Tag: Takeshima

Here is the latest shot fired in the never-ending Dokdo debate:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday refuted Japan’s renewed claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo and warned of stern a response to the unsubstantiated claims.

“Dokdo is our inherent territory, historically, geographically and by international law,” the ministry said in a statement. “We want to make it clear that whatever attempt Japan makes cannot have an influence over our firm territorial sovereignty.”

Earlier in the day, the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) unveiled on its website aerial charts from the 1950s made by the United States Air Force in what it claimed to be evidence that South Korea was illegally occupying the islets.

The JIIA is a security think tank affiliated with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also collects and studies materials related to their history, territory and sovereignty.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I think the Korean left actually enjoys the fact that Shimane prefecture has had an annual Takeshima Day since 2005 just so they have an excuse to vent their anti-Japanese sentiment:

South Korea lodged a strong protest Saturday against Japan’s renewed claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.

Seoul’s foreign ministry called in Hirohisa Soma, a senior official at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, and expressed regret over Japan’s annual event meant to publicize its territorial claim to Dokdo.

“We again sternly urged Japan to immediately repeal” its event on Dokdo, the ministry said in a statement.

The protest came hours after the Japanese prefecture of Shimane held the Takeshima Day event and a senior Japanese government official attended the ceremony. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Koreans should just ignore this stupidity from a backwater Japanese prefecture, but it is too much red meat for the Korean left wing base to ignore especially before April’s parliamentary elections.

I do have to give the Korean left credit because they have at least toned down their annual response to Takeshima Day. I can remember the good old days of the Great Dokdo War.  I can still remember the hard days when those of us in Korea had to stock up on food and supplies to survive the initial declaration of war from President Roh Moo-hyun.  We made it through multiple cease fires, close calls, and even the failure of the Daemado campaign.  

Times had been so desperate there was even talk about recruiting North Korea to fight off the evil Japanese Imperialists.  Though the casualties on the Korean side have been heavy at times, through it all the brave defenders of Dokdo have continued thwart the massive Japanese armada descending on the islet.  

We were also treated back then to such Korean patriots like Flag Eater Man, Chung Dong-young, the Finger Chopping Lady, the Knife in the Gut Man, Weed Killer Man, the Dokdo Riders, and most importantly that great general of all things Dokdo, Bee-Man.  Sorry Korean Democratic Party, you have nothing on these great defenders of Dokdo.

Here is the latest on the Dokdo front:

South Korea urged Japan on Tuesday to retract its repeated territorial claim over Dokdo, a pair of rocky outcroppings in the East Sea, saying it will only impede efforts to move forward bilateral ties.

It was a reminder of longstanding diplomatic rifts between the neighboring countries despite a call for firm unity among regional powers to handle Pyongyang’s recent peace overtures.

In a statement, South Korea’s foreign ministry denounced the description of sovereignty over Dokdo in Japan’s yearly foreign policy document, known as the Diplomatic Bluebook, reported to the Cabinet earlier in the day.  [Yonhap]

Maybe the ROK government should summon the Japanese ambassador and have Flag Eater Man,  Finger Chopping Lady, Knife in the Gut Man, Weed Killer Man, the Dokdo Riders, and Bee Man all to waiting for him so they can demonstrate their Dokdo patriotism.  Despite the hyperbole over this issue, I believe Korea clearly wins on the Dokdo debate, but why muddle this issue with the stupid East Sea issue?:

The ministry summoned Koichi Mizushima, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to lodge a formal protest. He refused to answer questions from reporters, entering the ministry building.

Kim Yong-kil, director general for the ministry’s Northeast Asian affairs, told the minister that Seoul can’t accept Tokyo’s unilateral naming of the body of waters between the two nations, officials said.

In the diplomatic paper, Japan said the waters shouldn’t be called the East Sea.

“In particular, (Kim) made clear that (the government) can’t accept Japan’s unjust claim regarding the East Sea name,” the ministry’s spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said at a press briefing. “(He) stressed that the East Sea is the correct name that has been used for more than 2,000 years in our country.”

f Koreans want to call the body of water East Sea I have no problem with that, but internationally the term Sea of Japan makes more sense.  That is because East Sea is not East of Japan and thus makes no sense for an international observer not invested in the Dokdo/East Sea issue when they see it on a map.  Korea would make a better case for renaming the body of water if they had a more generic description such as “Asian Sea”.

