Osaka Korean High School's football team has scored three victories in a row in the Japan national high school football championships, winning it a place in the final eight and in the hearts of Japan's Korean community. The school, run by Chosen Soren, the association of North Korean citizens in Japan, first faced the football powerhouse Kunimi High School as its first opponent in the top sixteen. Kunimi has made the finals twenty times in the championships' 84-year history and won on six occasions. When against all expectations Osaka Korean High has beat Kunimi one to nothing, its supporters broke out with tears of joy.
Football is more than just a simple game for the Korean community. For Koreans in Japan associated with both North and South Korea, it is a sport that symbolizes the pride of the Korean people. It has been the one thing at which they refused to lose while living with discrimination in Japanese society. For a long time since the end of the war, Korean teams have had what it takes to beat Japanese clubs and schools at goodwill tournaments, but students at Korean schools had long been unable to play out their dreams at real football competitions. Korean schools were not permitted to compete in more than goodwill games for not being officially recognized educational institutions.
That restriction was removed in 1996 in the face of protests calling it discrimination against minorities. Around that time, however, the start of the J League and the resulting explosion in football's popularity in Japan meant high school teams improved significantly overall, and Korean teams started getting eliminated at the local level. Five years ago Osaka Korean High made it to the finals only to be defeated in the first match. On the last day of 2005 it won its first victory, and if it wins in the top eight on Thursday it gets to play in the semi-final at Tokyo National Stadium. We hope Osaka Korean High School do well and contribute to an atmosphere of reconciliation.
The Hankyoreh, 5 January 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Osaka Korean HS Football Winning in Japan |
