An Open Letter from Japan to South Korea

South Korea: red and blue on the outside; crunchy on the inside.

Hi, South Korea.



Normally, we reserve these letters for China because they really chap us but this article merited a direct response:

A recent poll of 2,012 middle and high school students in South Korea gives some interesting—and surprising—insight into thinking about national security issues among the nation’s younger generation....

In a sign that the country might be failing to instill patriotism into the minds of young people, about 44%, or 892 students, said they would “flee the country” if a war with North Korea broke out. Only 15% said they would “join the war or help the country in other ways.”

Perhaps that just reflects the mind-set of a schoolkid, but Kwack Do-hoon, chairman of the students group that conducted the month-long survey, Korea Advanced Youth Association, blames inadequate schooling. “Since progressive people have been elected to the country’s education offices, security education about North Korea has been dealt a major setback,” he said....

Possibly the most surprising result of the survey, and one that demonstrates both the trickiness of South Korea’s relations with Japan and a poor understanding of national defense issues: Japan is considered a bigger enemy to South Korea than North Korea.


Asked to name South Korea’s jujeok (main enemy), 687 chose Japan, more than twice as many as the 341 people who chose North Korea. The U.S. was a close third, at 307.


Mr. Kwack’s explanation:“The term ‘jujeok’ might be unfamiliar to some young students, and our textbook still teaches us that South and North Korea are the same nation.” He also cited longstanding thorny issues between Japan and Korea, such as how Japan’s colonization of Korea is portrayed in some Japanese school textbooks and a territorial disagreement over the islets known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt?!

Shocked Cat is just... well... shocked, really.

Did we miss something? Didn't North Korea shell you last year? Didn't North Korea kill forty-six of your sailors? Wasn't it North Korea that bombed an airline in 1987? Hell, haven't you guys been at war since 1950? And yet, we are your biggest enemy along with the Americans who currently are parked in your country in an effort to make sure it doesn't end up as a buffer state to China (do NOT get us started on Captain America. Just watch the DAMN thing with the full title already! Over thirty-six thousand Americans didn't die just so you could screw them out a movie title!).


Granted, you're still raw over what occurred between 1910 and 1945 and you have every right to be but we would like to remind you that we didn't shell Yeonpyeong and for an enemy of the Korean people we're certainly generous with aid to that Stalinist state north of you.


North Korea has certainly played you for saps. The leftists in your country must be proud of themselves.


Let's not pretend that you consider North Korea still a part of you or that all Koreans enjoy a universal brotherhood because we all know that is crap. Hell, a Busan native in Seoul would be treated like Sarah Palin at a press party. Now, considering all these things, how exactly do you think the North Koreans will treat you when (not if) they shell you next? Like cousins? That's wishful thinking. And that's when the Americans quit the peninsula and can't possibly help you flee so you can be fair-weather friends in some other country.


Now we know not all of you are insane, ungrateful or ignorant of the firepower eventually hurtling your way. All we ask is that you regard as an immediate threat those directly north of you, not those whose grasp has long slipped.


Yours' in Voltron,


Japan



PS- congratulations on getting the 2018 Winter Olympics. We hope you're still standing by then.