Most Hated Country - Japan

Guess which country is the most hated in the Top Tens' list of most hated country ? -- Japan

Guess which country voted the most for the list? -- South Korea (64%)

According to the admin of The Top Tens, the votes for the list are from the following countries:
1) South Korea: 64.00%
2) Japan: 28.30%
3) United States: 3.66%
4) Canada: 0.51%
5) China: 0.48%
6) Australia: 0.44%
7) United Kingdom: 0.27%
8) Philippines: 0.19%
9) Unknown: 0.15%
10) New Zealand: 0.13%

What does this tell you?

It's not the world's top ten, but it's Korea's top ten list !

It also tells you how anti-Japan propaganda is spread in Korea.

This kind of emotional reaction is harmful in general, but especially so when it's politically used, which has been the case for years. And it is based on Korea's biased view on the history.
Sadly, decades of anti-Japan education by South Korea has spread in the country to the extent that the majority doesn't even know their own history.

For such a long time in the history, Korea was often a vassal state of China, paying annual tribute to and getting protection from China when needed. Yet when the western countries came to colonize the last few remaining un-colonized countries in Asia, namely Japan, Korea and China in the late 19th century, Korea was not modernized enough to be able to fight against the West. Seeing the threat of Western colonization, Japan did its best to modernize itself, and tried to convince Korea to do the same. Yet, looking up at China, down on Japan, Korea did not take the path of modernization.

When Donghak Peasant Revolution happened in 1894, China, regarding Korea as its tributary nation, intervened militarily, and Japan also sent army, which led to Japanese-Sino War. The aim of Japan was to maintain Korea’s independence, and the first thing Japan demanded to China after winning the war was Korea’s autonomy, which it gained. However, the situation of Korea remained vulnerable, and with the end of Japanese-Russo war, the Empire of Korea became a protectorate of Japan in 1905. In 1910, with the strong support of Korea’s major party “Il-Ching Fe”and of over one million Korean people, Korea was annexed by Japan. Roosevelt publicly stated “Korean Peninsula is Japanese”, and British also said “We’ve wanted annexation”.  At that time, no major countries was against the annexation. British newspaper used the term annexation, not colonization.

Japan took the assimilation policy which aimed at bringing up the living standard and culture of Korea to the level of Japan, and this contrasted sharply with the western colonization policy which only pursued its own benefits. Japan prioritized the improvement of the infrastructure of Korea, and invested hugely, even having deficit balance.

Alleyne Ireland, a British administrative scholar, published a book called "The New Korea" in 1926, describing the policies and measures taken by the Japanese occupational government in Korea at the time of annexation between 1910-1945. In his 300-page book, Ireland described that Japanese administration in Korea ensured education for all Koreans, dramatically improved public health eradicating epidemics, and brought about significant economic development.

Ireland wrote: "The Japanese administration in Korea has done more to advance the interests of Korea than any other government has done to advance the interests of any country in the world within the period... That Korean agricultural exports should have increased in little more than a decade by more than 1,000%, industrial exports by more than 3,000%, fishery exports by nearly 3,000%..... would, if Korea were a self-governing country instead of a Japanese colonial dependency, be hailed throughout the Western world as an astounding example of national progress" (page 288).  

  

I suspect none of the above is known in Korea, since the only thing they learn is “Japan was evil and did horrible things to Korea”, and the voice of Koreans who lived during those periods is silenced.