Japan rock band apologises, pulls ‘outdated’ Columbus video

AFP | Tokyo

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A Japanese rock band has apologised and withdrawn its new song and music video, its record label said, after criticism of scenes showing Italian explorer Christopher Columbus singing with apelike men.

The video for “Columbus” has the three members of the band Mrs Green Apple depicting the historical figures Columbus, Napoleon Bonaparte and German composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

It shows them discovering an island inhabited by people who look like apes and teaching them how to ride horses and has them pulling a rickshaw.

Universal Music Japan, the band’s record label, said in a statement on Thursday, a day after the video’s release, that it “contains expressions that lack understanding of historical and cultural backgrounds”.

Band member Mo t o k i Ohmori also apologised, saying “we never had an intention of creating discriminatory content nor affirming tragic history”.

The video sparked widespread social media criticism that it contained nods to slavery and discrimination.

Columbus began European incursions into the Americas in the late 15th century. “A view of history that Columbus was a hero who ‘discovered’ the new continent is outdated,” one critic said on social media platform X, adding that “what happened post-Columbus is genocide of indigenous people and slavery”.

Another comment on YouTube said: “Wasn’t there anyone involved who had studied world history at all?”