Pusanweb - A Visit to the Hitler Bar

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2024-09-22 14:00:07

I left feeling that Mr. Hong was not a bad person, just a guy who thought he had a great idea for a bar and was genuinely surprised by the negative reaction. In discussing this with other Koreans afterward, I was shocked by how different our thinking was on the subject. I haven't talked to that many Koreans or foreigners about this and the hour is quite late as I type this, so I don't mean to make any unwarranted generalizations. I do my best to avoid the 'Koreans this and Foreigners that' kind of thinking and one of the main goals of this site is to encourage mutual understanding between the local and foreign communities here. I think we have our work cut out for ourselves on this one. In hopes of encouraging that mutual understanding, I encourage visitors to (civilly) express their views on our Discussion Board.

I am the owner of "Adolph Hitler Bar". I've been snubbed by some foreign customers ever since I opened a cocktail bar named "Hitler". But I couldn't answer their questions nor explain my thoughts because of the difficulties of different languages. I'd like to say that I don't believe that Hitler was a good person either. I can totally understand why foreigners are upset. I've learned his brutalities against the peace of the world from books, TV and movies. As you know, Korean had a similar situation with Japan during WW2. I have upsetting feelings about what Japanese did to Korean as well, If I saw a bar name "HiroHitto " in other countries, I should feel the same way. I am not a Nazi, the bar name came out at a meeting with interior designer. We just wanted a name that can be related to or represent Germany, easy to remember and easy to design the interior with. We couldn't think about the history point of view when picking the name. The name "Hitler" was totally meaningless, it was nothing more than a material for the business. I feel shame and I'd like to make a sincere apology for using the name without being able to consider how foreigners might feel. I also thank to Mr. Lebow and his wife for letting me know my big mistake and giving me the chance to publish a written apology.