Published on August 1, 2019.
This essay introduces Takayama Masayuki’s serialized column in Shukan Shincho, discussing the Asiana Airlines crash, South Korean anti-American and anti-Japanese media reactions, Seoul’s response to Japan’s removal of South Korea from the white list, the Sino-centric order, and Matsumoto Koji’s The Origins of Korean Anti-Japanese Ideology.
It criticizes South Korea’s historical consciousness through themes such as Japanese rule, the Sino-Japanese War, the incorporation of Japanese culture, and claims about ancient Korean culture.

August 1, 2019.
No, Matsumoto Koji says something even more laughable in The Origins of Korean Anti-Japanese Ideology.
Korea has no proper culture or history.
Since that looks bad, let us imitate America’s Lincoln and create a plausible history.
Then where should the model be found?
The following is from Takayama Masayuki’s serialized column published in today’s issue of Shukan Shincho.
This essay, too, proves that he is a journalist without equal in the postwar world.
Korean-Wave Delusions.
On a day of very fine weather, a Korean Asiana aircraft approached San Francisco Airport.
But it did not have enough altitude.
Its main landing gear caught on the seawall, the aircraft was slammed onto the runway and broke into three pieces, and more than a hundred passengers were killed or injured.
The aircraft eventually burst into flames, but the cabin crew held the passengers back for nearly two minutes, telling them, “Stay in your seats.”
At the time, the airport’s instrument landing system (ILS) was under repair, and landing aircraft had been instructed to descend visually according to the precision approach path indicator lights.
Other aircraft landed without problems, but the Asiana pilots were not accustomed to manual landings.
And so the accident happened.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the cause of the accident was the pilots’ lack of skill and pointed out problems in safe operation, including the response of the cabin crew.
An ordinary country would feel ashamed and hurry to retrain its crew, but this country was different.
The Chosun Ilbo declared, “There was a defect in the Boeing aircraft.”
It launched a major anti-American campaign, saying, “The Korean government should protest through every diplomatic channel,” and “Boeing should know that if Koreans come to dislike it, it will be in trouble.”
The U.S. media, too, were astonished and mocked them by saying that the captain’s name was “Sam Ting Wong” (something wrong).
A country like that, which has difficulty with “reflection,” forgets reflection even more when the other party is Japan.
Japan removed sloppy South Korea from the white list.
Immediately, the Chosun Ilbo and its sister paper, the Asahi Shimbun, scolded Japan from above, asking what Japan thought it was, while the South Korean government sent a special envoy to the United States and appealed to the WTO.
It merely screamed and shouted.
What is the source of such an abnormal national character?
Korea experts point to the “Sino-centric order.”
China stands at the center of the world, surrounded by barbarian peoples.
Among those barbarians, Korea imagined itself as standing closest beside China, as its foremost disciple.
The proof was the claws of the dragon.
The dragon of the Chinese emperor has five claws, but Korea depicts a four-clawed dragon.
Japan, far lower in the Sino-centric order, was permitted only three claws.
That was Korea’s pride.
That lower-ranking Japan then ruled Korea for thirty-six years with an arrogant air.
If Japan had enslaved the Korean people, that would not have been a problem, because they were used to that.
Instead, Japan ran railways, built schools, taught them letters, and treated them as human beings.
Although lower-ranking, Japan put on the face of a benevolent teacher.
That displeased them.
So they try to stain Japan’s dignity by making a fuss that mere prostitutes were sex slaves.
That is one view.
No, Matsumoto Koji says something even more laughable in The Origins of Korean Anti-Japanese Ideology.
Korea has no proper culture or history.
Since that looks bad, let us imitate America’s Lincoln and create a plausible history.
Then where should the model be found?
At such a time, the Sino-Japanese War broke out on the Korean Peninsula.
The Japanese army was strong and, moreover, disciplined; there was neither looting nor rape.
It fought a clean war.
Even the Chinese who lost to Japan were moved, and students flooded into Japan to study.
The Koreans watched that war from ringside seats.
Koreans, too, thought that they wanted to become a country like that.
Fortunately, because “although people speak of five thousand years of Korean history, there are no records at all” (Ham Sok-hon), they decided to borrow from Japanese history and culture.
The concept was: “Nothing remains now, but let us say that there was a splendid culture on the ancient Korean Peninsula.
Let us say that this culture took root in Japan and built its myths and culture.”
The result of the continued historical restoration that incorporated Japanese culture was to claim that “the Japanese ethical sense that values cleanliness, is rich in sensitivity, dislikes verbal assertion, and works with fresh vitality was exactly the temperament of ancient Koreans” (Choe Nam-seon).
The Kojiki, too, was said to be “ancient Korean mythology just as it was,” and the Man’yoshu was said to be such that “many of the poets were Koreans, and the scenes sung of were the appearance of old Korea” (Kim Sa-bong).
The Tale of Genji, too, becomes “exactly like Silla of the same period.”
When they make assertions from above, is it because of a kind of personality disorder in which they seriously believe that there is no respect toward the parent that gave birth to Japanese culture?
I imagine he conducted the interviews and wrote this while probably suppressing nausea.
It is a persuasive work produced through great effort.