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Koreas unite against Japan

thomas

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Reported by BBC, August 16, 2002:

Koreas unite against Japan

"Academics from North and South Korea have accused Japan of distorting historical facts, as tensions resurface over a series of long-standing territorial disputes."


More about that "territorial" conflict by The Star, August 15, 2002

Koreans, Japan fight over sea's name

Sea of Japan causes waves with neighbouring countries

Tokyo pledged today to fight an international proposal that would cross out the name "Sea of Japan" from the world's sea charts, as a lingering map spat deepened between Japan and its neighbours. Under the new plan, floated by the Monaco-based International Hydrographic Bureau, the body of water separating Japan and the Korean peninsula would simply have no officially recognized international name. The move is meant as a compromise with South Korea, which uses the name "East Sea" and protests the more recognized moniker "Sea of Japan" as a vestige of Tokyo's 1910-1945 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula. North Korea uses the "Korean East Sea."

"This situation is like if Madagascar got into a fight with India and said that `Indian Ocean' is an outrageous name and started using, `Madagascar Ocean,' " said Yo Iwabuchi, deputy chief of international affairs at Japan's Maritime Safety Agency.

The 70 member countries of the International Hydrographic Bureau, including Japan and South Korea, will vote on dropping the "Sea of Japan" at the end of November. Iwabuchi said Japan will lobby against the switch. South Korea has been campaigning for a name change of the sea at least since 1992, when the United Nations held a meeting on standardizing the world's geographic names. Since then, its government officials and scholars have appealed to the United States and used magazine articles and seminars to drum up support.

"The Korean government deems it inappropriate to name that sea after a single country because it is historically unjustified and causes unnecessary discord among neighbouring countries," said Kim Myong-sik, assistant minister of South Korea's Information Service in Seoul.

Kim said at different points in history, the sea has been called the "East Sea," the "Sea of Korea," and the "Oriental Sea." Japan argues that "Sea of Japan" has historical roots in European maps from the 19th century when Japan was a closed country with almost no diplomatic ties with others.

"We did not name it. It was named when Japan had not even ventured into the outside world," Iwabuchi said. Iwabuchi said that even if Japan lost November's vote, it sees no need to drop the name "Sea of Japan" from the country's own maps.


Copyright © The Star
 
What about the Atlantic Ocean that was named after Atlantis because supposedly the mythological island might have been somewhere near the Canaries or Madera.

What about seeing the Norwegian or Icelanders complaining that the North sea is actually South from their point of view, and should be renamed consequently.

What about the Baltic sea being as Scandinavian or German than Baltic.

I wouldn't even argue that the Red sea is not red and the Pacific ocean far from peaceful, that the Gulf of Mexico has more coast with the US than Mexico and the sea of China is also shared by Korea and Japan.

Why don't they just call it the Sea of Korea and Japan (with a nice kanji like 韓日海 "kan-ni-kai" ) and stop breaking our nuts.
 
That geographical bickering is just a symptom of the unresolved and deeper conflicts between the two (three?) countries. And, as in any sandbox battle, they won't be able to solve it without foreign interference, for fear of "losing face" at home.
 
it could be called a pissing battle too. hehe, pee = water = sea ;)

what a joke.

I still prefer historical names. Hell, if we are renaming everything ... then we should use only female (oops male is in that) names so that we can be all around PC .... :p

But I can see that the deeper problems are more of contention than anything else.
 
What's in a name?

U.N. won't get into Sea of Japan name row

=> http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=228770
 
Well, I'm a Korean and I prefer "East Sea" to "Sea of Japan", but I neither think it is good to dub it only as "East Sea"...because from Japan's view it certainly isn't "east" at all. I don't like this kind of 'small' arguments, but I suggest that both "east sea" and "sea of japan" are not good-looking.
 
No offense to the Korean race, but stop whining about the colonization thing already. I know it was brutal, but still, just end it. It was 58 years years ago, just stop and unite to fight North Korea.

It's true, I remember seeing a Portugese map of the 1600's, and it said Sea of Japan on it in Portugese, so it has indeed been since colonial times.

Also, me thinks this is just another Korean grudge thing against Japan, but just stop fighting and be friends for once. :/
 
Well the thing is alot of things done during the war, cannot be easily forgotten by Koreans or Chinese.
It's easy to say "Just Forget It" but maybe u dont understand how it feels to know that your country was invaded and colonized.
Especially since Koreans/Chinese have such a strong sense of National pride, it is not so easy to forgive and forget.

Maybe arguing over the name of a sea is a bit silly, but u shouldnt really bash people for their beliefs and for their sense of pride.
 
Originally posted by Gaki
Well the thing is alot of things done during the war, cannot be easily forgotten by Koreans or Chinese.
It's easy to say "Just Forget It" but maybe u dont understand how it feels to know that your country was invaded and colonized.
Especially since Koreans/Chinese have such a strong sense of National pride, it is not so easy to forgive and forget.

Maybe arguing over the name of a sea is a bit silly, but u shouldnt really bash people for their beliefs and for their sense of pride.

No, trust me. I'm Armenian, and the Turkish race murdered 1.5 million of my people in the 1915 Genocide, so I know what it means to be invaded and annexed, trust me.

However, though many Armenians still do not like many Turks for what they did in the Genocide, they never are doing what the Koreans are currently doing to Japanese culture.
 
Originally posted by Hanada Tattsu
No, trust me. I'm Armenian, and the Turkish race murdered 1.5 million of my people in the 1915 Genocide, so I know what it means to be invaded and annexed, trust me.

However, though many Armenians still do not like many Turks for what they did in the Genocide, they never are doing what the Koreans are currently doing to Japanese culture.

What you're armenian and you go around with a great big flag of japan in your signature? If the signature's bigger than your post then that's a bad sign ..

Do the Turks go around saying that it was a good deed and that armenia benefitted from the act? You know, culling the wortheless members, etc ..

When japan stops doing that then the rest of the world will naturally forget and forgive. Until such time it's not going to happen.
 
Actually, the Turks are still in denial mode. They don't say it was good for the Armenians, but they also don't see any Turkish responsibility, instead they cite irregular troops, famine, etc. as reasons for the deaths.

From an official Turkish website:
"The totality of evidence thus far uncovered by historians tells a grim story of serious inter-communal conflict, perpetrated by both Christian and Muslim irregular forces, complicated by disease, famine, and many other of war's privations. The evidence does not, however, describe genocide."
 
Empire of Malacca ( 1405-1511 ) has fallen nearly 500 years, why Strait of Malacca still named 'Strait of Malacca'... Name only~ need no to argue so much, different people, sure got different name... other animal or creature, such as alien, maybe they named Earth to Crystal Planet, should we make an opposition? 'Hey, brainless alien! Earth is earth, not your what Crystal planet!! No argee, War lah~ Do you think I dare not!!!' (Just kidding)
 
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