I know I’m a bit late to the party, but I’m going to comment on the Yuta-rheekun (YouTuber) controversy as a half-Japanese and half-Korean female who's resided in both countries and is currently in the US. What's more, I've actively watched most of his videos in the last few months.

I’m not even a Yuta fan/NCT stan, nor am I usually on reddit (this is my first post here) but when I saw this controversy blowing up yesterday, I felt compelled to say something as someone who has watched rheekun’s videos and have an identity deeply rooted in both Korea and Japan. It deeply hurts and bothers me every single time a Japanese controversy comes up in the kpop fandom, which is sometimes why I hate being a kpop fan.

I can see both Korean and Japanese sides, and with a background in two countries that have so much animosity with each other, I have had my own battles with my identity and politics. Hopefully my ethnic background/understanding of Japanese and therefore rheekun's videos will help me stay objective, fair and logical.

I originally posted this as a comment in another thread, but after a few requests, I thought since I’ve written something so big I might as well share this in other communities as a post by itself. Like I said, this is my first ever reddit post and I’m kind of scared. I’m not even totally sure how reddit works, and I have no idea how this will go down, or even garner attention. While I’m putting this out there by my own decision and am willing to take responsibility for what I say, I hope my “unpopular opinion” doesn’t get me hunted down and killed.

*NOTE: I’m not going to go into the nitty gritty details of Japanese-Korean history/politics and which side is worse as I’m just going to be commenting on ONLY what rheekun has talked about regarding Japan-Korean relations.

*NOTE 2: I have no personal ties with Yuta or rheekun. Even if you get offended by what I say in this post, please don’t go attack Yuta or rheekun using what I’ve said.

*NOTE 3: Don’t hate on Yuta, rheekun, Japan, or Korea. I can already see a lot of self-righteous kpop fans hating on certain factions even before I post (especially Japan, bc naturally kpop fans are inclined towards Korea). This isn’t the place for discussion or debate. I didn’t make this post to stir up hate, but quite the opposite. I just wanted shed some light on this controversy bc a lot of I-fans are sadly misinformed.

This is going to be a super long post, sorry in advance.

1.Rheekun's most definitely Korean. He has Korean parents (mother has made appearances his a few of his videos, shares similar sentiments towards Japan/Korea as rheekun, as she was extremely upset at seeing anti-Japanese protests in Seoul) and a younger sister (same as mother). He has shown his Korean passport and a Japanese PR card for foreigners in a few of his videos (I have screenshots if you guys want to see). He's fluent in both Japanese and Korean and is very familiar with both cultures, because his parents moved to Japan when he was a kid due to their jobs and he's divided his time in Korea and Japan since. Like me!

2.Regarding rheekun's views about Japan/Korea: As a half-Japanese and Korean individual, I find rheekun extremely interesting and his stances valid, hence I was a pretty avid consumer of rheekun's videos even before this controversy. A Korean friend of mine actually introduced me to him. Personally, I know a lot of half Japanese/Koreans and even full Koreans who actually agree with rheekun's views.

Koreans (and Japanese people too) get this wrong all the time, but criticizing one's own country doesn't make one "anti-Korean" or "anti-Japanese". In fact, sometimes, the more you love a country the more you criticize it, because you wholeheartedly want it to be better. He's criticized both Korea AND Japan on his channel. He has also actively spoken against Japanese anti-Koreans on his channel, calling them dumb and misinformed. Therefore, I think it's wrong to label him as "anti-korean" just because he spouts opinions that are hard on Korean people's ears.

He has never shit talked Korea, just offering his opinions on why he thinks the anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea is wrong, and his dissatisfactions towards the Korean government with regards to relations with Japan. Yes, he's openly said he HATES the current Korean president and the government, and that he's done with the shit Korea pulls on Japan - and if that makes him "anti-Korean", then let me give you an example - does an American disliking and criticizing Trump make them anti-US? No. If your answer to this question is Yes, you might want to do a bit of introspection. Most times, people criticize leaders of the country and want a different leader BECAUSE they know their country can do better.