They could always go with my suggestion and just call it the “Nameless Sea”.

It seems to me that Japanese geographers would not include Dokdo on their maps in the 1800’s because no one cared about two worthless rocks in the Sea of Japan at the time.  The two rocks only gained value in modern times when national borders and thus exclusive economic zones could be tied to them.  Using the logic this Korean researcher is using does he support Japan’s claim to the Kuril Islands based on this map?:

A scholar recently unveiled maps of a government-approved Japanese textbook which show that Japan did not perceive Dokdo as its territory in the 19th century.

The findings will give weight to Korea’s ownership of the islets off the country’s east coast, which Japan claims as its own, referring to them as Takeshima Islands.

Prof. Han Cheol-ho of Dongguk University’s history education department displayed maps of a geography textbook compiled by Okamura Matsutaro in 1886 in a presentation at a conference held at the Northeast Asian History Foundation’s Institute of Dokdo Research last week.

The textbook’s map of Asia does not mark Dokdo as its territory. On the map is a red line marking Japanese territory, but not only is Dokdo not included in the area inside the red line, Dokdo is not marked on the map at all.

The border lines are marked the same way in textbooks compiled by geologist Manziro Yamagami in 1902 and 1903.

“The textbook’s map of Asia has the Oki Islands marked, but not Ulleungdo and Dokdo,” Yonhap News Agency quoted Han as saying.

“If Japan perceived Dokdo as its territory it would have drawn the islets on the map and stretched the line to include Dokdo.”  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Council members of South Korea’s Gyeonggi provincial government hold a rally to criticize “Takeshima Day” in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Feb. 22, 2017. The Shimane prefectural government enacted Takeshima Day on Feb. 22, 2005, and lays claim to South Korea’s easternmost Dokdo Islets, known as “Takeshima” in Japan. (Yonhap)

We haven’t had any Dokdo nonsense in a while here on the ROK Drop so here is the latest issue on this front:

Lizzy from K-pop girl group After School has been facing criticism from Japanese netizens after posting several photos of Dokdo Island on Instagram.

The photos showed Lizzy holding the Korean flag and cheering for the Korean guards on the island off Korea’s east coast. In some photos she said: “Dokdo is a Korean territory.”

Japanese netizens responded with fury, with some attacking her personally. They said “Lizzy should not come to Japan, ever,” “Dokdo is Japanese territory,” “You are not very considerate of your Japanese fans” and “Your caption is very offensive to Japanese fans.”

But Korean fans embraced the singer, whose real name is Park Soo-young. They said “We are proud of you,” “Dokdo definitely belongs to Korea” and “You are a patriot! Don’t mind the malicious comments.” [Korea Times]

She must have sagging sales because it seems like these Dokdo promotional events by politicians and celebrities always seem to get them the spotlight they are looking for. I would have been more impressed if she would have ate a Japanese flag, chopped her finger off, stuck a knife her gut, drank weed killer, or covered herself in bees. That is how real defenders of Dokdo show their patriotism.

You would think these people would have something better to do than protest at the Japanese embassy:

http://img.yonhapnews.co.kr/etc/inner/EN/2015/02/22/AEN20150222001900315_01_i.jpg

Scores of South Koreans assembled in central Seoul on Sunday to denounce Japan for holding a ceremony that promotes Tokyo’s territorial claim over South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.

In 2005, Japan’s Shimane Prefecture, which claims administrative sovereignty over the islets, designated Feb. 22 as a day to promote Takeshima, the Japanese name for Dokdo. Since then, Shimane has hosted various programs to strengthen its territorial claims to the islets on this day.

Tokyo sent a vice-minister-level official to this year’s ceremony as a government representative, marking the third year in a row that it has sent a ranking official to the controversial event.

Some 150 South Koreans, who belong to a civic group promoting South Korea’s sovereignty over Dokdo, gathered in front of the Japanese embassy here to call for Tokyo to cancel the designation.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but Shimane prefecture is basically the Mississippi of Japan.  It is a poor province and in the case of Shimane it is depended on fishing and the Dokdo Islets have good fishing grounds and thus why the government in Shimane continues to promote Takeshima Day.