On November 3, BTS held their first sold out concert at Tokyo Dome as part of their "Love Yourself" tour amid broiling criticism over the groups wardrobe captions and stage props which the Simon Wiesenthal centre in LA termed as "mocking the past."
After the concert, Park Jimin touched upon the delicate issue and thanked his fans for their support and motivation even post the wardrobe controversy that he unknowingly created. Jimin landed in controversy last August for wearing a shirt depicting the US' attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki with Atomic bombs alongside text celebrating Korean liberation from colonial imperial Japan in 1945.
Jimin stated "We held our first showcase at a small venue in Tokyo, and at the time, we were surprised at how ARMYs in Japan knew about it and came. We've come a long way since then to be here at Tokyo Dome today". He further mentioned "It saddens me to think that not only you ARMY, but many people around the world must have been surprised recently because of the many circumstances."
BTSwas earlier scheduled to perform "Fake Love" and "IDOL" on TV Asahi's "Music Station" on November 9. A day prior to the scheduled performance, "Music Station" announced the cancellation of the appearance owing to the t-shirt controversy issue. The designer of the T-shirt expressed his apologies to the group and clarified that "the design was not meant to mock Japan, but simply portray historical events."
Big Hit Entertainment issued a statement on November 13 addressing the allegations made by the Wiesenthal Centre and other controversies targeted at BTS. The agency took responsibility for the various controversies and apologised for the situations where BTS members were seen sporting the atomic bomb t-shirt, RM wearing a Nazi symbol hat for a photo shoot and confirmed that the agency has reached out to the Centre and apologized to both the Japanese and Korean atomic bomb victims associations. The agency also addressed the fascist imagery that featured in a performance with Seo Taiji's 1994 hit "Classroom Idea".
The agency has reiterated the fact that BTS does not support Nazism or radical political groups and hopes to put the controversies to rest.
