By You just knew as usual that there wasn’t going to be any Christmas love between Japan and Korea this year:
Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan called in Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Toshinori Shigeie to deliver a message of protest against Japan’s renewed plan to teach its students about its claim to sovereignty over Korea’s Dokdo islets, according to a ministry official Friday.
Earlier in the day, the government expressed regret over the move, but has yet to decide on other measures to deal with the claim, such as recalling South Korean Ambassador to Japan.
“No matter what claim Tokyo makes, our government stresses once again that there is no territorial dispute between the two sides,” foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said.
The statement came hours after Japan released a teaching manual for high school teachers, which is non-binding but affects textbook publishers as well.
It did not name Dokdo, the Korea’ rocky islets in the East Sea, in its description of sovereignty claims, but suggested helping students to comprehend territorial issues using middle school curricula.
The manual, which is to be used for a decade, calls on teachers to help students understand these issues by providing accurate information based on the Japanese government’s “legitimate” claims.
The latest manual is testing Korea-Japan ties again, which have shown signs of improvement following the launch of his government.
Moon said: “The revision of educational guidelines may have a negative impact on Korea-Japan ties by injecting the wrong perception about territory into Japan’s future generation.” [Korea Times]
So I wonder if the fact Dokdo wasn’t even mentioned in this document will matter to the likes of the Dokdo Racers, knife in the gut man, flag eater man, finger chopping ajumma, the Dokdo Riders, the pheasant smashers, and my favorite of all bee man?
12:30 am on December 26th, 2009 1
What is it with Korea and rock islands, they are also in conflict with China over Socotra Rocks and there submerged. Koreans are just strange people in general no matter if they are here or imigrate to other countries.
4:03 am on December 26th, 2009 2
I thought the islets are called Takashima?
6:06 am on December 26th, 2009 3
This shows just how silly and belligerent Koreans can be when it comes to Japan. Korea complains even when Takeshima (Dokdo) is not mentioned.
The following is what I imagine was the conversation between the Korean foreign minister and the Japanese ambassador:
6:24 am on December 26th, 2009 4
Japanese Ambassador: We don’t want to teach our children anything about Dokdo.
Korea Minister: That’s right! Dokdo belongs to Korea!
Japanese Ambassador: We want our children to know the truth so we will teach them about Takashima.
Korea Minister:??:oops:??
8:19 am on December 26th, 2009 5
Not that the world cares, but yes, Takeshima is correct.
12:20 pm on December 26th, 2009 6
Discussing territorial claims in textbooks probably isn’t a sign of arrogance, but telling other countries that they can’t do it too certainly is.
4:53 pm on December 26th, 2009 7
Various thoughts of mine on this:
1. On Harry Hines Boulevard, the Dallas Koreatown, there has been a big billboard sign in English titled “DOKDO IS OURS!!” with a pretty good though strident Korean summation of the matter. I don’t know why they bother. All the Koreans know the story to the last detail and I doubt the Rednecks, Brothers and Hispanics seeing it really care one way or the other.
2. If you mention the word “Takeshima” to any Korean, whether the person is a wheelchair bound halaboji or a young girl with an Ivy League college degree they all start frothing at the mouth and nearly go into seizures. It’s fun to watch.
3. One of the weird aspects with the issue is you can find the full spectrum of the Korean view in large amounts. This is everything from scholarly treatises to over the top ethno-centric propaganda. It often comes in English. I rarely see the Japanese view and when I do, its usually relatively calm and often indirect. I suspect there is more stuff in Japanese, but since I can’t understand Japanese, I might as well not exist to me! Wonder why this is so?
7:42 pm on December 26th, 2009 8
Nationalism is a disease easily spread by governments who would normally be viewed with a strong dose of cynicism.
1:46 am on December 27th, 2009 9
Oddly enough, pile enough rocks high enough in a shallow part of the ocean, like a reef, and you have an island- and islands can be claimed as national territory- and a nation which claims that territory has rights to minerals, fisheries, and other resources within a 12 mile limit of the shore.
At first it sounds pretty ghey, but once you scratch the surface, it’s more than just nationalism silliness. It’s about money.
2:20 am on December 27th, 2009 10
Didn’t you say you are from Canada?
5:03 am on December 27th, 2009 11
See what I mean?
9:16 am on December 27th, 2009 12
Are they using this same billboard over in Dallas?:
http://rokdrop.com/2009/01/01/dokdo-billboard-threatening-japan-appears-in-dallas/
8:24 pm on December 28th, 2009 13
[...] More Dokdo Nonsense Just In Time for Christmas (RoKD) [...]
3:51 am on January 14th, 2010 14
Mr Bevers, as usual you are beating your gums without an even basic understanding of why Koreans are upset here.
It was hoped the new Japanese government would deal with territorial issues differently when they issued the new highschool textbooks but in reality they just did a slick little shuffle hoping the Koreans wouldn’t notice.
The “new” Japanese highschool textbooks did not explicitly mention the Dokdo Takeshima dispute. The Japanese highschool textbooks said to refer to the middle school textbooks which do in fact state Takeshima is Japanese territory.
In other words, nothing has changed at all despite Japan’s government’s promise to deal with territorial issues in a more sensitive manner. Accordingly Korea responded in her traditional manner.
Japanese government, same BS, different a-hole and obligatory Korean heated response.