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The Financial Times(FT) pointed out on Saturday the pop music, represented by Korean teenage pop star BoA, was playing a part of healing the historic rift between the two countries that has not been solved by diplomacy and sports.
FT reported that Korean music, films and TV dramas are winning fans in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia and added that while many older Koreans still have painful memories of Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula, Korea's younger generation does not follow the older generation's views of Japan.
Last April, ahead of a concert in Osaka, BoA had an interview with FT and said, ¡°Older people still have some bad feelings but among young people attitudes are changing. We like Japanese animation and games. Hopefully my success in Japan will help improve relations further¡±
17-year-old Japanese girls coming to the concert said, ¡°The only thing I knew about Korea before BoA was spicy food. I would like to go there to find out more,¡± while a 27-year-old teacher said, ¡°Japanese people see in Korean music and drama something that has been lost from their own culture. We feel that Korea is a more pure and passionate country. That is why Korean music and dramas are becoming popular.¡±
More than 100,000 Japanese tourists flocked to Korea last year to visit the setting of "Winter Sonata," a hit drama.
FT pointed out that Korea¡¯s most popular internet portal, Daum, hosted 10,000 blogs and cafes dedicated to introducing Japanese culture, compared with just 50 that promote anti-Japanese views, and introduced a survey by a newspaper that indicates that only a quarter of Koreans in their 20s said they "did not like" Japan.
In regards to the historic problem, FT quoted one Korean living in Osaka, Kim Chun-su, ¡°I want the Japanese to learn history so that the two countries can get along¡±
It pointed out, ¡°Japan's failure to apologize for its war crimes provides cover for Korea to obscure its own past.¡±
On the other hand, it criticized Korea by saying, ¡°Korea's understanding of history is also selective.¡± It pointed out, ¡°There is little discussion in Korea of the willing role played in Japan's occupation by collaborators. Records show that the application rate for the colonial police force was 20 Koreans for each vacancy. During the second world war, a Korean - Hong Sa-ik - was in charge of Japan's prisoner-of-war camps in the Pacific region and Korean prison guards earned a fearsome reputation for their brutality.¡±
In conclusion, FT noted ¡°Pop music cannot on its own heal the rift between Korea and Japan. But BoA is playing a part.¡±
(Ji Hye-byeom, hbjee@chosun.com )
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