The Many Ills of Canon South Korea(as explained by a South Korean)
Ik a lot of people might feel a knee-jerk reaction to this and go "why are you making this? it's been a long time since the character was banned and went into oblivion," and that's true. However, I find that a lot of characteristics of how South Korea was written has been carried on by some Hetalia fans, which are still problematic and rooted in pro-Japanese imperialist sentiment.
Here, I'll try my best to go over some major points, starting with Korea's canon design.
Character Design
Looking at this for the first time, I felt like I was on some kind of trip. It looked like Himaruya was indecisive of whether he wanted Yongsoo to wear a durumagi or a jeogori, so he said "let's make the undershirt as long as a durumagi!"
For reference, left is a jeogori and pants outfit and right is a durumagi and pants outfit. These are the 2 main hanbok types for men.
I can't think of a single character whose character design was this flawed and so inaccurately done. It's like he didn't even care or put any thought into Korean traditional wear. It makes me laugh when I see how Japan is given such accurate clothing in contrast.
His clothing is a caricature of what Korean wear is. Thankfully, I don't see a lot of art of him wearing it anymore, but when it does appear it really does feel disrespectful.
His Personality
I don't really have a problem with his energetic personality, but if you know anything about his depiction in the manga, you know what I'll be talking about:
His "hobby" where he takes credit for inventions, and his weird "quirk" involving sexually harassing Japan.
What...was the reason for this exactly? A lot of personality quirks and gags of characters are rooted in some existing stereotype many people attribute to the country, like
America -> eats a lot of food, bright colored cake -> US's reputation as a country with a lot of fast food and artificially colored desserts
England -> food is inedible -> England's reputation of unappetizing foods
Korea -> claims credit for other countries' creations(Mostly Japan's), sexually harasses Japan -> ?????
This is why I don't accept some Westerners trying to brush South Korea aside "because everyone gets dunked on in Hetalia!" yes, but to what degree?
A Japanese man writing his Korean character to be stealing from the Japanese one says a lot, that Korea doesn't have a culture of its own, or most of it isn't their own. Or daresay, Korea takes Japanese culture and claims it to be their own. All three of these conclusions are problematic, and audacious coming from a person hailing from the empire that attempted to stamp our culture out and penalized those trying to preserve our culture.
The "grabbing Japan's chest" bit originates from an ongoing political dispute of an island known as Dokdo, or as Japan calls it, Takeshima. Personally, I'd agree that Dokdo belongs to Korea, referring to maps produced by Japan from the 1800s:
Yellow is marked as Korean land, with even the writing labeling it as "Joseon Land." But regardless of which side is correct, there is something about taking an ongoing territorial dispute(it was a much bigger issue while Himaruya was writing Hetalia) and applying it with the context of "haha he grabs Japan's chest."
It paints Korea as unreasonable and a sexual assaulter so that Korean grievances against Japan can be dismissed. Additionally, both countries have a rampant sexual assault issue(my phone's shutter sound cannot be turned off–a feature of phones only made in/for Korea and Japan), which is why it's also insensitive to give this trait to Korea and make light of this sensitive topic, while also...not extending this to Japan.
Let's not mention making Korea the harasser given the history and Japan's position too. Korea's red light districts and sex/entertainment industry was started by and formalized by the Japanese occupation so they could exploit Korean women.
"Korea had been a Japanese colony since 1910, and the proximity of colonial Korea to Japan, its established colonial bureaucracy and transportation network, and the presumed “cleanliness” of its young female population meant that likely the largest percentage of comfort women came from Korea. Another reason for the large numbers of Korean girls and young women in the comfort women system was the well-developed state of the Japanese colonial sex industry in Korea and its networks of human trafficking. This industry, which had been growing with Japanese encouragement since the late nineteenth century, blossomed under the Japanese colonization of Korea (1910–45) and provided networks for obtaining and trafficking sexual slaves." - Music and Dance in the Japanese Military “Comfort Women” System: A Case Study in the Performing Arts, War, and Sexual Violence by Joshua D Pilzer
Now, the "claiming everything is Korean" bit. The whole gag is Korea is delusional haha look he's claiming something Japan made as his!! While Japan is just looking at him like "ok...sure..go off whatever ig." Again, making Korea to be an unreasonable childish character while Japan is mature and just trying to get along, let bygones be bygones! Look at the sassy child I have to deal with guys!!!
