27 February 2007
The author of a best-selling Korean comic book series intended to teach children about other countries has bowed to pressure to change a chapter on Jews which has been called anti-Semitic. Rhie Won-bok maintains, however, that his depiction of Jewish control of American media and politics was based on fact and "commonly believed." The professor of visual arts at Duksung Women's University in Seoul told the Associated Press news agency: "The Jews are the invisible force that controls the US. I wrote the chapter to let people know that you can't understand the US without knowing the Jewish community."
More than ten million copies of the series entitled 'Far Countries, Near Countries' have been sold since it was first published in 1987, according to its publisher, Gimm-Young. The company boasts that at least one volume is in every home in the country of 48 million people. The comics with playfully drawn figures have sought to explain European countries, America, Japan and Korea itself. The first volume of three focusing on the United States was published in 2004. In a chapter titled 'You have to know the Jews to see the US', Rhie takes a wide-ranging look at Jewish history, mentioning the Holocaust and the fact that Jews have been spread throughout the world.
Although noting that Jews have faced prejudice for many centuries, the book takes a more sinister view of their role in the United States. Rhie said the attacks of 9/11 occurred because of Arab terrorists' hatred for the US which he blames on Jews who "move the US in the way they want using money and the media as their weapon". The book also says Korean-Americans were diligent and successful in the US "but in the end, always run into the wall called the Jews." The accompanying picture shows an exasperated man walking up a hill only to be blocked by a brick wall with a Star of David and the word 'STOP' in English.
