Videos ridiculing Japan’s wartime emperor posted on Chinese social media
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The spread of images using edited photos of Japan's late emperor Hirohito on Chinese social media has triggered a complaint from Tokyo.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
Videos ridiculing Japan’s wartime emperor Hirohito have circulated on Chinese social media as anti-Japan sentiment rises ahead of a military parade on Sept 3
The spread of images using edited photos of the late emperor, posthumously known in Japan as Emperor Showa, in which he is portrayed, for instance, as a dog or a schoolgirl, has triggered a complaint from Tokyo.
On Aug 26, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference the videos are “inappropriate” and that Tokyo has urged Beijing through diplomatic channels to take countermeasures.
In communist-led China, social media posts are under the surveillance of the authorities and posts deemed inappropriate are often swiftly erased.
The fact that these images remain undeleted suggests the Chinese government tolerates them.
In one social media post, which depicted the emperor as a dog, the title said, “Valuable footage of Gen MacArthur training his dog: I am a big Japanese dog.”
General Douglas MacArthur was supreme commander of the Allied powers that occupied Japan after the war.
The Sept 3 parade to be staged in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square will mark the 80th anniversary of what China celebrates as its victory in the 1937-1945 War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. KYODO
