Published on September 6, 2019.
Using the theft of Buddhist statues from Kannonji Temple in Tsushima as its starting point, this essay discusses incidents involving the theft of Japanese cultural properties by Koreans, the Korean embassies to Japan, Taekwondo and karate, kendo and kumdo, the Takeshima issue, Korean claims to Tsushima, the UNESCO convention on illicit cultural-property trade, the Kan Naoto administration’s return of the Joseon royal protocols, and Fukuzawa Yukichi’s “Datsu-A Ron.”
It argues that Japan should not treat neighboring countries with special sentiment merely because they are neighbors, but should deal with them according to international common sense and international law.

September 6, 2019.
We must not deal with them with special feelings merely because they are neighboring countries.
With these two countries as well, it is enough to deal with them according to international common sense and in accordance with international law.
Those who overlook the wrongdoing of bad friends cannot escape bad repute together with them.
Boyaki Kukkuri, grumbling on current affairs and transcriptions of programs.
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Japan, this is Korea.
Recently, the so-called “Buddhist statue theft problem” involving Kannonji Temple in Tsushima has caused controversy.
A current-affairs column titled “Notes of the Seasons,” published in the November 2012 issue of Sound Argument, explained Korea’s “thieving habit,” so although it is a somewhat old article, I have decided to quote part of it.
The images were added here.
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For example, it is said that the most disliked people in the world are Koreans, followed by Chinese.
It is certainly not good to speak in a way that stereotypes specific ethnic groups in this manner, but when one looks at history, each ethnic group does have its own particular habits.
In the case of Korea, perhaps it is a thieving habit.
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【The Korean embassies to Japan. This one is from the Edo period, 1655 / Collection of the British Museum】
They sent embassies three times in the Muromachi period, were surprised by gilding and waterwheels, learned about them, and went home.
They were also very impressed by Japanese kana.
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【A Korean 10,000-won banknote bearing the portrait of Sejong】
Soon afterward, Sejong, the fourth king of the Yi dynasty, announced a Korean-style kana, the vernacular script.
It was unmistakably intellectual-property theft.
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【Part of the “Picture of the Korean Embassy Arriving at Yodo Castle”: “A Korean envoy stealing a chicken and quarrelling with townspeople”】
They came as many as twelve times in the Edo period, but those too were thieving pilgrimages.
When they entered an inn, they stole everything from tableware to the single-flower vase in the alcove to the bedding.
When they went out into town, they even stole chickens from farmhouse yards and quarrelled with townspeople.
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The Meiji period.
Fukuzawa Yukichi invited Korean students to study, but they soon stole money from the university safe.
It is thought that when Yukichi said, “No greetings are needed for Korea,” it was because of the barbarity with which they executed his friend Kim Ok-gyun and dismembered his body, and because of this thieving habit.
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After the war, they falsely called themselves citizens of a victorious country, stole land in front of stations all over Japan, and began pachinko parlors.
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【In 2007, President Roh Moo-hyun, left, at the Blue House receiving duty reports from newly promoted military officers. Since I could not find an image of a Korean-style military sword…】
They also steal Japanese tradition.
They began saying that the Japanese sword is something ancient to Korea, and at the JGSDF Public Information Center in Asaka there is a Korean-style military sword said to have been presented by a Korean military officer, but no matter how one looks at it, it is a cheap imitation Japanese sword.
It is disgusting even to look at.
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Japanese karate was also stolen.
Choi Hong-hi, who learned karate in Japan, named it Taekwondo in Korea after the war and popularized it.
That much is his own affair, but what is unforgivable is the origin story of that Taekwondo.
According to it, “Taekwondo was born in Korea two thousand years ago and spread,” but the reason there is not a single document related to it is that during the period of Japanese imperial rule, “the Japanese burned them all, and those who knew the circumstances were arrested and, after torture, made into invalids.”
And it says, “Based on this Taekwondo, the Japanese invented karate” (Seibido, Taekwondo).
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Although Taekwondo was something stolen, when a Korean became a member of the International Olympic Committee, quoted note: Kim Un-yong, it was made an official event.
They steal someone else’s tradition, kick sand on it afterward, and take the honor for free.
Even as I write, I suddenly feel murderous intent.
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Their theft of Japanese traditions still continues.
This time it is kendo.
Japanese kendo was banned after the war because of harassment by GHQ, but its appeal could not be erased.
Today it has spread to fifty-four countries, including the United States itself, and this year the fifteenth international championship was held in Italy.
Even so, those concerned have no intention of making it an Olympic event.
The reason is the sorry state of judo.
That beautiful judo is now no longer recognizable.
