SNSD's Tiffany Blasted On Social Media For Posting The Japanese Rising Sun Flag On Korea's Liberation Day

SNSD's Tiffany is currently under fire for her controversial post on the eve of Korea's National Liberation Day.

Over the weekend, Tiffany went on a social media spamming spree following the Aug. 13 "SM TOWN Live World Tour V" concert at the Tokyo Dome, where she and her group Girl's Generation/SNSD performed along with other SM Entertainment artists. Most of her posts on Instagram and Snapchat showed her celebrating the successful concert in Tokyo with her labelmates, enjoying drinks and partying, but two of her posts caught the eye of her followers.

On Sunday, she initially posted a photo with her labelmates on Instagram and used the emoji for the Japanese flag. Korean fans asked her not to use the emoji as her country will be celebrating their Independence Day the next day, so she immediately deleted the Instagram post.

However, on her Snapchat @stephanieyoungh, the singer then uploaded a photo with the Japanese Confederate flag, also known as the Rising Sun flag or Imperial flag. The Rising Sun flag, which remains in use today, is a reminder of the war crimes and imperial aggression committed by Japan during the second World War for the country's neighbors, including Korea, which was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945.

Tiffany has since deleted the Snapchat post, but fans and netizens have taken to social media to blast the SNSD member for sharing the image on the eve of Korea's National Liberation Day, which is on Aug. 15.

"Even if she's a foreigner, she's been working in our country for 10 years and she should know that today is National Liberation Day, it's marked red on the calendar. How can you put up the Japanese Confederate flag on that day?" wrote one netizen on Nate (via NetizenBuzz).

Another netizen wrote, "Jay Park was kicked out for writing crap about Korea before he debuted when he didn't even know anything. Seolhyun and Jimin got hate for their lack of knowledge... and Tiffany is [in] a worse situation than all of them. Tiffany is a Korean who's worked in Korea for so long in a popular girl group, she should be kicked out for uploading the Confederate flag blatantly on the day of liberation!"

However, some of her fans have also defended her, saying she may have been drunk and only posted the flag by mistake.

Tiffany immediately took to Instagram to apologize for the post. "On such a significant day, I am sorry that I made everyone worry with my mistake. In this situation, my oversight has disappointed many people and I feel ashamed of myself. I deeply regret what I did. In the future, I will work hard to take care of what I write and how I behave so something like this doesn't happen again, and to think carefully before acting. Once again, I apologize for my shortcomings and big mistake," she said (translations by @OH_mes).

What do you think of SNSD's Tiffany's Snapchat post and her apology? Share your thoughts in the comments!