By Andrew Warshaw
July 30 – Japan has lodged a protest with the East Asian Football Federation demanding an investigation into an inflammatory banner displayed by South Korean fans at the East Asian Cup final in Seoul.
During Sunday’s game, which Japan won 2-1 in injury time, home supporters jeered the Japanese national anthem and raised a huge horizontal banner referring to Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula that was translated as “there is no future for people who forget their history” and was aimed at Japan’s reluctance to acknowledge its colonial and militaristic past.
The banner, which stretched across a wide section of the stands and was written in Hangul, was displayed for about an hour before being removed.
“I was hoping something like this would not occur this time, so it’s unfortunate,” Japan Football Association chief Kuniya Daini said. “We ask the East Asian federation to thoroughly investigate the matter and act in the appropriate fashion.”
It remains to be seen how thorough the EAFF probe will be since it is headed by a South Korean, Chung Mong-gyu.
FIFA prohibits political statements of any kind during games but the tension was stoked even further when visiting Japanese fans countered by waving the military flag of the Rising Sun, a symbol of Japan’s imperialistic past, before being ordered to put it away.
The incidents were reminiscent of a diplomatic row at the 2012 London Olympics when South Korean footballer Park Jong-woo held up a banner referring to a territorial dispute while celebrating his country’s 2-0 win over Japan in the bronze medal game.
Park was handed the sign that read ‘Dokdo is our territory’ by a fan, referring to a pair of South Korea-controlled islets in the Sea of Japan which Japan claims is theirs. He was forced to miss the medal ceremony and was later banned by FIFA for two games, fined 3,500 Swiss francs and had his bronze medal temporarily withheld.
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