Michael Jackson remarks shared out of context in false posts on Korean history

This article is more than one year old.
Published on November 22, 2023 at 08:04
3 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

Social media users have shared a video with a false claim that it shows US singer Michael Jackson calling the Japanese invasion of Korea in the 16th century and the forced prostitution of Korean and Chinese women by Japanese troops during World War II "lies". However, the late singer's remarks were taken out of context -- he was in fact speaking about the discrimination against black artists in the US entertainment industry.

"Japan invaded Korea during the Imjin War? The Japanese government forced Korean women into becoming comfort women? All lies!! History textbooks don't tell the truth, they are lies! Michael Jackson," says text in Korean in an image shared alongside a picture of the late pop star on Facebook on October 13.

Screenshot of the misleading claim shared on Facebook. Captured November 14, 2023.

"Comfort women" refers to the forced prostitution of Korean and Chinese women by Japanese troops during World War II, while the Imjin War refers to the Japanese invasion of Korea in the 16th century.

The same picture with similar false claims was shared on Facebook here, here and here by accounts that bear the logo of the Raelian sect -- a group whose followers believe life on Earth was established by extra-terrestrials who arrived in flying saucers 25,000 years ago and cloned humans.

The sect's founder Claude Vorilhon has also made claims about Jackson, including a statement released after the US popstar's death in 2009 that he was alive "on the Elohim's Eternal-Life Planet" (archived link).

Comments in the posts indicate several users were misled to believe Jackson made such comments on Korean history.

"What a nutjob. He is someone we can call a real Japan-lover," wrote one user.

"Thank you for trying to expose the real history," another wrote.

While Jackson indeed made comments about history books in a 2002 speech, the remarks were in fact directed at racism in the US music industry, not Korean history.

Speech on racism

A reverse image search on Google found the image corresponds to footage of Jackson published on YouTube on March 12, 2019 in a video that shows the singer speaking to a crowd of people in 2002 at the headquarters of the National Action Network, a civil rights organisation founded by Black rights activist Al Sharpton (archived link).

"And they manipulate our history books. The history books are not true! It's a lie!" Jackson can be heard saying at the 2:30 mark. "The history books are lying. You need to know that. You must know that."

He does not mention Korea or the general study of history at all during the speech.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared in the misleading Facebook posts (left) and a corresponding scene from the 2019 YouTube clip (right):

Screenshot comparison of the image shared in the misleading Facebook posts (left) and a corresponding scene from the 2019 YouTube clip (right)

The same footage was also shared by Sharpton on his official Facebook account on June 21, 2019, which also said the clip was taken in 2002 (archived link).

The singer's remarks at the time came a day after he made a controversial speech on July 8, 2002 in which he accused Sony Music of racism in its treatment of black artists, according to reports from music publications MTV and NME (archived links here and here).

The July 8 comments were widely reported at the time by the Washington Post, ABC and Rolling Stone (archived links here, here and here).

The singer has mentioned South Korea on other occasions, such as expressing hopes for Korean reunification during a concert in 1999, but AFP cannot find reports of him alluding to the Imjin War or the issue involving forced prostitution of Koreans by Japanese troops during World War II (archived link).

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