Ukraine apologized to Japan over a picture of Emperor Hirohito alongside Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in a social media video about the defeat of fascism.
“Our sincere apologies to Japan for making this mistake. We had no intention to offend the friendly people of Japan," the Ukrainian government tweeted in a post, attached to an edited version of the video without Hirohito’s picture.
https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1518240707609341954
The video, posted by the Ukrainian government on Twitter on April 1, was meant to criticize Russia's invasion as "rashism." Underneath the photos of the three World War II-era leaders in were the words "Fascism and Nazism were defeated in 1945."
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secorganization viewTwitter weretary Yoshihiko Isozaki affirmed that Japan will continue to support Ukrainians who are defending their country from Russia's invasion despite the "completely inappropriate" portrayal of Hirohito.
"Portraying Hitler, Mussolini and Emperor Showa in the same context is completely inappropriate," Isozaki told reporters. "It was extremely regrettable."
In the same vein, Ukraine Ambassador to Japan Sergiy Korsunsky apologized in a tweet, pointing out that the creator of the video lacked an understanding of history.
The video sparked anger in Japan, the nation that fought World War II in the name of Hirohito. Japanese people considered the original video as an insult and said Japan should stop supporting Ukraine.
Others said Hideki Tojo, the Japanese wartime prime minister who was later convicted of war crimes and hanged, would have been a better choice than Hirohito for the video.
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