Loading AI tools
2005–2015 anti-Korean manga by Sharin Yamano From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manga Kenkanryu (マンガ 嫌韓流, Manga Kenkanryū, "Hating the Korean Wave"[1] or "Hating the Korean Boom"[2]) is a Japanese manga written by Sharin Yamano with a theme that draws on anti-Korean sentiment in Japan. The manga started as a webcomic on the author's website entitled CHOSEN, and after being refused publication for two years, it was published by Shin-yo-sha and released in Japan on July 26, 2005. It was controversial and triggered a Japanese Internet movement.
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
| Manga Kenkanryu | |
The cover of Manga Kenkanryu, in which some of the controversial issues the book covers are mentioned. Click to see a translation. | |
| マンガ 嫌韓流 (Manga – The Anti-Korean Wave) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Political |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Sharin Yamano |
| Published by | Shin-yo-sha |
| Original run | 26 July 2005 – 19 March 2015 |
| Volumes | 10 |
This series of comic includes controversial topics surrounding Korea and Japan such as comfort women and the Liancourt Rocks, all of which are justified in favor of Japan throughout comics. After its publication, the comic hit number one in sales on Amazon.co.jp, which was reported in Korea, sparking much online controversy. The manga was controversial even outside Korea with The New York Times[1] and The Times[2] continuously reporting on the comic.
The main character of the story, Kaname Okiayu, a Japanese high school senior, learns about an alleged game-fixing scandal responsible for the winning streak of the South Korean soccer team during the 2002 FIFA World Cup and alleged ugly behavior by their supporters. Okiayu becomes a college freshman, and he and his female classmate Itsumi Aramaki join the Far East Asia Investigation Committee (極東アジア調査會), an extracurricular group led by Ryūhei Sueyuki (a junior) and Tae Soeuchi (a sophomore). The group is mainly devoted to the study of historical disputes between Japan and Korea and is very critical of the latter. Okiayu and Aramaki are taught about many of the alleged ugly sides of Koreans. The group participates in debates with a pro-Korean study group and a group of students visiting from South Korea – both depicted as ignorant of history and unable to make logical arguments – and rebuts their pro-Korean opinions, humiliating them.
The main topics of book include an alleged 2002 FIFA World Cup game scandal, Japanese compensation to Korea for colonial rule[broken anchor], opposition to Zainichi Koreans suffrage, alleged Korean plagiarism of Japanese culture, criticism of pro-Korean mass media in Japan, criticism of Hangul (Korean alphabet), Japan–Korea Annexation, Liancourt Rocks dispute, and criticism of the Korean Wave and its immense popularity in Japan.
Nicola Liscutin, author of "Surfing the Neo-Nationalist Wave: A Case Study of Manga Kenkanryū", noted that the art uses a "simple, abstract 'cartoony'" design with its Japanese protagonists in order to make the reader identify with them, while the opponents of the committee are depicted in an "exaggerated 'realistic' or even grotesque" manner that marks them as being different from the reader.[3] According to Liscutin, characters of Korean descent are depicted with "pronounced cheekbones and thus, allegedly more realistic", including those friendly to the protagonists and those against the antagonists.[3] Norimitsu Onishi of The New York Times states that the series depicts Korean characters with "Asian features", black hair, and narrow eyes while Japanese are portrayed with blond hair, large eyes, and "Caucasian features";[1] this manner of portraying Japanese people originates from a pro-Western self-identification movement dating to the Meiji Restoration, where Japanese envisioned themselves as being at the level of the Westerners.[1] Liscutin adds that the series uses a "'photographic' realism" for real life figures such as Shintaro Ishihara.[3]
The book was released in the midst of the recent "Korean Wave" pop culture boom in Japan, which was led by the spread of K-pop, K-dramas and other pop culture imports. This has led to increased positive awareness of Korea; it has also triggered a phenomenon known as the "Hate Korea Wave" (after which the book is named), due to increased awareness of various Japan–Korea disputes and the fanning of previously existing anti-Korean sentiment in Japan. The book's tagline says "There is one more Korean Wave that the media is hiding—the Hate Korea Wave!" (マスコミが隠しているもう一つの韓流、それが・・・・・・「嫌韓流」だ!!) The book is controversial both in and outside Japan because of opinions expressed in the book concerning major historical disputes and ongoing issues between Korea and Japan.
The book was created with the aim of spreading the "detestable reality" of South Korea, and encouraging identification of South Korea with these negative aspects, with the idea that by asserting this through the medium of manga, the ideas would "make as much of a hit as the Gōmanism Manifesto did" (as said by the author himself, according to the Kenkanryu Official Guidebook). Readers with existing anti-Korean sentiments have naturally accepted the author's viewpoint (which he asserts is the "correct understanding of South Korea"). [citation needed]
Well-known revisionist writers have contributed four written articles to the book, however: Kanji Nishio[6] (honorary chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform) on the Korean people, Kohyu Nishimura[7] (described as a "publicist") on the South Korean media, Takahiro Ōtsuki (a professor who was a member of the Society when it was formed) on the "Hate Korea Trolls" (嫌韓厨; Kenkanchū), and Masao Shimojō[7] on the Liancourt Rocks dispute. The book also shows marked influence from the "liberal historical viewpoint"[8] held by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, and the book holds a historical viewpoint common to that of Yoshinori Kobayashi's Gōmanism Manifesto series (the fact that his name is given on the section about the ongoing debate over comfort women is also seen as a sign of his influence [Kenkanryu 1/Official Guidebook]).
