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?
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5:30 pm on December 25th, 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.
9:03 pm on December 25th, 2009 2
I thought the islets are called Takashima?
11:06 pm on December 25th, 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:
11:24 pm on December 25th, 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:??
1:19 am on December 26th, 2009 5
Not that the world cares, but yes, Takeshima is correct.
5:20 am 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.
9:53 am 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?
12:42 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.
6:46 pm on December 26th, 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.
7:20 pm on December 26th, 2009 10
Didn't you say you are from Canada?
10:03 pm on December 26th, 2009 11
See what I mean?
2:16 am on December 27th, 2009 12
Are they using this same billboard over in Dallas?:
http://rokdrop.com/2009/01/01/dokdo-billboard-thr…
8:24 pm on December 28th, 2009 13
[...] More Dokdo Nonsense Just In Time for Christmas (RoKD) [...]
8:51 pm on January 13th, 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.
11:43 pm on August 11th, 2010 15
It disgusts me to see people talking about a country that they barely know like this…
"Dokdo" is a Korean territory.
You can call it whatever you wish to call it but the truth is that the island belongs to Korea. for people calling it, a "rock" than why does Japan want it so much?
my cousin lives in Japan. She is an exchange student there and yes they teach that the"rock" is theirs… it's located in east sea of Korea. Don’t you find it strange that Japanese are trying so hard to teach people that the island is theirs? They only found out about the place few years back when Koreans were aware that there was an island that belong to them longggggg time ago. They don't need a book to teach them it's Korea’s territory.
If it's just a rock to you guys leave it alone.
I am already mad about the fact that the Japanese government don’t teach its citizens about dokdo and how that's their land but can't teach them about the history back when they invaded Korea.
My grandfather was there to experience it all. That’s why so many Koreans find it easy to speak Japanese. They were hit if they spoke Korean IN Korea!!! I find that ridiculous
they also killed 명성황후.. Korea’s queen and burned her body so nobody could find her… also they took all the men to do labor in Japan.. most of them never came back because the boat with approx. 8000 Korean men sank before coming back to their home land.. Some say that the Japanese government did that on purpose to kill them because the boat was suppose to contain no more than 2000men. However I can’t say because that I do not know…
Koreans were not allowed to own their own stores… only Japanese were allowed to do such thing to make money in Korea. I can write a novel about this but I will stop here because people on this site clearly don’t have any respect for Korea and make fun of Koreans as a whole.
When Korea can teach its students about hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs that happened in Japan and feel sympatric towards them, why can’t they do that for Korea? I truly think that Japan owes them a sincere apology and this will be over.
p.s — suh kyung duk was threatened and was sent black mails. When he put out an article in new york times about dokdo, many Japanese called him… threatening to kill him…. You don’t find that weird do you? It’s only Koreans that are weird loving a “rock”
6:09 am on August 12th, 2010 16
More with the demand for a "sincere apology". Get a new line already. Koreans are victims and koreans ENJOY being victims. No apology will be "sincere" enough for koreans. As for your history lesson, it is well know here. Feel free to thank America for your country/language/comfortable lives, anytime you wish. While you're at it, you can give a "sincere apology" to me for all the anti-american riots and rhetoric in 2002. After that I will list other anti-american events for you to apologize for. If you can not give me a "sincere apology", then you do not deserve one.
10:04 am on September 14th, 2010 17
Amen. Koreans talk about the Japanese occupation as if it were the worst event in history. Yes it was a sad time for Korea, but it is nowhere on the same level as what the Nazis or the Khmer Rouge did. It's the past and they need to forget and forgive. Hell, my own grandfather was shot by a Japanese man in WW2, and I NEVER complain about the Japanese. It was the past and soldiers did what they were commanded to do. No hard feelings. Koreans need to learn the same.
I think this all stems down to the fact that Koreans just want more attention. You see how much the world knows about Japan, Japanese technology, etc. but nobody really knows about Korea. Koreans know this and can't stand it.
Also, Elizabeth called it the "East Sea of Korea" when everybody else in the WHOLE world calls it the Sea of Japan. It's NOTHING against Korea, it's just the same of the darn sea.
Now whenever non-Koreans say critical things about Korea, Koreans get really riled up. They claim that we don't understand because "we know little about Korea" or because we simply "are not Korean."
Many of us have lived in Korea for several years and know a great deal about Korea. Many of us have studied Korea and know its history better than the average Korean. Basically, don't assume if you don't know.