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Then Koreans, having tasted success with Taekwondo, appeared.
According to the New York Times the other day, ten years ago they began saying something like “the original is kumdo, kendo, nida,” opened dojos around the world wearing exactly the same outfit as Japanese kendo, and are now holding demonstrations in cities across the United States.
It is said that they will soon apply for kumdo to become an Olympic event.
They are also said to be considering protective gear in which red electronic lights blink on both the kote and the men.
And since it is them, they will probably say something like, “Kumdo has a thousand years of history, but all the manuals were disposed of during the Japanese imperial period, and all the swordsmen were killed.”
The basis on which they say Takeshima is their own territory is the same.
Rather than merely frowning, we should properly punish their thieving habit by severing diplomatic relations, deporting Koreans in Japan, or doing something of that sort.
First, participation in women’s professional golf should be banned.
The ending is a little extreme, but I understand why the writer wants to say that.
They steal Takeshima, steal karate, steal kendo, and beyond that there are samurai, sushi, tea ceremony, cherry blossoms, origami…even just thinking of them now, there are this many.
At the time of the 2002 Japan-Korea co-hosted World Cup, there is even a story that the Korea Football Association wrote on its website, unbelievably, that “the origin of soccer is the Korean Peninsula,” received protests from around the world, and hurriedly deleted it (SAPIO, April 26, 2006 issue).
In this way, if one begins listing the things Korea has stolen from Japan and other countries, or is trying to steal, there is no end.
The Kannonji Temple Buddhist statue theft problem in Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture, is the same.
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[The image is from Wide Scramble broadcast on March 21. Click the image to enlarge. The caption in the upper right, “198 fortune-tellers who landed,” is said to be unrelated to the present Buddhist statue theft problem.]
It was good up to the point that Korean police arrested the Korean theft ring that had stolen the Buddhist statue, but what followed was terrible.
Yes, Korea’s Buseoksa Temple began saying, “Originally, this Buddhist statue belonged to this temple, and Japan looted it,” and incredibly, a Korean district court issued a provisional disposition that the statue could not be returned to Japan until it was proved that Kannonji had legitimately acquired it.
Buseoksa claims that the statue was seized by wako pirates, but when asked for the basis of this claim, they reportedly told a lie as if they had seen it with their own eyes, saying, “The written appraisal showing the basis was thrown away when we lost the statue, because remembering it was sad,” even though the matter concerns something from hundreds of years ago (Tokudane!, broadcast on March 15).
Moreover, on March 15, the priests of Buseoksa and others brought a “letter of consolation,” “a Buddhist statue that Buseoksa has enshrined, an entirely different statue carved by a modern Buddhist sculptor,” and “a temple mascot doll, about 900 yen,” and came suddenly to Kannonji without making any appointment, trying to offset everything with those items.
Kannonji, astonished by this shamelessness, naturally refused to meet them, saying, “First return what was stolen.”
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There is a historical background to Buddhist statues originating from Korea.
During the Yi dynasty of Korea, when Buddhism was thoroughly suppressed, Japanese people who had gone to the Korean Peninsula for trade and other purposes could not bear to see the situation and brought Buddhist statues back to Japan in order to rescue them.
For that reason, many such statues are said to remain in Tsushima, which from ancient times was a relay point for trade connecting Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
Many Koreans probably do not know this historical fact.
Or perhaps, even if they know it, they close their ears to it.
As for the Korean district court’s judgment that “the statue cannot be handed over to Japan until it is confirmed in a lawsuit that Kannonji legitimately acquired it,” the theft incident of last October and the question of the statue’s origin hundreds of years ago are issues on entirely different levels.
A Buddhist statue stolen from Japan should be promptly returned to Japan.
I do not say this because I am Japanese; anyone living in a state governed by law would say the same.
However, Buseoksa’s side keeps escalating.
Those concerned organized a committee opposing the return to Japan and held an inauguration ceremony in Seoul on March 21 (Sankei/Kyodo, March 21, 2013, 21:26).
Going forward, they are said to plan to hold seminars to support the claim that the Buddhist statue was looted from the Korean Peninsula and to urge the Korean National Assembly to adopt a resolution opposing its return.
They are also reportedly planning to explain their position opposing the return to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which oversees the “Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property,” on which the Japanese government bases its demand for return.
They seem to be trying to internationalize the issue, but why do they not realize that the more they do such things, the more they only disgrace themselves?
As for UNESCO, to which they are trying to appeal, the “Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property,” adopted by its General Conference in 1970, clearly states that the import of cultural property stolen from museums and similar institutions in other contracting states is prohibited.
Japan concluded the convention in 2002, and South Korea has also concluded it (Nishinippon Shimbun morning edition, March 17, 2013).