In short, it's mostly left-wing Koreans (often overlaps w anti-Japanese) calling him "anti-Korean" because they don't like his views.

So, what exactly are rheekun's views like?

First, rheekun has never denied Japanese war crimes; in fact, in many of his videos explaining his views on Japan-Korea relationships such as comfort women, that the Imperial Japanese Army has committed those actions was a given. He was giving his opinions on the matter on the assumption that those atrocities were committed.

Second, his main point is that while history happened, he thinks it’s wrong for Koreans to harbour blind ill-will towards and hateful sentiment towards Japanese people, and that Korea should move forward by accepting the past apologies/compensations issued by Japan and roll with it instead of bringing up the past again and again.

Now, regardless of how Korea interprets this, it is actually true that the Japanese government has issued multiple apologies to Korea in the past and has paid a vast amount of compensation to settle the whole war crimes dispute. However, while Korea does accept those apologies and money at that time, after a certain time, they always start saying that those apologies "don't count because it's not sincere enough". And so Japan doesn't really know what to do anymore, because they think they’re being sincere enough every time they apologize, and Korea doesn’t outline what they consider to be “sincere”. To sum up the Japanese sentiment, I think it’s “Well, what more do you exactly want us to do??” This leads to dissatisfaction towards Korea in Japan (despite admitting past atrocities and feeling bad about it), and naturally this dissatisfaction coaxes out extreme right wingers out of their hiding and into the open, like the current Japanese prime minister.

For example, the last Korean president made a pact with Japan to "irreversibly" cement an agreement to stop bringing up the past after Japan paid another sum of compensation money - only to have it broken again by the current president, who claimed that pact was null because "it's from a previous regime" (major facepalm). So currently, Japanese people are like "...what the heck, can't trust Korea if they keep breaking promises".

Rheekun's opinion is that if Korea make a political promise, she can't just flip flop and break the promise whenever they want to, and constantly milk "compensation money" from Japan. He thinks the current Korean stance is holding Japan and Korea back from doing anything productive, and that’s harmful to peace in Asia and in the long run, global peace too, because Korea and Japan should have more important stuff to worry about.

A little bit of insight on the current Korean president/government: pretty extreme left-wing. Extreme to the point that being anti-Japanese is considered justice, more or less. Rheekun has repeatedly said it’s concerning that the current government is constantly fuelling anti-Japanese sentiments. Rheekun has mentioned this too, but the current Korean government and a lot of Koreans tend to be obsessed with Japan to the point where they bring Japan up for everything, especially in comparison to Korea. Japan doesn’t care so much about Korea, for better or for worse. I think this difference in interest is what riles Korea up even more. Rheekun (also myself) is concerned that animosity towards Japan seems to be becoming a big part of the Korean identity (and peer pressure to feel that way). Yes, the memory of being a victim of such horrendous actions will not go away so soon, and it’s only been 75 years - but 75 years ago means Korean people today weren’t directly affected. So why so much hate? Heartfelt objections against the Japanese Imperial Army and the Japanese government today are great, but not irrational dislike towards the country itself, its culture and its people.

2.A Regarding rheekun and other idols: I've watched almost all fo rheekun's videos and I know he's talked about other idols committing suicide (Jonghyun, Sulli). He never used them for clickbait. Yes, he had videos that talked about their suicides, but he expressed his condolences and denounced the toxicity of K-netizens. Not sure where this false information came from, and it’s really scary how quickly some kpop fans swallow incorrect information and spread it. Hopefully the same toxicity rheekun spoke against in Jonghyun and Sulli’s videos won't harm himself or Yuta in this controversy.

