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"Should Japan apologize again for its World War II military brothels?" A survey on the CNN.com website asking this question has sparked an online battle of words between Japanese and Korean Internet users.
After Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on Monday said that Japan does not need to apologize again for its military brothels, CNN launched a survey asking netizens worldwide how they feel about the issue.
By Thursday afternoon more than 74 percent of the respondents said there was no need for another apology, suggesting that Japan-supporters were in the majority.
But as word of the survey spread, Korean netizens began to respond. A message board on the Daum Internet portal contained dozens of posts urging Koreans to vote in the CNN survey. On the Naver portal there were calls to make "CNN broadcasts military brothels" the number one search phrase.
One user called "kyudream" wrote, "I'm angry and sad about Prime Minister Abe's abusive words. We need to join the survey to show that there is more criticism needed." Another netizen called "Bright Smile" wrote, "We should show Japan, which ignores the facts of the past, the power of public opinion."
Some posters claimed that the very premise of the survey was inaccurate. A netizen called "nowhere001" wrote, "Seeing as how Japan never apologized before, the term 'again' is wrong."
Meanwhile, Japanese netizens were also upset about the matter. On the Japanese 2ch.net community, there was a sense of anti-Korean sentiment with posters complaining about Korea's "nonsense" and the fact that America had involved itself in the issue.
On the Yahoo Japan message board, a user called "hugenbosatu3" wrote, "It's regretful that Koreans are so obstinate they even disbelieve in the CNN survey."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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