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Take Another Look at Japan, Think about Peace

Posted August. 14, 2003 21:49,   

한국어

`One of most symbolic images of imperialist Japan` is `suicidal warplane pilots swearing loyalty to the emperor.` EBS will air two documentary films titled `Hirohito, Behind the Myth` and `Suicidal Squad Kamikaje` at 1:00 p.m. and 2:10 p.m. on August 15 to mark the Independence Day.

`Hirohito` is a documentary film produced by British Broadcasting Corporation based on the same-titled history book written by Edward Berr, author of `The Last Emperor,` which is well known for a movie.

Hirohito is known as an ordinary and helpless emperor controlled by the trigger-happy military. This film, however, reveals the truth about the emperor and the fact that he led the plan to invade China and Pearl Harbor as a way to stimulate the slumping economy.

`Kamikaje` tells how the suicide squad was formed in the first place in 1944 and how pilots were trained. Historians testify that Kamikaje advanced the doomsday of atomic bombs despite its ability to increase great damage on the enemies.

KBS1 will air `Suzuki Genzi`s Hiroshima in Korea,` a documentary film about Suzuki Genzi, who has taken pictures of Korean atomic bomb victims for the last two decades.

MBC will host `Aug. 15 Peace Concert` at Dorasan Station on Gyeongui Line. Korean pop stars like Lee Mi-ja, Yun Do-hyun Band, Big Mama, BoA and Seven will perform at the peace concert.

KBS1 will air the recorded tape of `Weekly Song Contest – from Pyongyang` at 7:30 p.m. Some 20 North Koreans sang on the stage without worrying to be disqualified at the special event of the show held in Pyongyang on August 11.

KBS2 will air special drama `The Sword` at 1:40 p.m., which is a story about Pado, a young boy who lost his grandfather during the Japanese colonial period and grew up to have a showdown with a Samurai. The drama was initially aired in 1996.

`Aug. 15 MBC-Fuji TV Document – Ahn Jung-geun and Ito Hirobumi` will be aired at 11:30 p.m. on August 17, dealing with the conflict between the two men and the book titled `Peace in the East,` a book Ahn wrote in prison.



kathycho@donga.com