Posted on 02/11/2018 1:27:21 PM PST by Strac6
NBC has sidelined one of its Olympic analysts for saying that the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula was an important moment in South Korea's economic transformation, drawing swift backlash online.
The analyst, Joshua Cooper Ramo, made the remark during NBC's prime-time telecast of Friday's opening ceremony in pointing out the presence of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
"Every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural and technical and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation," Ramo said.
An online petition quickly circulated demanding an apology from NBC. The network apologized formally to the Pyeongchang Olympic organizing committee and anchor Carolyn Manno read a statement on the NBCSN cable channel early Saturday.
"During our coverage of the Parade of Nations on Friday we said it was notable that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the trip to Korea for the Olympics, 'representing Japan, a country which occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945 but every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural, technological and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation,'" Manno said. "We understand the Korean people were insulted by these comments and we apologize."
The petition had racked up more than 10,000 supporters on Sunday.
Ramo, a former journalist at Time magazine, is co-CEO at Kissinger Associates and had been hired temporarily by NBC to bring historical context to its coverage. According to his LinkedIn page, Ramo held a similar role as a "China analyst" during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The network said his assignment at the Olympics is now over.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“I’m sure the older generation Koreans probably still harbor resentment. But the younger generation doesn’t seem to care about those things.”
Served there from 90-92, worked directly for the ROKs at the Agency for Defense Development. The older Koreans despised the Japanese, not so much with the younger Koreans. Students protested every year I was there about the U.S. presence in Korea, but the older Koreans I interfaced with appreciated the U.S. presence in Korea.
The NY TIMES is your authority?
LOL
It was no mistake.
He works for Kissinger.
When questioned, Koreans ask, “But you eat cow meat. Why is dog meat worse”?
I think of Korea as the “Poland of Europe”, a country constantly occupied by stronger nations, but never losing their sense of national identity through it all.
I would say that today, most young Poles and Germans don’t care about things that happened 70 years ago, and get along for the most part, ok. A lot of Poles visit Germany without having any reservations about it. Now, with Russians, THAT’S an entirely different story.
s/b I think of Korea as the “Poland of Asia”
Clueless.
His biggest mistake, IMHO, was in saying, "Any Korean will tell you…" about anything between Korea and Japan. It was flippant and presumptuous, even for a guy who is supposed to be some historical analyst about it.
Nevertheless, in a saner world, the announcer would issue a pointed apology about the mistake he made and be allowed to keep his gig provided he didn't screw it up again.
I still say continuing to drive a wedge between Korea and Japan only serves China’s interests.
Ok, I will agree with that, he could have said it better.
I was once friends with a man who told me had been assigned to be the Provost Marshal for the Hiroshima district in 1945 when the US occupied Japan, but they determined not to send him there, and sent him to Korea with the express purpose of getting Japanese troops on trains and onto ships to get them out of Korea.
So the Koreans wouldn’t massacre them.
His closest friend told me that to his dying day, he wouldn’t even discuss the Japanese in any conversation due to some of the things he had encountered while carrying out that job. (I found this when I was discussing my years in Japan, and he said something quite abrupt and out of character with him, then got up and left the room and didn’t return...we were house guests at the time, so that made it kind of uncomfortable. When I asked if I had said something wrong, his friend explained it to me.)
They are one of the most homogenous large societies in the world.
And by all accounts, quite racist to anyone not Japanese, though in most cases they would die of shame if they expressed those feelings directly to your face.
I loved living in Japan, and found them to be interesting and friendly. When I was a few years older, I lived in the Philippines, and there got a much deeper education into the darker side of the Japanese, which was still quite hot in the Philippines at that time.
My dad spent several years over in Korea in the fifties as a military liaison, and he said they were hard, stubborn, and tough as nails.
Makes how far they have come all the more impressive.
Before the 1960s, South Korea was one of the poorest countries on the planet.
Koreans like to think they invented martial arts, like Hapkido, independently from Japanese arts like Akido.
There are many that claim to be over 2,000 years old.
I read an interesting book “Neptune’s Inferno”, and they talked about the USS Astoria (sunk at Savo Island on June 6, 1941) who was tasked in 1939 with bringing the ashes of Hiroshi Saito (a highly respected ambassador) back to Japan.
They put together a large armed party to march through the streets, and chose the biggest and toughest men in the Ship’s company (including some Marines, who to their disgust, were made to dress in Navy garb!) to march the ashes to the site of the funeral. (They did this due to the precarious state of relations)
But they had a big state dinner where the ships officers were all invited in their dress uniforms, and later one of them opined that he had no idea how a country that had such beautiful, delicate, and gracious women, produced such sons-of-bitches for men.
Remind me of a joke: once there were three guys: a guy, a guy, and a guy...
Ramo doesn’t seem to know anything about the far east.
Did he say the Japanese don’t torture Dogs to death for a Meal like the Koreans love to do?
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