Throngs of fans packed Tokyo Dome on Tuesday and Wednesday to watch K-pop group BTS perform songs from across its five-year career. The crowd cheered, bought merchandise and the two days offered the seven-member group some respite from a week of scandal.
Things kicked off when TV Asahi canceled a performance by the group on its "Music Station" program scheduled for Nov. 9 after a photo began spreading online of BTS member Park Ji-min, better known as Jimin, sporting a long-sleeved shirt celebrating South Korea's independence from colonial Japanese rule on a Korean TV program in August last year. At issue was a photo on the shirt that depicted the atomic bomb that exploded over Nagasaki in 1945.
TV Asahi's decision was reported worldwide and, like any controversial matter on the internet, the discourse got messier the deeper you looked into it. Though there were plenty of rational discussions that were filled with the kind of nuance and background knowledge only fans can bring, many more jumped to conclusions and spread misinformation. Japanese nationalists dug for further transgressions by the BTS members, while Korean ones used the opportunity to bash Japan. Some fans piled onto anyone believed to be critical of the group, while some played the "fake news" card. All in all, a pretty standard weekend on Twitter in 2018.
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