“Let’s go to France together.”
This is the cheering slogan the “Red Devils” of the South Korean national football team’s cheerleading team put up at the Jamsil Sports Complex in Seoul on November 1, 1997, during the final Asian qualifying match between South Korea and Japan for the 1998 World Cup in France. The South Korean team played the game with the certainty of qualifying for the World Cup finals. On the contrary, only by winning this game can the Japanese team continue their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in history. As a result, the Japanese team won 2-0.
The Red Devils and the Japanese cheerleading team “ULTRA NIPPON” also continued to cheer after the game. ULTRA NIPPON shouted “Korea! Korea!”, and the Red Devils responded with drums. At that time, a member of the Red Devils said in an interview with the Dong-A Ilbo: “Although the Korean team was completely defeated, I saw the happy faces of my ULTRA NIPPON friends who came from afar, so I decided to take it as some kind of comfort.”
On the same day, the Dong-A Ilbo also published a report criticizing Ichiro Suzuki. On that day, Ichiro Suzuki participated in the first game of the Korea-Japan Professional Baseball Gold Series held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium. He did not enter the batter’s box after defending and missed the game. “The Dong-A Ilbo” reported that “the condition of the waist injured six days ago has worsened,” and suspected that “if a Korean pitcher strikes out if he is not careful, the self-esteem of Japan’s top stars will be damaged,” so he took the initiative to ask for help. Substitute. The title of the report is “The Arrogant Suzuki Ichiro”.
After Ichiro Suzuki, Japan’s top star is undoubtedly Shohei Ohtani. Unlike Ichiro Suzuki, Otani’s popularity is very high, which even makes people wonder, “Are there any Japanese who are so popular in Korea?” (Fans of Sana, a Japanese member of girl group TWICE, boo!) Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers waved to Korean fans in front of the Taegeuk flag emoji on the eve of the 2024 Major League Baseball opening two-game “Seoul Series”. At the press conference after entering the country, he also said, “South Korea is one of my favorite countries,” making fans even more excited.
What would happen if Son Heung-min, as a player representative of Tottenham Hotspur, showed his heart in front of the sun flag emoji and said “Japan is one of my favorite countries” in an interview? Despite this, can Korean fans still cheer for Son Heung-min? Although Ohtani’s Taegeukgi ended with an exclamation point, it left a question mark on Son Heung-min’s Japanese flag.
South Korea and Japan finally entered the World Cup finals in France together. Three months after the World Cup ended, President Kim Dae-jung said in the Japanese Diet: “It is foolish to render 1,500 years of exchange and cooperation meaningless because of the unfortunate history of less than 50 years.” Nonetheless, Among politicians who keep talking about the “Kim Dae Jung spirit,” there are many who are fueling anti-Japanese sentiment in the run-up to parliamentary elections.
The reason why the “Red Devils” can cheer for the Japanese team is because even if the Korean team loses this game, it will not be too hard hit. We, who have been unilaterally bullied by Japan, are now so powerful that even if Son Heung-min smiles in front of the sun flag, it can be regarded as a “capitalist smile”? We cannot give up the unilateral antipathy that the Japanese media describes as “anti-Japan without Japan”. Isn’t this something that hurts our self-esteem even more?
2024-03-21 22:35:50
#Shohei #Ohtanis #Taegeuk #FlagSon #Heungmins #Sun #Flag #DONGA #ILBO