 | This article's section called "Popularity in Japan" needs additional citations for verification. (June 2010) |
The November 19, 2005 New York Times article "Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan"[1] by Japan critic Norimitsu Onishi describes Kenkanryu and another manga, Introduction to China, as "portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them." The article also discusses how the book reveals some of the sentiments underlying Japan's current worsening relations with the rest of Asia, as well as the country's longstanding unease with its own sense of identity. It claims that the book is influenced by how much of Japan's history in the last century and a half has been guided by the goal of becoming more like the West and less like Asia and how the book perhaps inadvertently betrays Japan's conflicted identity of a longstanding feelings of similarities toward the West and superiority toward the rest of Asia.
| This article's section called "Responses from Internet communities" needs additional citations for verification. (June 2010) |
| This article's section called "Criticism" needs additional citations for verification. (June 2010) |
Due to the controversial content of the series, there have been many criticisms of the manga, the main complaint being that the series portrays Koreans in a negative light, while glossing over anything negative related to the Japanese. Critics cite examples of this both in the character portrayals of people representing their respective groups and in the commentaries actually made by various characters.
Regarding character portrayals, one complaint in The New York Times article is that "The Japanese characters in the book are drawn with big eyes, blond hair and Caucasian features; the Koreans are drawn with black hair, narrow eyes and very Asian features." Kenkanryu 2 objects to such a view; the author states that "this expression is a typical expression in cartoons in Japan." (Kenkanryu 2, P267) Another common critique is that the way in which the characters' personalities are presented is heavily one-sided and purposefully harmful to the image of Korea and its proponents in the manga: figures on the Japanese "side" have generally carefree, with enjoyable attitudes and coming from a variety of backgrounds; figures on the Korean side, on the other hand, consist only of arrogant members from educated, elitist backgrounds, leading to a heavily distorted, stereotyped presentation of Koreans.
Their main criticism, however, is based on the actual commentary and opinions espoused by some of the characters in the manga. One such example is the claim that South Korea owes its current success to Japan, which overlooks the negative aspects of the Japanese occupation in favor of the claim that Japan was the impetus for Korea's modernization.
The anti-Korean content of the book comes mainly from already-existing opinions espoused by critics of South Korea, though put in a manga format. Critics argue that by transferring opinions on these issues to this medium, it makes it easier for the author to convey his criticisms of Korea to people with no previous interest in Korea.
In Chapter 1, the book recounts the conduct of the Korean team in the 2002 World Cup games and claims that refereeing decisions in the Korean team's matches against Portugal and Spain were controversial. The book argues that the Korean team had an unfair advantage in certain key matches. On p. 20, a character states that "This subject was the talk of soccer-related internet message boards" (サッカー関係のネット掲示板ではこの話題で持ちきりだぜ).
The book argues that the misjudgment was a decisive factor in the Korean team's record four advancements in the tournament (like Japan, the South Korean team had never won a World Cup game before 2002). As the book points out, four referee decisions were included in the 2004 FIFA Fever DVD release[21] in its list of top 10 wrong referee decisions in the history of the World Cup. Although the book states that this DVD release was made by FIFA was in response to the demands of the "fair judgement movement", Exposing Manga Kenkanryu's Lies refers to a news article[22] in which FIFA states that it was not they that directed the DVD's content, but another company under license from FIFA. FIFA, the official authority concerning game decisions in World Cup games, has never reversed any decisions from the 2002 games nor penalized any of the referees allegedly involved. The New York Times article by Norimitsu Onishi also states that the reason behind bringing up the 2002 FIFA World Cup was to justify Japan's lagging behind the South Korean team by questioning the validity of the South Korean team's success in an attempt to bring it down to an equal footing with Japan, as well as to combat the growing opinion in Japan that South Korea has emerged as a rival or even a superior to Japan.
The book also describes alleged misconduct by overzealous Korea supporters, on p. 20 saying, as an Asia Times article[23] points out, that the sun disc on the Japanese flag displayed during the opening ceremony in Seoul was deliberately drawn bigger than the usual size to make the flag look like a used sanitary napkin.
In 2005, a supplementary volume was released entitled The Truth of "Manga – The Hate Korea Wave"! (マンガ嫌韓流の真実!, Manga Kenkanryū no Shinjitsu, ISBN 4-7966-4973-5, published by Takarajima-sha and released 2005-10-21), which attempted to bolster its claims that the arguments presented in The Hate Korea Wave are based in fact. A book attempting to debunk Kenkanryu has recently been released in Japan as well, entitled This Part of "Manga Kenkanryu" is Nonsense – A Serious Rebuttal.
Sharin Yamano published three sequels to Manga Kenkanryu, in 2006, 2007, and 2009. In 2008, the author also released a comic book titled Manga Kenchugokuryu (マンガ嫌中国流; translated as "The Hate China Wave") of which main topic is anti-Chinese opinions in Japan.[24]
While continuing more or less with the basic setting of its predecessor, Manga Kenkanryu 2 also deals with such topics as Zainichi issues, the Sea of Japan naming dispute, and Japan's Protection of Human Rights Bill. It is also not merely a criticism of South Korea but also of the position of the Japanese media, House of Councillors member Tomiko Okazaki's participation in anti-Japanese demonstrations, and the educational position of the Japan Teachers Union. On the article regarding Zainichi issues, the book by name focuses upon South Korea but is centered upon the North Korean-linked Chogin Credit Cooperatives, Zainichi North Korean schools, and the North Korean abduction issue with focus upon Zainichi North Koreans and the North Korean-linked General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, and this aspect of the book's organization has undergone criticism from Japanese netizens for failing to touch upon the subject of Zainichi South Koreans and the South Korean-linked Korean Residents Union in Japan.[citation needed] Another issue the sequel deals with is the media's response (including that of The New York Times) to the original book.
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
