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Hi Blog. PyeongChang. It’s Olympics time again, and, as long-time readers know, I’m a fan of the athleticism but not the nationalism (and inevitable comparisons of strengths and weaknesses along national lines) that is endemic to bordered sports. Too many people compete for glory as representatives of whole societies, not for individual bests, and that particularly takes a toll on Japan’s athletes.
I’ve been a relentless critic of Japan’s sports commentary, but now that I’m watching it in the US, fair game. I was quite incandescent with rage at times listening to NBC’s stupid, overgeneralizing, and often borderline racist commentary of the Opening Ceremonies. (One of the most annoying was when Katie Couric noted how internet addiction is allegedly a problem in South Korea, and used it as a segue into a shameless plug of her upcoming show on internet addiction in America; and this relates to the Olympics how!?)
Fortunately, I was not alone, and Korea protested not only the overgeneralizations, but also the ahistorical comments that were ill-considered. Fortunately, NBC apologized (and told the press that the offending commentator’s “assignment is over”), which is better than I’ve ever seen NHK do for its nasty coverage. Here’s the Washington Post on the issue. Dr. Debito Arudou
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NBC apologizes to Koreans for Olympics coverage that praised Japan’s brutal occupation
By Avi Selk February 11, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/02/11/nbc-apologizes-to-koreans-for-olympics-coverage-that-praised-japans-brutal-occupation/
Friday’s Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics in South Korea were, by most accounts, spectacular. NBC’s coverage of the spectacle, on the other hand, was considered hit and miss. Occasionally disastrous.
It wasn’t so much the hosts, Katie Couric and Mike Tirico, who annoyed critics, but rather the network’s analyst, Joshua Cooper Ramo.
Slate wrote that Ramo’s commentary amounted to bland trivia about Asia “seemingly plucked from hastily written social studies reports” — such as his observation that white and blue flags stood for North and South Korean unity. Variety compared his commentary to a Wikipedia article.
But Ramo’s big misstep came when he noticed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan in the crowd and offered what he knew about the country’s history with Korea.
Japan was “a country which occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945,” Ramo said, correctly (though he did not mention that historians say the Japanese army forced tens of thousands of Koreans into sex slavery.)
“But,” Ramo continued, “every Korean will tell you that Japan as a cultural and technological and economic example has been so important to their own transformation.”
This was definitely not correct. Every Korean did not agree that Japanese colonialism had its upside. In fact, thousands signed a petition demanding that NBC apologize for Ramo’s statement.
“His incorrect and insensitive comment about Korea’s history has enraged many of its people,” the Korea Times observed.
“Some say it’s questionable whether Ramo has been even following the news leading up to the current Olympics, as some of the disputes between South Korea and Japan erupted even during the preparation phase of the games,” the Korea Herald added, mentioning as an example the unified Korean flag that Ramo liked so much.
In fact, the Herald reported, an earlier flag design had outraged Japan because it included a group of islets still claimed by both countries.
Japan and South Korea have not even fully reconciled over atrocities committed during the occupation. While the Japanese government has expressed remorse and set up a fund in the 1990s to help victims it once referred to as “comfort women,” some politicians and academics claim estimates of 200,000 sex slaves are exaggerated. Many South Koreans, in turns, compare those skeptics to Holocaust deniers.
The morning after the Opening Ceremonies, NBC apologized for Ramo’s remarks. “We understand the Korean people were insulted by these comments,” an anchor said during a Saturday broadcast, according to MSN.
In a statement to The Washington Post, NBC Sports said that the network also apologized in writing and that “we’re very gratified that [the PyeongChang Olympics] has accepted that apology.”
Yahoo Sports reported this was the second time that Ramo, who co-directs a think tank founded by former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, has appeared as an Olympics analyst for NBC. He shared an Emmy Award for his commentary during Beijing’s Summer Games in 2008.
Ramo could not be immediately reached for comment. An NBC official told The Post that his assignment is over.
ENDS
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4 comments on “Wash Post: “NBC apologizes to Koreans for Olympics coverage praising Japan’s brutal occupation”, rightly so”
I don’t think the commentator intended to link Japan’s colonial occupation with the subsequent economic success of Korea. Perhaps if he’d said, ‘In spite of Japan’s occupation…’ there wouldn’t have been any controversy, but he expressed himself badly in his commentary. However, isn’t it true that Japan was taken as a model by Korea for its own economic development, and that Japan played a large part through investment in Korean industry?
— You’ve just expressed yourself badly now too.
I haven’t got time to write a long explanation, but the ‘migrating bird’ ‘theory’ that Japan is leading other Asian nations to economic prosperity is a myth. It’s a post-defeat Japanese racial superiority economic imperialist delusion that (simplified) states;
Japan was able to overcome the disastrous outcome of WWII due to innate Japanese qualities (work ethic etc) and is investing in other Asian countries so that they can develop on a similar model, because (you guessed it) Japan is the natural leader of Asia, lighting the way for the region.
It’s totally self-serving bunkum that serves to satisfy Japan’s ever craving pride, but also denies the sheer extent to which the US invested in Japan’s post-war economy to make the Japanese too consumerist to become communist.
The reality of post-war Korea is (surprisingly) that for the first 15 years after the Korean War the North Korean economy boomed and far outstripped South Koreas growth. It wasn’t until South Korea adopted a ‘planned economy’ (communist developmental style, how’s that for irony?) that South Korea was able to develop its industry, creating the industrial giants we know today, and very late in the game (1980’s) actually became a democracy instead of a fascist police state.
It owes Japan nothing at all, and it’s a Japanese denial of US investment in postwar Japan that is at the heart of the myth. Japan’s supposed to be just so fabulous all by itself!
You just don’t seem to understand where the problem lies with. It is not about a particular view point being pointed out. It is that he makes an overgeneralization as if all Koreans concur in the view points being pointed out. They don’t.
That’s the most terrible expression to present oneself.
Japaanese “investment” after WW2 to Asian countries alot of which flowed back to Japan. Okinawa is another example of investment mainly benefitting mainland Japan.