Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
tvN's show stirs controversy for introducing symbol of Japanese samurai family
Screen capture of “Amazing Saturday” Screen capture from tvN
By Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
“Amazing Saturday,” a show on cable channel tvN, apologized for making a minor actor wear a costume bearing the family symbol of a samurai who invaded Korea in the 1500s in its latest episode, suspending a rebroadcast.
In the episode broadcast Saturday, Kim Kang-hoon, a child actor famous for his roles in multiple dramas and movies including “Mr. Sunshine,” wore a costume with the family crest of Ishida Mitsunari, a high-level Japanese official under the leadership of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Kim was wearing the costume from CJ's cable network costume department to indicate his willingness to act in the role of a Korean commander like Kim Shin, the military general in the drama “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God.”
Several viewers left comments on the program's website, criticizing it for exposing the crest of historic Japanese figure who actually led an invasion of Korea during the 1592-98 Imjin War. “There is no point in engraving the Japanese crest in a costume for a Korean general,” a commenter wrote on the show's website, Monday.
“Ishida Mitsunari was like a chief secretary to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a feudal lord who invaded Korea twice to slaughter Korean people. I would like to know if the intention of making the 12-year-old child actor wear the costume of an enemy of the Korean people was to educate people to have pro-Japanese sentiment?” another wrote.
The staff of the show released a statement apologizing for their ignorance of history, explaining that they didn't intentionally use the emblem as nobody knew what it stood for.
“First, I apologize over our ignorance about not knowing the important facts of history and express gratitude to those who let us know. We bought the costume from a costume firm and none of the people including Kim, the staff of the show and the costume company questioned the costume,” the staff of “Amazing Saturday” wrote late Monday.
“We will not rebroadcast the episode, will blur the crest, let the costume company know the situation, apologize to Kim and share the situation with audiences.”
Depicting symbols of Japanese imperialism and the country's products on TV has been considered taboo largely because of Korean audiences' antipathy against Japan due to its 1910-45 occupation of the Korean Peninsula. For example, using designs similar to Japan's rising sun flag offends many Koreans who consider that they justify and romanticize Japanese militarism and thus minimize the pain of victims of its ideology.