As can also be seen in the Takeshima issue and the comfort women issue, South Korea often uses the method of spreading “fabrications” internationally and turning them to its own advantage, as China does as well, but I think the background to their aggressive stance this time is that the Kan Naoto administration returned the “Joseon Royal Protocols.”
There was absolutely no legal obligation to hand over the “Joseon Royal Protocols” to South Korea, but the Kan administration, pandering to South Korea in line with the 100th anniversary of the Japan-Korea annexation, returned them.
If such an extralegal act is carried out, then with South Korea being shameless to begin with, it is rather inevitable that momentum would arise to “recover to South Korea all cultural properties ‘stolen’ by Japan,” and perhaps this is connected to the present Buddhist statue theft problem.
If by any chance Kannonji’s side yields to pressure and gives up on the return of the Buddhist statue, a terrible precedent will be created.
The Japanese government is, of course, demanding that the South Korean government return it, but I want it to press much, much harder.
Regarding Tsushima, although I do not think this is directly related to the present Buddhist statue theft problem, on March 22, the city council of Uijeongbu in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, revealed that at a recent extraordinary session it had asserted sovereignty over Tsushima and adopted a resolution calling on the government and National Assembly to respond (Yonhap News, Friday, March 22, 18:22).
It is said to be demanding that the Japanese government immediately return the island.
The resolution claims that “it is clear, geographically, historically, and scientifically, that Tsushima is Korean territory,” and stresses that the South Korean government should formally take up this fact, present it to the international community including the United Nations, and make efforts to secure sovereignty.
“Geographically, historically, and scientifically”…
Where should one even begin to respond? ……(°д°) stunned.
Incidentally, Gyeonggi Province is located in the northwestern part of South Korea and is far from Tsushima (the green part of the map).
It is somewhat mysterious why the assembly of such a region would deliberately adopt such a resolution at this time…
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By the way, readers of my blog surely know well that incidents of theft of cultural property by Koreans have in fact occurred one after another in recent years, not limited to the present Buddhist statue.
1994: The “Goryeo edition of the Great Prajnaparamita Sutra,” designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan, was stolen from Ankokuji Temple on Iki Island, Nagasaki Prefecture.
The following year it was designated as South Korea’s National Treasure No. 284, and it became clear that the stolen item existed in South Korea.
1998: Thirty-two Buddhist paintings, including the Goryeo Buddhist painting “Willow-Branch Kannon,” equivalent to an Important Cultural Property, were stolen from Eifukuji Temple in Taishi Town, Osaka Prefecture.
It became clear that they had gone to South Korea.
2001: Seven items, including the “Amida Buddha Mandala in Color on Silk,” a prefecturally designated Important Cultural Property depicting Amitabha’s Pure Land, were stolen by Koreans from Rinshoji Temple in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture.
2002: Eight items, including the nationally designated Important Cultural Property “Image of Amida Triad in Color on Silk,” were stolen from Kakurinji Temple in Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture.
It was a crime committed by Koreans.
2005: Thirteen Buddhist paintings and sutras, including four nationally designated Important Cultural Properties such as the “Petition of Emperor Go-Daigo Written in Ink on Paper,” were stolen from Gakuenji Temple in Izumo City, Shimane Prefecture.
March 3, 2005: Hideyoshi’s go board and Important Cultural Properties found; Nara Prefectural Police arrest former antique dealer and others.
http://hobby.nikkei.co.jp/igo/topics/2005.cfm?i=2005030304276go
February 1, 2007: Korean theft ring arrested after attacking a temple to target nationally important Buddhist paintings.
http://www.chunichi.co.jp/00/sya/20070201/eve_____sya_____013.shtml
June 13, 2011: “Let’s steal cultural property in Japan”; four men arrested for theft to obtain travel expenses = South Korea.
http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2011&d=0613&f=national_0613_039.shtml
2011: The nationally designated Important Cultural Property “Goryeo edition of the Great Prajnaparamita Sutra” was stolen from Ankokuji Temple on Iki Island, Nagasaki Prefecture.
About one year later, a very similar sutra was designated a national treasure in South Korea.
Japan requested an investigation from South Korea, but it was refused.
(The above is quoted from “I Simply Like Japan.”)
Especially terrible was the 1994 incident in which the “Goryeo edition of the Great Prajnaparamita Sutra,” designated a national Important Cultural Property, was stolen from Ankokuji Temple on Oki.
Incredibly, a sutra believed to be part of it was designated a national treasure in South Korea the following year, in 1995!
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This incident was reported in detail in the October 13, 2005 issue of Shukan Shincho.
