says a great deal about why all the goodwill built up in Japan towards Korea over the last few years is now quickly slipping away; what would the world be like if everyone imitated the Koreans in feeling that being ruled by others more than 60 years ago gave them the license to behave in a similarly offensive manner?

NB: An easily overlooked irony to this sick attempt at "humor" is that a very large proportion of those who died at Hiroshima were actually ethnically Korean; in allowing exaggerated national pride and runaway vengefulness to separate them from their reason, the Korean producers of this TV segment are actually insulting the memory of more than 30 thousand of their fellow countrymen.

PS: Going back and expanding the comments section of the YouTube post in which this clip is to be found, the first post in response is the following, presumably by a Korean who understood everything being said:

With the party where also the Oshima Japanese ambassador who resides
in Korea is invited, the South Korean like this spoke.

"When the pattern where it can repel the bubble of the beer suddenly,
the A-bomb is dropped in Hiroshima, the mushroom cloud side has been
similar to the circumstances which rise. Therefore, also the A-bomb
liquor can call your this liquor, "

The Korean people rose.

"Rose?" That's what you may think, but in the eyes of many others they just fell that much lower. It really amazes me how unaware most Koreans seem to be of how successful these displays of vengeful spleen are in debasing Korea's image in the eyes of the outside world.

PPS: Apparently I'm not the only one to have learnt of this ridiculous spectacle. Go here for more information on the contents of the clip: it really is as bad as indicated.

Comments

[Scott Wickstein]

The people in that Occidentalism comments thread are nearly as weird as the Samizdata commentariat.