SEOUL, South Korea — At a time of rising unease within the alliance between the USA and South Korea, a furry diplomatic subject has surfaced: the A
SEOUL, South Korea — At a time of rising unease within the alliance between the USA and South Korea, a furry diplomatic subject has surfaced: the American ambassador’s mustache, which has change into an object of ridicule and resentment amongst many South Koreans.
On Thursday, the envoy, Harry B. Harris Jr. — a retired Navy admiral who was born in Japan to a Japanese mom and an American Navy officer — defended his mustache within the face of some sentiment that it was a reminder of Japan’s brutal colonial rule over South Korea.
South Koreans maintain a long-running animosity towards Japan due to that interval, and plenty of recall that Japanese governors-general who dominated Korea from 1910 to 1945 wore mustaches.
“My mustache, for some purpose, has change into a degree of some fascination right here,” Mr. Harris, 63, informed overseas information reporters in Seoul on Thursday. “I’ve been criticized within the media right here, particularly in social media, due to my ethnic background, as a result of I’m a Japanese-American.”
Mr. Harris, who grew to become ambassador to Seoul in July 2018, stated his choice to develop a mustache had nothing to do along with his Japanese heritage. Clear-shaven for most of the time he served within the Navy, he stated he had begun rising a mustache to mark his retirement.
When his appointment was introduced, many South Koreans thought-about it a slight to their nationwide pleasure for President Trump to have chosen a Japanese-American as the highest United States envoy to their nation.
And one of many first questions Mr. Harris was requested upon touchdown in South Korea was about his mustache, with some South Koreans apparently questioning whether or not it was a calculated insult to Koreans.
“Harris’s mom is Japanese. It seems like that alone is sufficient for us to dislike him,” wrote one web blogger final month. “Which facet will he select if he’s requested to decide on between South Korea and Japan?”
Mr. Harris’s appointment to Seoul additionally got here as South Korea’s relations with Japan have been at a low level over disputes rooted in Japan’s colonial rule. It occurred at a time when Mr. Trump’s was demanding a fivefold enhance in South Korea’s annual contribution to protecting the price of sustaining 28,500 American troops on the Korean Peninsula.
Since taking over his ambassador’s publish, Mr. Harris has tirelessly pushed for the Trump administration’s demand over the American troops on Korean soil. He has additionally channeled Washington’s pressure on South Korea to retract its choice to desert a navy intelligence-sharing cope with Japan that American officers thought-about vital in guarding towards China and North Korea.
That function helped Mr. Harris achieve the picture of an overbearing American envoy amongst many South Koreans. However behind their misgivings additionally lay points along with his ethnicity.
It didn’t take lengthy for Mr. Harris to appreciate how even just a little facial hair on an American diplomat along with his ethnic background might stir Koreans’ deep-seated sentiments towards Japan.
South Koreans’ assault on Mr. Harris turned extra private. Native information shops scrutinized each remark and Twitter publish by Mr. Harris.
“The mustache has change into related to the most recent U.S. picture of being disrespectful and even coercive towards Korea,” The Korea Times said. “Harris usually has been ridiculed for not being an envoy, however a governor normal.”
In a protest rally in downtown Seoul final month, younger nationalist activists vented their anger by plucking mock mustache hair from a big picture of Mr. Harris.
“To these folks, I say that you’re cherry-picking historical past,” Mr. Harris stated on Thursday, noting that rising a mustache was in style not solely within the West, but additionally in Asia within the early 20th century, even amongst Korean leaders who fought for liberation from Japan.
In an interview with The Korea Instances final month, Mr. Harris famous that all through his profession, his ethnic background had come into play solely twice — by the Chinese language and now by South Koreans. When he was head of the USA Pacific Command, he was outspoken about China’s aggressive strikes within the East and South China Seas, and China’s state-run information media usually cited his ethnic background when attacking him.
In October, the South Korean police arrested more than a dozen student activists who broke into Mr. Harris’s residence to protest Washington’s demand for a rise in protection burden-sharing. The scholars held placards demanding that the ambassador depart South Korea.
“I perceive the historic animosity that exists between each of the nations,” Mr. Harris stated on Thursday, referring to Japan and South Korea, the USA’ two most vital — and often-squabbling — allies in northeast Asia.
“However I’m not the Japanese-American ambassador to Korea — I’m the American ambassador to Korea,” he stated. “To take that historical past and put it on me merely…