The full text of the article is available at “Specific Asia News,” so please read it.
Including cases in which the perpetrators have still not been arrested, I have no idea how many thefts of Japanese cultural property by Koreans there have been.
“Anti-Japanese innocence” works only inside South Korea, and inside China too.
I want them to remember that they are members of international society, though saying so is probably useless.
In addition, early this year there was also the problem in which South Korea ignored the Japan-South Korea extradition treaty and returned to China the Chinese man who set fire to Yasukuni Shrine, whose extradition Japan had requested.
Far from being a state governed by law, it is already a state supporting terrorism.
Whether territory, theft, or other crimes, they connect everything to “historical issues” and justify themselves by saying, “We are not bad; Japan is bad.”
As for tradition and culture, their groundless sense of superiority that “Korea is superior to Japan”—the basis is probably that they are geographically and historically “closer to China,” or to put it plainly, that they were a vassal state of China—becomes so strong that they fabricate things originating in Japan as having originated in Korea.
I understand that unless they do that, they cannot maintain their pride as an ethnic group, but from the perspective of us Japanese, it is nothing but a nuisance.
Returning to “Notes of the Seasons” at the beginning, when one speaks of Taekwondo, in February there was the issue in which wrestling was removed from the core Olympic sports at the board meeting of the IOC, the International Olympic Committee.
In advance reporting, the event most often named as a candidate for removal was Taekwondo.
For that reason, it is said that wrestling was removed and Taekwondo remained because of South Korea’s extreme lobbying activities.
In fact, regarding Taekwondo, there had been “suspicions” from the time it was adopted for the Olympics.
The February 28 issue of Shukan Bunshun carried the following article (partly quoted from “Correct Historical Recognition, Diplomacy Emphasizing National Interests, and the Realization of Nuclear Armament”).
Ito Isao, Olympic commentator, had been watching Taekwondo’s suspicious aspects from the time he worked as an international affairs counselor at the Japan Sports Association.
“An IOC booklet says that ‘Taekwondo has spread to 140 countries around the world,’ but this is a lie by the Taekwondo Federation.
In Central and South America, they entered karate dojos, bought them out, and made them change into Taekwondo dojos.
At the Seoul Olympics, Kim Un-yong, then an IOC member who was on intimate terms with Chairman Samaranch, forced its adoption.”
Kim Un-yong was found to have engaged in bribery in bidding activities.
Afterward, he was convicted in South Korea of embezzlement and other crimes, sentenced to prison, and expelled from the IOC.
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【Kim Un-yong. From Kim’s GYM】
(Omitted in the middle)
At present, South Korea has two IOC members.
Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung and also an IOC sponsor, was convicted three times of breach of trust and other acts, but was pardoned in connection with the Pyeongchang Olympic bid.
Moon Dae-sung, a Taekwondo gold medalist, is under investigation by his alma mater over suspicions of plagiarism in his doctoral dissertation.
There are strangely few “innocent” people among South Korean Olympic figures.
While they roamed about to defend Taekwondo to the death, IOC member Hickey revealed, “There was absolutely no lobbying activity by wrestling.
It was zero.”
Perhaps wrestling’s failure to be selected was, rather, an honor.
Finally, here is a famous passage from Fukuzawa Yukichi’s “Datsu-A Ron,” published in Jiji Shimpo on March 16, 1885.
【Japan’s misfortune is China and Korea.
The people of these two countries, like the Japanese, belong to the cultural sphere of Chinese characters and share the same classics, but whether because they are originally racially different or because there is a difference in education, the spiritual gap between them and Japan is far too large.
In an age when information moves back and forth on a global scale, even though they know about modern civilization and international law, the spirit of China and Korea, which remains fixated on the past, is no different from that of a thousand years ago.
Even in scenes of international dispute, they brazenly say, “You are the one at fault,” and feel no shame.
No longer should we expect these two countries to acquire international common sense.
We should abandon the illusion that they will share in prosperity as members of an “East Asian Community.”
Japan must sever its relations with the continent and the peninsula and advance together with Europe and America.
We must not deal with them with special feelings merely because they are neighboring countries.
With these two countries as well, it is enough to deal with them according to international common sense and in accordance with international law.
Those who overlook the wrongdoing of bad friends cannot escape bad repute together with them.
In my heart, I break off relations with the bad friends of “East Asia.”】
This is the true nature of China and Korea, about which an alarm was sounded as long as 128 years ago.
Today is the global age, and it would probably be close to impossible to cut off relations with the continent and the peninsula.
But at the very least, to Japanese people who still mouth the delusion of an “East Asian Community,” I want to say, “Learn from history.”