Speaking of "sassy child..."
Korea's age
I haven't checked the wiki in a hot minute, but there were 2 details of his age I remember.
he's 15
he was "born" 1945(liberation of Korea from Japan) or 1948(Creation of South Korean govt)
This would be contrary to even the manga, as it references a painting by a Japanese artist in the 1700s of what he assumed were Joseon messengers stealing chickens during their mission to Japan. Korea was alive then as depicted in the picture referencing the real one, so it's safe to say his existence should predate even 1945.
(Interesting to note that Himaruya says that Koreans interpret it as Japanese bullying the Korean envoys, when Korean sources actually suggest it could be children playing around.)
Even if Korea was set to be born 1945 or 1948, it doesn't do us justice. Why do we not have a history before colonization? How is it that Korea could be even younger than America, when the Joseon Dynasty was established a century before Christopher Columbus reached America in 1492? How is it that Japan gets to be older and Korea doesn't?
It's glaringly obvious, but Korea's "childish, immature personality" stems from Japanese imperialist rhetoric of Koreans during the Colonial Era, of people needing to be civilized.
"In April 1919, Baron Goto Shinpei (Home Minister, 1916–1918) addressed a luncheon attended by US Treasurer John Burke. Goto contended that Japan did not act duplicitously in 1905, but instead, “with the full cognizance of the United States government.” "He added, “under the efficient government of Japan, the Korean people rapidly advanced in civilization and enjoyed the blessings resulting from the development of productive industry, as well as the spread of education." - The March First Movement in America: The Campaign to Win American Support by Brandon Palmer
The most important thing to remember in all of this was that during the time of Korea's controversy, Anti-Japanese sentiment was still quite high because of the unhealed wounds as a result of 35 years of Japanese Occupation. When you think about your colonizer making a personification of your country and depicting him as
-someone that copies from the colonizer and harasses them, a contrast to the "mature" colonizer
-someone with barely a history before the colonizer
-someone who's clothes are so wildly inaccurate
then wouldn't you too be enraged? This is what caused the National Assembly to ban the official airing of the anime, and official releases of the manga. You'll notice even these days Koreans are hostile towards Hetalia, even as the incident happened years ago, whereas the Countryhumans had a large Korean following and creators, because one of them was openly treating their country like a personification from a political cartoon found in a 1920s Japanese newspaper, and the other was fan created.
I hope this perspective was helpful in explaining why certain qualities of canon are disrespectful. Please remember before defending "canon" Hetalia, Hetalia is made by a Japanese author who was found to have been on Japanese right wing forums. Don't try to convince a Korean that his depiction/canon of Korea is respectful.
Hello, if you don't mind me, a non-Korean, adding more to this:
The depiction of Korea is truthfully not just "everyone [all countries] getting dunked on". Himaruya's version of Korea does 100% stem from the his own viewpoints of Korea. As someone said, he had been outed before as a right wing man and as Tokki says here, "a Japanese author who was found to have been on Japanese right wing forums".
Let me speak about another series Himaruya wrote nearly half a year prior to Hetalia (and this was planned a year before Hetalia). The series is called MoeKan. This series is really short and has been discontinued. Eventually being removed from Himaruya's Kitayume account in the 2007 and 2008 revamps, so that his account would "cultivate a more professional publishing image" [MoeKan Kitayume Wiki]
For those who do not know, MoeKan has a Korean protagonist named Sena. A brief summary would be this:
"Sena is taught by her mother at a young age to fear and hate the Japnese. When she becomes 17, she moves to America to study abroad, where he enounters a Japanese man who's name is Yoshida."
Though, going over the actual comic would be better. Because the brief summary doesn't explain too much, y'know? It is noted that MoeKan was supposed to be a romance story.
Anyway, there is already some issues from the brief summary. Let me go and talk about the seven released strips for this short-lived series:
Strip 1: Too Scary, nida:
As you can see here, Sena's mother is teaching her to fear the Japanese. Treating them more akin to a boogy man or something. Which to me personally, shows that Himaruya's opinion of how Koreans' issues towards Japan is "childish" or "immature". Also, something that has no foundation. Though, I can be reading too much into it.
