THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
April 26, 2022 at 15:19 JST
An image of Emperor Hirohito was removed from a pro-Ukraine, anti-fascism video uploaded on Twitter after the Japanese government lodged a complaint to the Ukrainian Embassy in Tokyo.
The Twitter account on April 24 posted an apology to Japan for the image, although it was unclear who is behind the account.
The original video ran about 80 seconds and showed a photo of Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, along with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. A statement under the three said, “Fascism and Nazism were defeated in 1945.”
The video also features scenes of Russian troops shelling Ukraine and criticizes the fascist nature of Vladimir Putin’s government.
The video caused a backlash from some Japanese on social media and eventually from the Japanese government.
“It is completely inappropriate and truly deplorable to lump (Hirohito) into the same category as (Hitler and Mussolini),” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki said at a news conference on April 25.
He said the Japanese government had formally asked the Ukrainian Embassy and the Ukrainian President’s Office to immediately remove the “inappropriate” image.
The video was reposted without the photo of the Japanese emperor.
“Through a diplomatic route, the Ukrainian government has expressed its deep apologies, and an apology has been tweeted, too,” Isozaki said.
The Ukrainian Embassy on April 25 tweeted an apology to “the Japanese people who find offense with” the video.
It said the embassy had received “a dressing-down from many” about the video, but the response to the criticism was slow because it “did not know about” the situation.
The embassy said the account was created in 2016, but it is currently not related to the Ukrainian government.
It also said the creator of the video “appears to lack historical awareness.”
“Let me stress again. (The account) currently is not attributed to the Governmental organization and should not be treated as such,” Sergiy Korsunsky, the Ukrainian ambassador to Japan, said in a message in English on his Twitter account on April 26.
“We requested removal of this designation,” he continued. “It is me who apologized on behalf of the Government of Ukraine. I am truly sorry for this terrible mistake.”
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A scene from the original video posted on Twitter (From Twitter)
