Ukraine apologizes to Japan over 'fascism' video
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Ukraine apologizes to Japan for calling its former Emperor a fascist and classifying him among Germany's Hitler and Italy's Mussolini after Tokyo claimed he had nothing to do with fascist ideology.
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A screengrab from Ukraine's video showing Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hirohito
The Ukrainian government issued an apology to Japan after it released an anti-Russian video that ended with a shot of Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Emperor Hirohito, which described the three as fascists. Japanese politicians have argued and insisted that Horihoto was not responsible for Japan's wartime actions.
The video was first posted nearly a month ago to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin and described the Russian political system as "ruscis[t]".
The video closed with images of fascist European leaders Adolph Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy, in addition to Japanese imperial leader Hirohito, along with the text "Fascism and Nazism were defeated in 1945. We will fight ruscism, here and now."
この問題動画について、外交部会長の佐藤からも、外務省欧州局等に、早急に対応を取るよう申し入れております。 https://t.co/STzuItiNtV
— 佐藤正久 (@SatoMasahisa) April 24, 2022
Japanese Twitter users were outraged, and the Ukrainian ambassador to Japan, Sergey Korsunsky, complained that the Japanese emperor "had nothing to do with the outbreak of war and fascist ideology" during his rule.
Japan was part of the Axis, which also contained Italy and Germany. Tokyo was led by Prime Minister Hideki Tojo during World War II, with the emperor allowed to retain his title after the country's defeat. However, many argue that he should have been convicted as a war criminal.
The head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's foreign policy panel, Masahisa Sato, called on the Japanese Foreign Ministry to "take immediate action" on Sunday and announced Monday that the ministry had "requested the video be deleted". Additionally, he said Ukraine would apologize diplomatically for the "blunder".
The official Twitter account of Ukraine publicly apologized on Monday too, saying, "Our sincere apologies to Japan for this mistake. We had no intention to offend the friendly people of Japan." The account said this in a quote tweet to which was attached an edited version of the video that did not contain the Japanese emperor.
Our sincere apologies to @japan for this mistake. We had no intention to offend the friendly people of Japan.
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) April 24, 2022
🇺🇦🇯🇵
We have corrected it and posted the new video here: https://t.co/dvy7Pyptj3
Ukraine itself has been under fire for Nazism and Neo-Nazism, which are flagrant through its housing of an extremist nationalist battalion in its armed forces, the Azov Battalion.
The battalion has been using Mariupol as a playground for Ukrainian provocations since the war broke out in the country on February 24. The Russian Defense Ministry had revealed that Ukrainian nationalists in Mariupol used about 150 civilians as human shields and opened fire against DPR fighters from behind the civilians' backs.
The bodies of 26 civilians killed by shelling by the Ukrainian neo-Nazi regiment Azov were discovered on the grounds of a hospital in Mariupol on Thursday, according to the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the ceasefire regime (JCCC).
