In Japan, museum for Korean nationalist hero Yun Bong-gil reopens old wounds
The launch of a museum dedicated to Yun Bong-gil, who was executed in 1932, has been postponed after protests by right-wing groups
The three-storey Yun Bong-gil Memorial Information Centre was scheduled to open near Kanazawa station, Ishikawa prefecture, on Saturday. But the event was postponed after Japanese right-wing groups converged on the area.
Yun Bong-gil is known for carrying out a bomb attack against Japanese government officials in Shanghai in 1932.
In anticipation of potential violence at the museum, police erected roadblocks and maintained close surveillance. About 70 vehicles circled the neighbourhood for three hours, brandishing rising sun flags and blasting martial music, according to the Sankei newspaper.
Previously, a group of Japanese nationalists had attempted to halt the museum’s opening through legal means, but their case was dismissed in court.
Mindan, the association behind the museum, has been the target of attacks before, including a recent incident on March 2, when a member of a nationalist group rammed a vehicle into the local office of the South Korean community association in Kanazawa.