2.B Regarding rheekun being "misogynistic": he definitely has some misogynistic streaks - but honestly (unfortunately), from a Korean female perspective (aka me), I thought that he’s a pretty typical Korean guy, although those streaks show more bc he’s trying to be dumb and extreme to get more views. He has never actively tried to hurt women or shit-talked them in any of his videos. His misogyny is more about thinking men should protect women (very traditional Korean) and labeling some women as "ugly" in his videos (but he does the same for men - he's just not very considerate). He also likes to make fun of ignorant Japanese kpop fangirls, but honestly I can't really blame him for that because some female fans are so blind. Definitely quite a bit of sexually inappropriate/edgy stuff on his channel, but that content isn’t necessarily misogynistic.

He’s super sweet to his mother and younger sister, in a very “Korean” way (guys protecting women, buying stuff for them etc). He’s also openly spoken about “issues” with Korean guys (high rates of sexual harassment/violation and domestic violence), so I wouldn’t say he’s a hardcore misogynist.

2.C Lastly, rheekun IS a typical YouTuber looking for clout. I'm sure he's not a bad person, but he potetially dabbles with some shady stuff and he's pretty open and "out there" (for example, he NEVER deletes his videos no matter how much hate he gets, even death threats). I do respect his guts for putting his opinions out there, and I respect him and I like him as a character, but yeah, a typical "bling bling" YouTuber (not really my type lol).

1. Regarding Yuta's choice to mention rheekun: ok, Yuta definitely messed up here, it was't wise OR considerate of him to say that on Vlive, considering how crazy/sensitive Koreans can get with this kind of issue. Similar to the Sana controversy, the statement isn’t supposed to be problematic by nature, but it won't go over smoothly with Korean recipients, especially left wingers/feminists (Korean feminists, or the ones that usually make a fuss, are very extreme - as in bordering on man-hating). Now, that being said, let me say again that I think Yuta was a bit foolish to mention rheekun, but netizens better not shit talk him or hurt him in any way. He doesn't deserve that. Also he may be a Kpop idol but he's Japanese first and foremost, and I think people should understand and respect that.

Now, I'm not sure what Yuta’s stances are on the Japan-Korean relationship are. I did hear that he once said Japan should admit what the Army did (and I agree), but it's also possible that he was pressured to say that. I agree he should be considerate when he mentions Japan/Korea as a Kpop idol, but as long as he's not speaking about the matter to actively hurt people's feelings, he's entitled to his own opinions, whatever they are (yes, even in the case he sides with Japan).

Lastly, don’t bash Yuta because he was different from whatever selfish image y’all built up in your minds and fanfics. We can’t go around making up a perfect (and false) image of our stans in our head, and then get upset when that image is broken by these kinds of controversies - that’s a really selfish thing to do. As harsh as this may sound, we fans don’t know idols for who they really are even after hours of watching their Vlives and analyzing their interviews.

As a kpop fan myself, I get that we project our ideal images onto our stans, and tbh, that’s a part of being an idol - but just as Yuta is Japanese before being a kpop idol, idols are individuals first. Fans can’t take away idols’ rights to ideologies and being themselves unless they’re actively harming people as public figures - so maybe don’t hate on idols for who they befriend and what they believe? If you’re gonna criticize Yuta, CRITICIZE (not bash) him for the fact that he had to bring this up on Vlive to a Korean audience.

Finally, I just want to say, if you're not Korean or Japanese (so all you Inetz people), don't go around judging the Korean side or the Japanese side (unless they're being racist against the other), or denouncing one country or the other, or hyping up support for one side (yes, even if you think you're doing good by supporting the Korean side). Because it's none of your business. I'm sorry if I sound harsh or ungrateful, but it's not for you guys to say because you're not part of our history, and even with tons of research, there will be sentiments you won't understand.

And one important thing: the ones who commit the war crimes was the Imperial Japanese Army 75 years ago, not the current Japanese people or the Japanese civilians back then (I feel like I'm parroting rheekun here haha) - I’m wholeheartedly saying this as a Korean, and I know a lot of Korean people who can think logically would agree with me on this.

That was super long - but that's all, thanks!