Sena is afriad of Japanese people as she fears them when she wakes up in the middle of the night. But, while walking in the hallway, she runs into a ghost. But when the ghost was shown to be Korean, Sena just brushes her off. Again, this goes with my earlier statement where I believe this is to show how "childish" Koreans' issues with Japan is.
Strip 2: Departure, nida
In the second strip, we see Sena's mom telling Sena to be careful of strangers. But puts extra emphasis on her being careful of Japanese people. The first strip is already an issue. But, this shows even more of how Himaruya is using this comic series to dunk on Koreans. We are also introduced to Yoshida here.
The upcoming strips are where I have an actual issue with.
Strip 3: Encounter with a Japanese, nida
Where to even start? First of all, why in the world would Sena randomly attack Yoshida??? I once thought this was out of nowhere but my boyfriend said that Yoshida mentioned Japan in a term that shows he's from there.
But that doesn't answer my question. Unless the answer is that Sena legit just attacked a random man for being Japanese. She is also demanding an apology. Now, which country was demanding Japan for an apology for their war crimes? Hmm...
Anyway, the way its shown is making it seem like Japan is a victim to Korea's "unjustified" demands of an apology. It honestly is so childish that this is the way Himaruya is depicting the issue. Why is Sena (Korea) being shown as an aggressor? Which I would argue is worse than Hetalia's Korea (ONLY when it comes to this issue. Obviously the whole Dokdo/Takeshima island thing is shown in a way worse manner).
Strip 4: Pechi Pechi, nida
Continuing the random assault here. Also, this strip 100% proves that Sena only attacked the guy for being Japanese. I doubt that Koreans hated Japan to this extent, but for some reason Himaruya is showing that this is the case (I am not Korean).
She's also blushing here and states that it's weird that a Japanese man is attractive. With a little image of what she thought they looked like. In this version, she said "Make amends, nida". But in another it's "Compensate me, nida". Which should already be ringing alarms in your head if you know where this is going.
Strip 5: Mashisseoyo, nida
(right image is another translation,)
Here, Yoshida stops Sena's assault "understanding" that he just has to "compensate" her. He does this by buying her a crepe. Again, the issue with this strip is the whole "compensation". If you read to this part and still don't know, I will tell you.
Japan had taken a lot of girls and women from Korea to be "comfort women" (basically s*x slaves). By the way, Japan did this is all the countries they took over. But the largest number of these "comfort women" were from Korea. Koreans demanded that Japan to compensate and apologize to the "comfort women" for what they had done to them and admit to their war crimes. Therefore the whole "compensate me" thing is coming from this. I apologize for not explaining well. I just don't want to get into too much details because it's honestly horrifying. I know one video (which isn't all about "comfort women") where they talk about it. I will link it if someone wants it.
Strip 6: Choumupekkusumu, nida
The only thing to note here is Sena saying repulsive towards him. I wasn't going to add it. But for transparecy reasons I added it. I don't want someone to claim I was leaving out context.
Strip 7: Shiroyo!
This one is kinda funny to me. What do you mean there are no other countries Sena could have mentioned? I am pretty sure that even in the early 2000s that Korea was good friends with the United States. And it seems there was a lot of visits from South Korea to the United Kingdom. Though, it is true that Japan and South Korea did have a decent relationship in this time period (not too good though).
Also, I wanna say, you see how Sena is harassing Yoshida? This is what it seems to be Himaruya's thoughts. That Korea and its people are harassing Japan and their people.
Conclusion:
Hetalia's Korea is not the first time Himaruya has shown what his view is of Korea. MoeKan is an earlier work that shows this as well. Which is sad because I love Hima's art and his character design for Sena. But let's be honest here, this series is too controversial and would never work. The story would have to start from scratch with a different premise altogether for it to work. From the weird way Korea's issues with Japan is shown to the random assault and finally the compensation, we can see exactly how Himaruya saw the entire thing. There is no defending this man.
Remember, I am not Korean. I am not even ethnically Korean. I am Mexican-American. So, I hope I did a decent job explaining this series and the issues with it. I also want to direct you to a paper that is beautifully written about Korea in Hetalia. This paper goes over a lot of details that most people did not know (including myself!). Go to page 42 for Korea. The author even goes over Taiwan prior to Korea.
Links to the translated comics:
[1] [2]
*Note the second one does leave out a few panels.
If I got anything wrong, please feel free to correct me.
