Japanese cartoonist Akiko Higashimura, who is known to be a fan of Korean culture, has apologized to her Korean audience for using the Rising Sun flag in the past.

The sudden apology came after Korean fans unearthed images of the flag used at the cartoonist’s fan meeting event in 2007.

In a statement released alongside the second episode of “Fake Affair,” a webtoon which is being serialized on Korea’s Naver portal, Higashimura said she was not aware of the seriousness of the flag’s implications 11 years ago.

“I sincerely apologize for using the Rising Sun Flag pattern again (after the fan event), and it was not my intention to cause offense to a lot of people,” the cartoonist wrote in a statement.

Higashimura said her heart aches and feels the weight of the controversy in a country that she loves.

Fans were left shocked in the wake of the discovery, all the more so because Higashimura is known for being a fan of K-pop, but her timely apology helped the mood shift quickly.

“This was 11 years ago. I think it’s understandable that she made a mistake not knowing (the history) as she grew up and was educated in none other than Japan,” one of the top comments on her comic series read, which is featured on Naver Webtoon.

Similar to how the Confederate flag can be taken as a reminder of slavery and segregation in the US, the flag of the Rising Sun is widely associated with Japanese imperialism in South Korea and other Asian countries. Korea had been under Japanese occupation between 1910 and 1945.

Others draw a parallel between the Rising Sun flag and the Nazi flag in that both stood for regimes that perpetrated racist atrocities and war crimes.

Last month, Japan Airlines promised not to use an image of the Rising Sun embossed on its plastic in-flight meal packaging after Professor Seo Kyung-duk at Sungshin Women’s University raised the issue with Japan’s leading airline.

Despite the controversial background, however, the flag is still used by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

By Yim Hyun-su (hyunsu@heraldcorp.com)