An alleged mistake by the Ukrainian government’s Twitter account angered Japanese citizens on Sunday. The Ukrainian government’s official Twitter handle posted a video criticising ‘Ruscism’ and compared Vladimir Putin to Nazi party chief and German dictator Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Japan’s wartime emperor Hirohito.
https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1518221001762426883?s=20&t=hERI776CTzwJsvMU3F_PjQ
The tweet went viral in Japan and garnered angry reactions. The Ukrainian government’s Twitter handle quickly posted another video where they removed Hirohito’s image. “Our sincere apologies to Japan for making this mistake. We had no intention to offend the friendly people of Japan,” the government tweeted apologising for the ‘mistake’.
According to Bloomberg, the Japanese government also lodged an official protest.
Japan has been hailed by Ukraine for allowing a few hundred Ukrainian refugees seeking refuge following the war. It has also imposed sanctions on Russian businesses and oligarchs. The Japanese government has been strongly supportive of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Masahisa Sato, the head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s foreign policy panel, urged the foreign ministry to speak to Ukrainian counterparts regarding the video. He told Bloomberg News later that since the video was edited it appeared that officials were apprised about the so-called ‘gaffe’.
Some Japanese Twitter users said that they were unimpressed and have lost respect for Ukrainian resistance, while some, according to Bloomberg, said it would have been more fit to use a picture of Hideki Tojo, who was prime minister of Japan during most of World War II. Tojo was convicted of war crimes and was hanged following the end of the second World War.
The Japanese have backed their government’s tough stand against Russia with 42% calling for harsher sanctions, according to a survey by news agency Nikkei Asia. At least 44% of the respondents feel current sanctions are an adequate response. More than 62% of the respondents support the government’s overall handling of the war.
Japan also has its own territorial disputes with Russia as well as China over the islands in the Northern Territories (Kuril Islands) and Senkaku respectively. Japan last week, for the first time in two decades, accused Russia of illegally occupying four islands in the Northern Territories, which lie between Hokkaido’s shores and the southernmost tip of Kamchatka Peninsula.
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