Our hopes have been answered: The U.S. is out of the World Baseball Classic, leaving us with tonight's all-East-Asia final pitting Korea and Japan. That may not sound exciting, until you appreciate the shared history of the neighboring rivals. Think of Korea vs. Japan as sort of like the Red Sox vs. the Yankees, if New York brutally raped and pillaged Boston over a hundred times throughout history, terrorized generations of Bostonians over multiple decades and forced them to change their names, lose their cultural identity and speak only with a New York accent. Yeah, something like that.
To paraphrase J.M. Coetzee paraphrasing Rene Girard: The fewer the differences between two parties, the more bitter their mutual hatred. Korea and Japan are right next to each other and share similar bloodlines, cultures and economies, yet an extremely bitter tension still exists between the two countries. Why? Check out our breakdown of the Korea-Japan beef through history below...
1592-1598: Toyotomi Hideyoshi led one of the first recorded Japanese invasions of Korea as part of the Seven Year War. The Japanese decimated the peninsula and kidnapped thousands of Korean artisans and brought them home'along with the ears and noses of troublemakers. The Mimizuka monument, which translates to "Ear Mound," still stands today in Kyoto. That shit just don't sound right!
1910-1945: Japan's 35-year annexation of Korea included the familiar imperialist atrocities, but perhaps none worse than the "comfort women" forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military. Actual numbers vary, depending on where you're from (Korea says 200,000+; Japan says 20,000), but there's no disputing that the majority of comfort women were Korean. The debate continues today, with a recent uproar over Japanese historical textbooks denying the existence of comfort women, which is about as believable as Rawse's denials about being a C.O.
2001-2006: Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi created a stir with his annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors soldiers'and convicted war criminals'who died fighting for Imperial Japan. These public visits angered Japan's neighbors, adding to widespread anti-Japan sentiment. Imagine the Chancellor of Germany paying homage to old Nazi leaders and you might get a sense of the outrage in East Asia.
2005-Present: South Korea currently occupies Dokdo, a group of islets between Korea and Japan that Japan claims is part of its territory. The two countries have long bickered over the area, with tensions rising in recent years with multiple protests and diplomatic sneak disses by each country. Should the two nations rap battle for it?
2009: The Japanese were none too pleased when Korea planted a flag in the pitcher's mound after beating them last week. Who will get the last laugh? That's why we'll be watching tonight.
KP March 23rd, 2009 at 08:37 PM
Korean pride up in this joint.
focalmatic March 24th, 2009 at 06:57 AM
It took Complex to cover this story correctly??? I am stationed here in Korea and the tension between the two countries is very deep and very real. It seems like in the US - its just another game, but over here there is a deep dissent between the two . Japan feeling like "get over it" and Korea feeling like they are trying to right the past/narrow the gap with every win over Japan whether its Hyundai winning NA car of the year or getting the Gold in the Olympics for baseball. Its hard to fully grasp the magnitude of this game if you are not exposed to it, but it is definitely eye opening. I liken it to Manny Pacquiao carrying the entire country of the Phillipines on his back when he fights - that is what is happening/happened here. I feel bad for the Koreans cause they were so close to winning in the bottom of the 9th...no one seemed to congratulate each other afterwards too.
Korean March 24th, 2009 at 03:25 PM
Hmm. I'm a Korean. But, you know, Korean never says, 200,000 comfort women were Korean. As i know, 25% comfort women were Japanese, 40% were Chinese. so, major comfort women were not korean.
Korean March 24th, 2009 at 03:32 PM
Korea is small popular country than japan. But, Even small popular Country Korea surpass Japan in many apsect. Movie, Drama, K-Pop, ship building, memory chip, LCD, IT tech... and so on. And, Do you know how many baseball player in Korea and Japan? Japan : 12 millions (Actually, baseball player numbers, and They playing baseball at school) Korea : 4 thounsands (Actually, baseball player numbers, and They playing baseball at school) Baseball is very popular and national sports of Japan. But, Baseball is not so popular as Japan in Korea. OK? this is nothing but a "miracle of han river" Japan is 3000 times larger baseball player than Korea!
ed March 24th, 2009 at 11:12 PM
To complete your entry, Japanese nationalists unfurled several Imperial Japanese Flags (rising sun flag) during the WBC Finals to continue the beeffest. Mind you, this also constitutes "beef" with the US since we had Pearl Harbor and fought a war over there (not to mention beef with Taiwan, Philippinesans, PRC etc). Also a correction. The Japanese first planted a Japanese flag on the mound after a win during the 2006 WBC. The Koreans were replying in kind in 2009
1M March 25th, 2009 at 11:07 AM
seriously? complex trying to get political and instigate "beef"? wow..
yeah yeah yeah March 26th, 2009 at 03:28 AM
Comment by Korean — March 24, 2009 Dear, Korean since WHEN Korea surpassed Japan? even Koreans in Korea don't say that. get real.
