NBC apologized after Joshua Cooper Ramo, one of its analysts, made a comment during the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics stating that "every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural, technological and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation." This remark immediately sparked outrage in South Korea, where there is still resentment over Japan's 20th century annexation of the Korean Peninsula, especially after Japan's refusal to reissue an apology for the Japanese military’s role in forcing Korean women to work in military brothels during World War II.
An online petition began to circulate demanding an apology from NBC, and more than 8,000 people had signed it by Sunday. Some Koreans compared the statement to advocating Nazi persecution of the Jews, or appreciating the Japanese for the Pearl Harbor raids. However, it is true that Japan provided economic and technical assistance to South Korea for decades after WWII. Should NBC have to apologize for such a statement, even if it holds some truth?
6 comments:
This is definitely a very sensitive topic, and I've personally seen the resentment that still boils in some people's hearts. The history between these countries is complex and long, but many injustices are still not forgotten. At this moment, however, this is still a very big deal. I don't believe the NBC analyst had such malicious thoughts or attempted to make a statement similar to advocating Nazi persecution of the Jews. His statement does hold some truth, as Chris states, but in this digital age one must be very careful about what they say. I believe an apology would be the fastest solution to appease South Korea and let this situation pass with minimal damage.
I think this was just an insensitive comment overall. I'm not sure why Ramo would think that praising Japan's economy in the winter olympics that is held in South Korea would be a good idea, considering the bad blood between these two countries that is still somewhat of a controversial topic to Koreans, and that he doesn't really have the right to speak for every Korean on this matter. With that being said, I do think that people are overreacting to what he said. Ramo only said that South Korea probably took similar approaches to fix up their economy like what Japan did, which is certainly not insinuating anything about these certain things that Japan did to Korea was justified. NBC should be more careful in how they word things in their writing to avoid conflicts like this in the future.
Even though the Olympics is a sporting event, there really is no way to fully leave politics out of it. Joshua Cooper Ramo was NBC's Olympic Asian Analyst, so he should have known or been more aware of lingering issues between countries. He should have been more sensitive especially because this resentment and anger that Koreans still feel towards the colonization of their country by the Japanese is well known. The idea that the Japanese helped the Koreans advance is misleading. The Koreans had the most advanced writing system in the world before the Japanese colonization, and their artwork, especially pottery, was prized to the point the Japanese stole Korean artisans and their work to take back to Japan to promote as Japanese. The one thing that the Koreans had not done before the Japanese colonized them was open their kingdom up to trade with the world. After the Japanese lost in WW2, Korea was a liberated country with ties to the United States, which ultimately meant they had to modernize. Bottom line, if you are going to call yourself an Asian Analyst, you should probably know a little bit about Asian history and how complex it is.
Olympics comes with a political divide. Sometimes issues like this are publicly known and therefore should be avoided. This was an incompetent thing to say and backlash ensued. It doesn't matter if what he said was correct or not, it was hurtful to a large group of people. If you are an Asian analyst you should be knowledgeable in Asian politics.
I also believe that although the statement wasn't intending to be offensive at the time it was said, it was still a very insensitive statement made by the NBC analyst. If they want to maintain a good relationship with Korean viewers and in order to appease the anger and tension that they caused, they should issue an apology immediately to Koreans and never make the same mistake in the future. As stated above, if you are an Asian analyst on a world-wide news station, you should know enough about these countries and their people before you make such a statement about them.
To answer the question, I don't think that NBC has to apologize for the statement, as it wasn't meant to be offensive. Perhaps Ramo's comment did gloss over, or basically ignore, the rest of the greatly negative history that exists between South Korea and Japan, but I do not think he did this with a purpose of being offensive or sparking controversy. After all, as Chris said, his comment does hold some degree of truth, so he cannot be attacked on the basis that he just made a completely incorrect statement. That being said, I can see how the comment would anger the Korean audience. Ramo certainly should have been a bit more aware of his audience, and more aware of the complex and negative history between the two nations that he was commenting on. Based on all of this, I think that NBC should issue an apology, not because they are completely at fault and necessarily need to apologize, but just to settle everyone down and decrease the tension that has risen over this.
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