What does/did Korea have against Samurais?

I have no idea if this is still true, but back in the day, at least it was concidered strictly taboo to portray samurais in Korea in any manner; you could not include them in films, stories, or even videogames - you simply did not mention them.

I just wondered if there was any reason behind all this, did samurais do something to Korea years ago or something? It must be serious if you can't even portray them in fiction.

One example is the videogame Soul Calibur - in the Korean version, one of the characters was removed from the game, because he looked "too samurai-ish"...

The Japanese invaded Korea in the 16th century. I remember playing a stage in Age of Empires II where you have to control the Korean navy and fight off the Japanese samurai with iron-clad 'turtle' ships. I think that battle was set in that time of invasion.

Some Chinese people continue to harbour deep hatred toward the Japanese as well because of the Sino-Japanese wars.

Pretty much the same reason Germany won't allow Nazis to be portrayed in anything.

Read a little bit of the Japanese Empire's pre-WWII war history if you'd like to know why much of Asia hates them.

Yeah, a good chunk of Asia has beef with Japan. Google Japanese occupation/war crimes for more info. I'm always so surprised by how few people know about the atrocities committed by the Japanese. Relations have been shaky between Japan/Korea even in recent years. It'd be going well for awhile and then something will pop up to flair up resentment again.

I know Korea has deep seated resentment toward Japan, but I never knew about the Samurai thing. That's pretty strange.

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Originally Posted by Rad Bromance

Pretty much the same reason Germany won't allow Nazis to be portrayed in anything.

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Well, not quite. I mean, the Japanese are very proud of the samurai. They have no problem portraying it. Most nations don't. But Germany is actually extremely ashamed and internationally portrayin a Nazi is a bit risky and almost a taboo, whereas sumurau aren't.

It's no problem portraying nazis. It's just a problem if you make they seem like nice people.

Negative aspects of Japan? This wasn't in my anime! :mad2:

I never knew that. Interesting. As people said it's due to Japan's utter dickery, especially in WW2, towards the rest of Asia, and I suppose there's little more Japanese than a samurai, so Korea didn't like the symbol.

I'm actually suprised I didn't think of this - The Japanese invasion is mentioned in the game I used as an example (though it has nothing to do with the samurai character.) Thanks for answering.