A string of Japanese TV stations have canceled performances of the world-famous K-pop boy band BTS after a t-shirt worn by one of the members inflamed decades-long historical tensions between Korea and Japan.

TV Asahi`s flagship music program, Music Station, abruptly called off the performance scheduled for Nov. 9 after speaking with the band’s record company, Big Hit Entertainment, about the member’s intention in wearing the t-shirt. The group’s planned appearances in NHK’s Red & White Song Battle, a major year-end music festival, and Fuji TV’s FNS Music Festival have also been canceled, according to the Japanese media outlet Sponichi Annex.

Images of the band member Jimin wearing the controversial t-shirt started circulating in social media in October. Reportedly worn last year, the shirt features the text “PATRIOTISM OUR HISTORY LIBERATION KOREA” repeated several times and the iconic mushroom cloud image of an atomic bomb being dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki during the Second World War.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 resulted in hundreds and thousands of deaths and the surrender of Imperial Japan. The event also led to the liberation of the Korean Peninsula from 35 years of Japanese colonial rule. Millions of Koreans suffered oppressive conditions during the occupation, from forced labor to sexual slavery, which to this day remain a source of bitter conflict between the two countries.

Historical tensions were reignited last month when South Korea’s top court ordered a leading Japanese steel maker to compensate Korean men who worked as slave laborers during World War II.

The Japanese government denounced the ruling, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calling it “an impossible judgment in light of international laws.”

Japan’s foreign minister, Taro Kono, was quick to add that the ruling should not get in the way of their bilateral relations. BTS is expected to carry on with its Love Yourself world tour in Japan at the Tokyo Dome on Nov. 13 and 14.

The seven-member boy band, which debuted in 2013, shot to international fame when it became the first K-pop act to land the top spot on the Billboard Artist 100 Chart this year. It also broke Taylor Swift’s record for biggest YouTube debut, with the music video of its latest song “Idol” hitting 45 million views in just 24 hours. Last month, it wrapped up its world tour in Europe and North America, where all 21 of its concerts were sold out in minutes.

By Kim Gyu-sik and Kim Hyo-jin

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