The protests against the comic book were led by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the same organization whose protests helped lead to the shuttering of "Marco Polo", a monthly Japanese pop culture and politics magazine. In a 1995 "Marco Polo" article, a Japanese neurosurgeon claimed that while the Holocaust was a true story, the notorious gas chambers at Auschwitz and other concentration camps may have been an exaggeration.

The article immediately drew condemnation from Jewish organizations, and the Israeli government made an official issue of it. The magazine's chief editor proposed to carry a story that would represent the Jewish argument, but the idea was rejected. Jewish organizations compelled sponsors to react, and businesses like Cartier, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, and Philip Morris canceled their ads. The Japanese government issued an official statement, calling the article inappropriate. In a joint press conference, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Kengo Tanaka, the president of the Bungei Shunju publishing house, announced that the publication, despite its circulation of 250,000 readers, would be discontinued and its entire editorial staff dismissed.

In 1995, I was studying in St. Louis, the U.S, where I tutored a child from a Jewish-American family. Their house stood in an upscale residential area. On my way from the house on a Saturday afternoon, I dropped by a garage sale where I bought two small tables, at a giveaway price, for my stereo speakers. The designs on the tables reminded me of those from Biblical picture books or movies, so I asked the woman of the house, "Are these from Israel?" Her face suddenly turned icy cold. She said, as if interrogating me, "How did you know? So, what?" I was simply curious, but the woman's reaction was defensive. The parents of my student were wealthy and had a high social standing, with the father a bank president. But their faces always showed hints of unease.

Andy Grove, the CEO and one of the three founders of Intel, was born to a Jewish family in Hungary. After growing up in Budapest, he fled to the U.S. where he studied and eventually found fame and success. In the first chapter of the 2006 book "Andy Grove: An American Icon", Grove said that he wants to neither return to Budapest nor remember the time he spent there. Many Jewish figures, including academics, bankers, entrepreneurs, and filmmakers, are still uneasy -- so they teach their children not to let their guard down. Keeping deep in their hearts their 2,000-year history of persecution, the Jews instruct their children not to tolerate any anti-Semitic activity, anywhere.

In South Korea, the Jews are seen as a brilliant people with a long history, but also partly responsible for the discord in the Middle East. But from a broader perspective, we can understand and sympathize with the painful wounds they have suffered. We can understand why Jewish groups took issue with the comic book, just as we are especially attuned to the public hearing on comfort women currently underway in the U.S. Congress. The publisher's speedy decision to revise the comic book was the appropriate reaction. Furthermore, South Korea, surrounded by powerful nations, should be viewed as an attractive neighbor by other countries and their peoples, while we should have a deeper understanding of those countries and their peoples.

The column was contributed by John Shin of VeritasBooks.