Just for the awareness sake. For the past few weeks fans in certain parts of Asia, especially South Korea, have increasingly become wary that the so-called rising flags known to symbolize the Japanese imperialism and militarianism (much like Nazi's Hakenkreuz, imagine that being seen on any football pitch!) would be seen or promoted in Anfield without awareness of its implication.
And few days later, the official LFC website included an image of this flag. I know LFC can't be too heavily blamed for what is relatively unknown issue in the West, and not meaning to stir any political debate, I still thought this better be known especially around a global institution as Liverpool FC and they are more cautious in the near future, as just a day after they released what is viewed to some as a half-assed apology to fans, the official account yet "likes" a post with this flag on it again, causing much offence among Korean fans again.
"Meanwhile, on Saturday, Liverpool apologised to South Korean fans after using a thumbnail with the background of the Rising Sun flag to advertise a video, made available to members on the club's homepage, about the 1981 Intercontinental Cup final played between the club and Flamengo in Tokyo.
The old Japanese imperial flag is seen as a symbol of militarism and oppression in parts of Asia that suffered under Japanese occupation in the first half of the 20th century, especially in South Korea -- which was brutally colonised by its eastern neighbour from 1910 to 1945.
Yesterday we published an image on our channels that caused offence," Liverpool said in a statement that was visible only to those with South Korean IP addresses. "We took immediate action to rectify the error.
"We would like to apologise to anyone who may have been offended by the image."
As the apology was available to view only in South Korea, there have been calls by Korean fans for Liverpool to post the same statement on all their social media channels. The issue of the Rising Sun flag is still a source of tension in Japanese-Korean relations which has spread to the football pitch in the past.
In 2017, the Asian Football Confederation fined J.League club Kawasaki Frontale after the club's fans displayed the flag in a Champions League game at South Korea's Suwon Bluewings, referring to it as "a banner with a discriminatory symbol relating to national origin and political opinion."
