By Lee Hyo-sik
A nationwide campaign to raise donations for Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims has come to a virtual halt, following the Japanese government’s recent approval of controversial textbooks that lay claims to South Korea’s Dokdo islets.
Japan’s repeat of territorial claims over Dokdo in its annual diplomatic report has further fanned anti-Japan sentiment here with charity groups receiving substantially less from individuals.
The Community Chest of Korea (CCK), the nation’s largest charity group, said Thursday that it received only 82 donations through its automatic response system (ARS) on March 31.
Prior to the Japan’s fresh claim to the islets, the charity obtained as many as 167,000 donations through its ARS system a day.
On April 1 when Japan’s Cabinet approved the "Diplomatic Blue Paper" report for 2011 with claims to the islets, the group received only 21 donations, the fewest since it began the campaign on March 14.
Anti-Japanese sentiment boiling again
A growing number of municipal administrations here have either stopped or suspended donation drives for Japanese quake victims.
Goesan County in North Chungcheong Province has decided to stop collecting donations from its employees for the quake-devastated neighbor, as well as returning donations to contributors, the first to do so among local administrations.
``We launched a donation drive immediately after Japan was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami early last month. Of our 600 employees, 450 have donated 10,000 won ($9) each on a voluntary basis,” said Kim Jong-seob, the county’s general affairs manager.
“However, they became extremely negative toward the idea of helping Japanese victims after the government there authorized middle school textbooks that lay claim to Dokdo Island.’’
Kim said the recent publication of Japan’s diplomatic paper claiming sovereignty over the island has furthered worsened feelings toward the neighboring country, which ruled the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
``Senior county officials held a meeting on April 6. They decided to stop the donation campaign and return collected money. It is not easy for us to make such decision. But we think this is the way it should be and hopefully other municipalities and business organizations will follow suit,’’ he said.
Geumcheon District Office in southwestern Seoul also said it will donate money initially collected for Japanese victims to civic groups that promote Korea’s sovereignty over Dokdo and social welfare centers.
``We have received 12 million won from our workers so far. But following Japan’s authorization of controversial history textbooks and publication of a diplomatic paper, which all claim rights over our Dokdo Island, the majority of our employees turned against an idea of offering charity to Japan,’’ said Jang Seung-mok, an official at the district office’s public relations division.
Jang said after surveying employees, the district office decided to offer only 20 percent of the donations to Japanese earthquake victims.
``The remaining 80 percent will go to civic organizations campaigning for Korea’s sovereign rights over Dokdo at home and abroad. But we have not yet selected the beneficiaries,’’ he said.