誰か訳してくれ
I heard that statement during the opening ceremonies and .... !?

I speak Korean, and lived there at a time (early '80s) when meeting another caucasian outside of Seoul, Pusan, or a military base was extremely rare.
That statement would have been infuriating to anyone I knew at the time. There was a strong cultural memory of a deadly and brutal Japanese occupation.
Japanese Manga was sold illegally to young people on the black market because it was illegal to import anything printed in the country.


I remember an instance when visiting Pusan when an elderly Japanese lady approached me in a panic trying to find out if I spoke her language. She was distressed, lost, and alone.
I don't speak Japanese, but anyone who had been alive during WWII or before would have been forced to speak it in public and in school. (Anyone her age.)

The streets were packed and she approached people that probably had at least a rudimentary ability to communicate with her.
No one even noticed she existed--which is a more acceptable cultural response than telling someone that you won't/can't help them.

Yeah, I'd say his comments might have been just a little off putting.