Change the Japanese flag to the Taegeukgi

Change the Japanese flag to the Taegeukgi

 

[시사타임즈 = 이철원 시사타임즈 회장] The Japanese flag is painted on the walls of most elementary schools in the area of operation. This is because in the past, the Philippine Ministry of Education hired a Japanese loan to repair the old elementary schools in a major way. However, not the entire elementary school building was repaired, but only the classrooms visible from the outside were repaired and the Japanese flag was painted on the wall. According to the superintendent of education, the Philippine government repaid all the loans, but it was hard to understand with my common sense that it was not a donation, but ‘write the name of the person who borrowed the money in the restored building’. It was not built or repaired the entire school, but rather one of the schools was repaired.

 

▲The Taegeukgi at the school restored by the Arau Unit (c)시사타임즈

 

During a preliminary reconnaissance in early December 2013, the Japanese flag faintly drawn on the wall of the collapsed elementary school caught my attention. Most elementary schools have the Japanese flag drawn, so I thought, 'Is this still a Japanese colony?' I hated seeing it so much that I made up my mind to, 'No matter what happens, I have to intensively restore the elementary school and erase all the Japanese flags and draw the Taegeukgi'. So, we set up a strategy to restore the elementary school with the Japanese flag on it first. And when the Japanese flag was removed from the wall of the elementary school and the Taegeukgi was drawn, there was no legal problem with the customs of the Philippines. With the consent of the Philippine Army and the Office of Education, the Philippine flag and the Taegeukgi were drawn simultaneously. 

 

▲The Japanese flag on the wall of a ruined elementary school (c)시사타임즈

 

 

In this way, at the end of June, among the 22 restored schools, the Japanese flag of 14 elementary schools was changed to the Taegeukgi. Each time the Japanese flag changed to the Taegeukgi one by one, we felt proud and excited. However, these facts came to light when the Korean reporters covered the incidental activities during the first and second shifts, saying, “The Arau Unit is painting the Taegeukgi instead of the Japanese flag on the wall while restoring the elementary school.” The Chosun Ilbo (June 28, 2014) and some A problem arose as it was reported on the Internet news. 

 

▲Chosun Ilbo newspaper(c)시사타임즈

 

 

This incident reminded me of Japan's protests over what happened at the US military camp during the 2004 deployment to Iraq, which had been forgotten. At that time, all multinational forces dispatched to Iraq had to undergo local adaptation training at a US military camp in Kuwait (Virginia Camp) before entering the Iraqi campaign. The camp, which was the waiting area, was always crowded with multinational forces deployed to or withdrawn from Iraq, including the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. However, it became a problem for Korean soldiers to post pictures of themselves with Self-Defense Forces soldiers on the Internet as a joke, because they were holding a banner that read “Dokdo Island is Korean territory” in Korean. There was a strong protest from Japan, and after that, the Self-Defense Forces soldiers avoided seeing Korean soldiers. 

 

▲Korean soldiers (center) and Japanese soldiers (on both sides) (c)시사타임즈

 

The newspaper article provoked strong protests from Japanese NGOs at a time when Korea-Japan relations were not very good at the time. Because of this, we were no longer able to change the Japanese flag to the Taegeukgi in elementary school, and we had to fight an invisible and lonely battle with Japan until we withdrew.

 

글 : 이철원 시사타임즈 회장

 

 

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이철원 시사타임즈 회장 wangco123@timesisa.com