Korea Vs. Japan

Today was the final of the baseball World Championships. Korea played Japan for the gold medal. I can't talk about baseball with any authority because I just don't know the game, but whatever the game is between these two nations it is more than a game. I can tell you that Korea likes nothing better than beating Japan at any sport or any occasion possible. A look into the history of the two countries will show you why some Koreans literally hate Japan. Personally I feel that a lot of the kids I've taught have been a little brainwashed into hating Japan, but Koreans are proud people and will not let history or it's injustices be forgotten. This is very understandable. Of course there is still the matter of Dokdo and its ownership which is

disputed, bitterly.

Despite Korea's long history with martial arts, many people consider baseball to be the national sport of the country so expectations were high. For what it's worth, Japan won 5-3 (Korea are the more prestigious Olympic champions though). The mood of several student's was quite bad across the age ranges, predictable so. I sometimes feel that Koreans are bad losers, but this is not always the case so to test this I played on their emotions a little and took advantage slightly of the situation by asking them all to answer the loaded question "I like/don't like Japan because...". The following is a list of some of the answers I got, all the quotes are literal quotes, grammar errors et al. Interestingly, nearly the younger kids said they don't like Japan but the older ones weren't as vitriolic.

"They is win!"
"Japan people is Korean people"
"They are terrible"
"Korean history is Japan very bad"
"Japan Kill Korea"
"Dirty"
"Because Japan steal Dokdo"
"Japan is Koreans rival"
"Japan kills many Koreans"
"Long time ago Japan kills lots of Korean people"
"Japanese is gay"

Of course what I am writing is not new and many have chronicled this in the past. It is clear feelings remain as intense here as ever. I wonder how Japan feels about the matter. I feel that this coin has only one side.