| Takeshima or Dokdo; Sea of Japan or East Sea? |
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| by Tom McGregor | Tue, Apr 27, 2010, 03:47 PM |
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Shortly after Japan published school textbooks claiming territorial rights over Takeshima, massive South Korean protests emerged upon the streets of Seoul. Some even called for war against the so-called Japanese invaders of Dokdo. Yet, one day after the Cheonan naval ship exploded, most likely due to a North Korean torpedo attack, the streets of Seoul were relatively empty with nobody protesting on a Saturday. Apparently, South Korean don't feel much rage against North Korea, although 46 sailors suffered untimely deaths from the torpedo attack; but say the word 'Takeshima' and you may spark a World War III. As a matter of fact a few years ago, some South Koreans set themselves on fire, a few others chopped off their fingers and mailed the unseemly appendages to the Tokyo government and one man stabbed himself with a Japanese sword while thousands of onlookers cheered him on. Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il established a propaganda machine to denounce South Korea as a villainous country on a daily basis. The North Korean war mongers also insist that the South will soon perish under a "sea of fire." If Mr. Kim really wants to re-ignite the Korean War, here's a suggestion: he should say, "Takeshima is Japanese territory and my million-man army will fight to the death any country that assumes otherwise." In all likelihood, President Lee Myung-bak would declare war against North Korea and even the sympathizers of the North could be swayed to express their allegiance for the South. He would have no fear of traitors. A potential rallying cry would be: "Takeshima is Dokdo; Sea of Japan is the East Sea!" Sadly, South Koreans do not express similar sentiments for the victims of the Cheonan naval ship incident. To read the entire article from the Korea Times, link here: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 
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Comments (5)
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written by Edward , April 27, 2010 Tom, There are some errors in your blog entry. The first is that the Japanese government does not "jokingly" refer to the Liancourt Rocks as Takashima but officially refers to them as such and usually demonstrates their belief through a local provincial government who officially lays claim to them. The Japanese make some rather emotional demonstrations to the effect as well. One Japanese protester mailed a piece of his finger to the President of South Korea. This was in response to one South Korean protestor trying to cut off her finger in front of the Japanese embassy, but you get the picture. South Koreans are not taking to the streets against North Korea because what's the point? The North's totalitarian dictatorship could care less and tightly controlled press will never show the protests so it won't make a difference. However, protests to Japan which, like South Korea itself, has a democratic government and free press will likely at least cause some consideration and will at least draw some airtime on NHK. Your entry is factually wrong, ignorant of the larger surrounding issues, borderline racist and biased to boot.
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written by Thomas , April 29, 2010 Where was he racist or biased? His point is that the Koreans get worked up over minute issues yet ignore major issues that are truly a threat to their lives. You seem to have a biased opinion yourself.
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written by Poe , April 29, 2010 "Your entry is factually wrong, ignorant of the larger surrounding issues, borderline racist and biased to boot. " Edward provided only one example of a factual error and no support for mudslinging claims of racism and bias. Therefore, I can only conclude that Edward considers any criticism of Korea and Koreans to be racist and biased. The Dallas blogger and readers might be interested to know that millions of Koreans held nightly candlelight vigils to protest the import of dangerous American beef two years ago. These protets were family affairs as mom and dad brought the kids. Korean protests are not a matter of what but who. Most large-scale protests are organized by leftist organizations, whose favorite enemies are Japan and the US. The left will not criticize the sacred regime of Kim Jong-il.
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written by Charles , May 07, 2010 It's not just "two rocks", with that 'rock' either Korea or Japan gains hundreads of miles and miles of fishing rights, please understand the material that you're writing about.
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written by Steven J. Barber , May 13, 2010 Tom MacGregor. I think you need to brush up on northeast Asian history especially Japanese history from the colonial era. Thus, I agree with Charles above. The Dokdo Takeshima problem has been an issue between Japan and Korea since at least 1906. There are large tracts of ocean and natural resources at stake here. Japan does not “jokingly” refer to these islands be named as Takeshima. Japan’s MOFA, and right-wing lunatic fringe demand Korea’s border be pushed back to the colonial era when the Japanese Navy annexed Dokdo during the Russo~Japanese War. Mr MacGregor, do some background research before you right articles please and start with the link below. http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com/ Write comment
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Who really cares about two rocks jutting out of the Sea of Japan? Oops! I stand corrected. The entire nation of South Korea erupts into an uproar of mammoth proportions whenever Japan jokingly declares that these meaningless islets should be renamed Takeshima, not Dokdo, and they insist it's Japanese territory.
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