Anti-Japan Tribalism

Described as "anti-Japan tribalism," the book posits that there is a shamanistic mentality in a small minority of South Korean people who regard Japan as their primary enemy. Such a mentality, the authors argue, gave rise to some anti-Japan arguments among some South Koreans. In the book’s prologue titled "A Country of Lies," Lee Young-hoon speaks critically of the people who lie, the politics which lie, the scholarship of lies, and the trials of lies. According to this book, the lies are particularly noticeable in some instances of the South Korea's national history. Lee and the co-authors thus elucidate how a minority of people in their country has created a small number of forged historical accounts.

Essentially, the book argues that the official history of South Korea has never been empirical. Anti-Japanism has been a dogma for a minority in post-independence South Korea. As such, some anti-Japan forgeries were produced to dramatize the South Korea's national history. Critical of such falsification, the book argues that some South Korean scholars, journalists, novelists, artists, activists, and politicians all contributed to this process.

Anti-Japan Tribalism is an effort by South Korean scholars to expose what they see as a deeply ingrained, distorted historical narrative in their country. The authors critically analyze anti-Japan arguments, highlighting their inconsistencies and biases.

As discussed by Lee Woo-yeon, the book’s co-author and researcher at the Naksungdae Institute of Economic Research, Japan’s better wages and employment opportunities attracted 100,000 to 200,000 Korean workers each year through the 1930s and the early 1940s. Moreover, there was little wage discrimination during the war, when Japanese companies were in need of Korean workers.

The table of contents of this book, in Japanese edition,{{Cite web|url=https://books.bunshun.jp/ud/book/num/1639115800000000000H|title=『反日種族主義 日韓危機の根源』李 栄薫 編著 | 電子書籍|trans-title=Anti-Japan Tribalism E-book |website=Bungeishunjū}} is as following:

;Preface to the Japanese Edition

;Preface

;Prologue: A Nation of Lies

;Part 1: Memory of Tribalism

:1. Absurd Arirang

:2. A pistol in one hand, a surveying instrument in another hand

:3. Did you say they plundered the land?

:4. The approach of Japanese colonial administration

:5. Myth of “the forced mobilization”

:6. Was it really “forced labor” and “slave labor”?

:7. Fictiveness of the wage discrimination against Koreans

:8. Who are they, special army volunteers?

:9. Originally, there was nothing to claim: The truth about the claim agreement

:10. Stupid and shameless intrepid opposition against Korea-Japan talks

;Part 2: Symbol and Fantasy of Tribalism

:11. Inside facts of the myth surrounding Mt. Paektu

:12. Dok-do, the supreme symbol of anti-Japan tribalism

:13. The truth about the {{Ill|iron stakes myth|ko|쇠말뚝|qid=}}

:14. Dismantling of the former governor-general’s office building: Deleting the ROK's history

:15. Fraudulent drama called the liquidation of pro-Japanese vestiges

:16. A never ending story: "Compensation! Compensation! Compensation!"

:17. Theology of anti-Japan tribalism

;Part 3: Comfort Women, a Bastion of Tribalism

:18. Comfort women within us

:19. Establishment and culture of the registered prostitute system

:20. The truth about the issue of Japanese military’s comfort women

:21. In more than 40 years after the liberation, the issue of comfort women has not existed

:22. Until the day when the Korea-Japan relations fail

;Epilogue: Retribution of the Anti-Japan Tribalism

;Commentary: A Patriotism Interrogated by "Anti-Japan Tribalism"

The book Anti-Japan Tribalism has received both support and criticism. Former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk criticized it for downplaying Imperial Japan’s wartime actions, including forced labor.{{Cite web |last=조선일보 |date=2020-07-17 |title=조국 "이영훈 책 '반일 종족주의', 구역질 나는 책" 맹비난 |url=https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/08/05/2019080502440.html |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=조선일보 |language=ko}} In response, author Lee Young-hoon dismissed Cho’s remarks as misrepresentations of the book’s arguments.

Professors from various South Korean universities co-authored a comprehensive critique on the book, titled Japanese Imperialist Tribalism and published in October 2019.{{Cite book|last=이영재,홍찬선|first=황태연,김종욱, 서창훈, 유용화|url=http://www.kyobobook.co.kr/product/detailViewKor.laf?ejkGb=KOR&mallGb=KOR&barcode=9791189673505|title=일제종족주의 - 교보문고|language=ko}}

Yuji Hosaka published a critique on the book in April 2020, arguing that the authors are "New Pro-Japanese Collaborators" (신친일파).{{Cite book|last=유지|first=호사카|url=http://www.kyobobook.co.kr/product/detailViewKor.laf?ejkGb=KOR&mallGb=KOR&barcode=9791190494854|title=신친일파 - 교보문고|language=ko}}

• New Right (South Korea)
• {{Ill|Theory of colonial modernization|ko|식민지 근대화론}}
• Chinilpa
• Japan–Korea disputes
• Special Law to Redeem Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property
• Oh Sonfa

{{Reflist}}

• {{YouTube|channel=UC0ddvpoS9dg3EFWo62VarOA|Rhee Syngman TV}} {{in lang|ko}}

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Category:Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea

Category:South Korean books

Category:2019 non-fiction books

Category:Comfort women denial

Category:History books about Korea

Category:Works about Korea under Japanese rule

Category:Korean-language non-fiction books