S. Korean media slams Abe jet picture
Source: AFP |
May 16, 2013, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MAJOR South Korean newspapers splashed a photo of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a military trainer jet on their front pages yesterday, saying it was a reminder of Japan's colonial-era atrocities.
The picture in question showed a smiling Abe giving a thumbs-up while sitting in the cockpit of an air force T-4 training jet emblazoned with the number 731.
The number evoked memories of Unit 731 - a covert Japanese biological and chemical warfare research facility that carried out lethal human experiments in China during the World War II.
The unit was based in the Chinese northeast city of Harbin, and held prisoners from China, South Korea and the Soviet Union.
The press in Seoul suggested the picture was an intended affront to China and South Korea, which suffered under Japanese occupation and colonization.
"Abe's endless provocation!" said the picture caption on the front page of the country's largest daily, the Chosun Ilbo.
"Abe's pose resurrects horrors of Unit 731," ran the headline in the English-language Korea JoongAng Daily.
The picture was taken on Sunday at an air force base in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture. Abe was visiting the base as part of a tour of areas affected by the 2011 tsunami.
The Japanese Defense Ministry suggested the number was simply coincidental.
"There was no particular meaning in the number of the training airplane the prime minister was in on Sunday. Other than that there is nothing we can say," a ministry spokesman said in Tokyo.
South Korean ambassador to Japan Shin Kak Soo said he knew of nothing that indicated there was any intent behind the use of a plane numbered 731, but that Japan needed to pay attention to perceptions.
The picture in question showed a smiling Abe giving a thumbs-up while sitting in the cockpit of an air force T-4 training jet emblazoned with the number 731.
The number evoked memories of Unit 731 - a covert Japanese biological and chemical warfare research facility that carried out lethal human experiments in China during the World War II.
The unit was based in the Chinese northeast city of Harbin, and held prisoners from China, South Korea and the Soviet Union.
The press in Seoul suggested the picture was an intended affront to China and South Korea, which suffered under Japanese occupation and colonization.
"Abe's endless provocation!" said the picture caption on the front page of the country's largest daily, the Chosun Ilbo.
"Abe's pose resurrects horrors of Unit 731," ran the headline in the English-language Korea JoongAng Daily.
The picture was taken on Sunday at an air force base in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture. Abe was visiting the base as part of a tour of areas affected by the 2011 tsunami.
The Japanese Defense Ministry suggested the number was simply coincidental.
"There was no particular meaning in the number of the training airplane the prime minister was in on Sunday. Other than that there is nothing we can say," a ministry spokesman said in Tokyo.
South Korean ambassador to Japan Shin Kak Soo said he knew of nothing that indicated there was any intent behind the use of a plane numbered 731, but that Japan needed to pay attention to perceptions.
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