Sungshin Women’s University professor Seo Kyeong-deok said on December 2 that he put a banner ad on the Wall Street Journal online edition to criticize Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for having boarded a Self-Defense Forces fighter jet in May this year. The number 731 on the T-4 trainer jet reminded many Koreans, Chinese, and Northeast Asian people of the Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731.
In the ad titled “DO YOU KNOW?,” the Prime Minister lifts up his thumb in the cockpit of the controversial airplane. “The photo shows that Japan does not repent of the past at all,” said the professor, adding, “Looking at the trainer jet with the number 731 and his thumb, people across the world will realize why Japan keeps causing problems with regard to its past war crimes.”
The ad also says that the Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731 was based in Harbin, China, and was set up in 1932 to conduct biological experiments on living people and develop chemical and germ warfare weapons. “Shinzo Abe will have to atone for his country’s past war crimes as soon as possible, as Germany already did, in front of the over 10,000 family members of the victimized Koreans, Chinese, Mongolians and many more,” professor Seo said. He continued, “Japan will be able to make a step forward with neighboring nations for the peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia only after then.”