A Japanese hotel under fire for providing books denying the country's past wrongdoings offered on Wednesday to remove them before hosting South Korean athletes for an upcoming competition.
The decision by APA Hotel and Resort in Sapporo, which will be used as athletes' quarters during the Feb. 19-26 Asian Winter Games, came hours after the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee demanded appropriate steps be taken.
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APA Hotel and Resort (Yonhap) |
The KSOC lodged a formal complaint with the Japanese Olympic Committee and the Winter Asiad organizing committee over a book with far-right tendencies placed in the hotel's guest rooms. It said the book denies Japan's forced recruitment of World War II sex slaves and the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.
The KSOC said it had asked the Sapporo organizers to take action last Friday on the phone, and it decided to send a letter Wednesday when the issue remained unresolved.
After a general meeting of the KSOC Wednesday afternoon, Lee Kee-heung, its president, said he had just received a response from Sapporo that the books will be removed.
The KSOC pointed out that the book's presence in athletes' rooms runs counter to the Olympic Council of Asia's Constitution and Rules. A by-law to Article 36 states that "No kind of demonstration, political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any OCA games sites, venues or other area, associated with the games."
The book was written by Toshio Motoya, president of APA Group, which operates the hotel chain. Because of the book's denial of the massacre of thousands of Chinese lives, the hotel has also faced a backlash in China.
APA Hotel will host some 2,000 athletes during the competition. (Yonhap)
