Seok Kyung-duk: "Japanese Far-Right Netizens Terrorize Rising Sun Flag Prevention Campaign"

Campaign to Eradicate the Rising Sun Flag Ahead of Qatar World Cup
"Messing with Our Taegukgi... Does This Change History?"

A Japanese far-right netizen damaging the Taegeukgi flag. Photo by Professor Seokyungdeok

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jung-wan] Professor Seo Kyung-duk of Sungshin Women's University, who announced a 'Global Rising Sun Flag Eradication Campaign' to coincide with the opening of the Qatar World Cup, revealed that he has been subjected to malicious message attacks from far-right Japanese netizens.

On the 23rd, Professor Seo stated on his Facebook, "The news about the Rising Sun Flag prevention campaign was covered by the Japanese media Gekisaka and appeared as the main news on Yahoo Japan. Far-right netizens launched attacks through comments and direct messages on social networking services (SNS)."

He added, "Isn't it really childish? Most of their responses are just insults rather than logical rebuttals because they have not properly learned the history related to the Rising Sun Flag." Professor Seo said, "One of their biggest characteristics is that they always tamper with our Taegukgi (Korean national flag). Does this change the historical truth of the Rising Sun Flag? I can only feel pity."

Professor Seo explained, "Since many Rising Sun Flag patterns used by international organizations and global companies have been removed, Japanese right-wingers seem to feel threatened by my activities." He emphasized, "If the Rising Sun Flag appears again during this World Cup, just like it did during the group stage match between Japan and Senegal in the last World Cup, I will immediately report it to the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and inform the world of the issue through foreign press corps." He added, "I also plan to turn this into a global controversy and use it as a good opportunity to widely inform the world that it is a 'war criminal flag' with the same meaning as Germany's Hakenkreuz."

A defamatory comment from a netizen on Professor Seokyung Deok's Instagram. Photo by Professor Seokyung Deok

Along with this, Professor Seo posted photos containing graphics insulting the Taegukgi and Japanese netizens' critical messages that seemed to be translated by machine translation. In the photos, they criticized him with phrases such as "The Rising Sun Flag is not a war criminal flag," "The Korean Navy saluted the Rising Sun Flag," "Do not spread false information worldwide," and "Lying Koreans."

Earlier, on the 21st, Professor Seo announced a global campaign to prevent Japan's Rising Sun Flag cheering in conjunction with the opening of the Qatar World Cup. He said, "There was controversy over the Rising Sun Flag even before the Qatar World Cup started, and a large Rising Sun Flag cheering photo was displayed on the outer wall of a famous shopping mall in Doha, which was removed following protests from local residents and netizens."

According to Professor Seo, during the previous Russia World Cup, a photo of Japan's Rising Sun Flag cheering was posted on FIFA's official Instagram, causing controversy. However, after protests from Professor Seo and netizens, it was replaced with another photo. He stated, "If the Japanese cheering squad uses the Rising Sun Flag again in this World Cup, I will immediately report it to FIFA and inform the world of the issue through foreign press corps."