Japanese anti-Korea protests, though mainly led by a few ultra-rightist groups, are going way too far by insulting and trampling on Korea’s national flag. Many ordinary Japanese do not hide their contempt and dislikes of their former colony, either. Koreans can’t help wondering what made them decide to stop being hypocrites and betray themselves.
President Lee Myung-bak seems to have provided them with timely, long-awaited excuses. His Aug. 10 visit to the Dokdo islets followed by comments on Japan’s waning influence as well as calls for an apology by its king dealt triple blows to Japanese people’s pride.
Still, what many Koreans regard as overreaction from the part of their former occupier is hard to understand, especially compared with Tokyo’s relatively low-key approach toward China in a similar territorial dispute.
One can find few other reasons ― except of course President Lee’s lack of thorough strategic calculation ― than the gap in national power of Korea and China, or Russia for that matter. All the more so, considering Korea has maintained effective control over Dokdo, as Japan has done with the Senkaku Islands. But there is something more at work here than the proverbial case of a coward venting his anger at a third person.