Agreed February 4th, 2012 at 10:25 AM
I agree with you, Korea just has been stealing Japan's technology for years.
Graham March 26th, 2009 at 04:56 AM
One of these days, the writer of this article will get the chip off his shoulder.... What is wrong about the prime minister paying homage to the Yasukuni Shrine? You know that Koreans and Chinese who died in the war are buried and honoured there, right? It is not the same at all with German paying homage to Nazi or what not. "Who wil get the last laugh?" Get real. It is a baseball match, and if you are putting a nationalistic slant to it, then you must be a really sad person. No one in Japan cared if Korea won or not. Jesus
Korean March 26th, 2009 at 04:05 PM
@ yeah yeah yeah LOL. Before 19 century, Korea was Teacher of Japan. All of Japanese culture derived from China. but its culture teached by Korea. Korea was only good thing to Japan. Japan was only invasion to Korea. @Graham "No one in Japan cared if Korea won or not. Jesus" it is well known that the only thing that japs think about from the minute they wake up until they sleep each day is "I must go on the internet and find ways to degrade Korea's image b/c I am insecure about Japan's image and am afraid that Korea is more popular than Japan". Japanese are really Stalker of Korea. Cleary, in 1990s, Japanese ignore Korea. But, Nowdays, They are really watch out Korea in every aspects. Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan -- NYTimes "Lacking confidence, they need a story of healing," Mr. Yoshida said. "Even if we say that story is different from facts, it doesn't mean anything to them." www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/international/asia/19comics.html?ei=5090&en=b0d32e601cb39284&ex=1290056400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
UAE_JAPAN_Mariam March 30th, 2010 at 01:31 PM
HEY you!! everyone knows how Japan is better than korea
me May 30th, 2010 at 12:00 AM
Everyone knows? whos everyone? lol Maybe stupid racist people that dont really know anything about korea
Korean-American August 29th, 2010 at 07:57 PM
Korea has Starcraft, Japan has Wii. KOREA FTW
12345678 August 18th, 2011 at 03:34 PM
Are you people a freakin retard?, Why dont you study a little bit about the history of the two countries before you say all that kind of ****,huh? And, a little bit of a tip, dont study it from a japan lover view, just because of sushi, kay? Study it the correct way, and dont be too stupid to believe all the **** that those japanese are blabbering. But well, I guess you cant blame the citizens, cuz they are also being tricked by the government, but if you search around, you can probably find a bunch of things that the government was trying to hide, proof that they were veeeeeeeeery, extreeeeemely behind korea back then and that they did some veeeeeeery extreeeeemly horrible and cruel things to the koreans. Im not Korean, or japanese. Im chinese, and I just understand how the koreans would have felt because us chinese had to go through it too. And my grandmother, who lived during that time, keeps on having nightmares about people dying and about horrible things happening to her. Kay, so please stop saying that kind of stuff when you dont know anything.
Korean March 26th, 2009 at 04:18 PM
@yeah yeah yeah *Korea : 48,000,000 populations *Japan : 120,000,000 populations Summer olympic Medal Ranking Korea > Japan Winter olympic Medal Ranking Korea > Japan Asian Game medal ranking Korea > Japan FIFA World Cup Medal Ranking Korea > Japan World Baduk Ranking Korea > Japan Memory Chip technology Korea > Japan LCD technology Korea > Japan Ship Building technology Korea > Japan IQ (average) Korean > Japanese Body Height (average people size) Korean > Japanese Sports results Korean > Japanese Program for International Student Assessment Korean > Japanese I couldn't write all in this page.
UAE_JAPAN_Mariam March 30th, 2010 at 01:28 PM
hey you Korean guy did anyone ever told you that you talk too much??
Wowzer October 17th, 2011 at 08:49 PM
i am Korean and im proud of it. and if you go back in history, you'll see that Japan and China and Korea KNEW that Dokdo was Korean territory. but all of a sudden Japan tries to rape the entire Eastern part of Asia and Dokdo and a bunch of other ppl! thats just not right man. okay? o and if i talk too much its because..well if someone insulted your country, Japan, wouldn't you feel, well, angry? if not, then all of that "loyalty to my country thing" is just shit. plus it is true that Korea is on top for Educational rankings. Look it up.