Korean ultra-nationalist group pays for New York Times advertisement about Sea of Japan
Kyodo News reports that yesterday’s New York Times ran a full page advertisement from an ultra-nationalist Korean group claiming that the Sea of Japan should be renamed to the Korea-centric name “East Sea.” The advertisement also argued on behalf of South Korea’s territorial claim to the Liancourt Rocks:
The ad, titled “Do you know?” says, “Dokdo and East Sea (Sea of Japan). For the last 2,000 years, the body of water between Korea and Japan has been called the ‘East Sea.’”
“Dokdo (two islands) located in the East Sea is a part of (South) Korean territory. The Japanese government must acknowledge this fact,” said the ad put up by the advertiser who is identified only as http://www.ForTheNextGeneration.com.
“Moreover, Korea and Japan must pass down accurate facts of history to the next generation and cooperate with each other,” it says.
It also shows a map of a part of Northeast Asia depicting Japan, the Korean Peninsula, eastern China and far-east Russia.
In July 2005, the same group put up a similar full-page ad in the New York Times titled “Dokdo is Korean territory.”
“Dokdo belongs to Korea. The Japanese government must face this fact. Also Korea and Japan should now move toward cooperation,” it said.
More details on the advertisement can be found on the group’s propaganda site.
Update: It seems that the map being used in the NYT ad isn’t very clear about the actual location of the Liancourt Rocks, which could leave some with the impression that the rocks are closer to Korea than they actually are:
[hat tip to LOD]
Full RSS Feed
Cooperation… on Korean nationalist terms. I doubt thats going to make much headway. No one likes to browbashed.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Looks like they showed the island closer to the peninsula than reality.
http://photoimg.enjoyjapan.naver.com/view/enjoybbs/viewphoto/teconomy/3626000/20080710121563756363925600.jpg
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Oooh, crafty – Dokdo/Takeshima is actually somewhere in the middle of the k or d!
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Aren’t those Islands traditionally Russian?
*ducks*
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Yeah, Japan still has to recover southern Sakhalin and the Kuriles, too.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
their are
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Dokdo-or-Takeshima?
http://dokdo-or-takeshima.blogspot.com/
Rate this comment:
0 
0
On this note, I think the United States should take back the Gulf of Mexico. I mean come on, we won the Texas revolution, we should of gotten the sea too! XD No not really, I really dont care what the name of the sea is. I think it so stupid to fight over it.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“Do you know?” In Germany, the “East Sea” is what the rest of the world calls “The Baltic Sea”. The Germans have learned to live with this fact.
I am sure the Koreans probably have called the Sea of Japan the “East Sea” for 2000 years – it is to their east, after all, just as the Yellow Sea is to their west. But it is not to the east of most other countries, and if it were not for the existence of the Japanese Archipelago it would not be the “East Sea”, “Sea of Japan” or anything else other than “The Pacific Ocean”.
*sigh*
Rate this comment:
0 
0
well but the name of a country for a sea name is not the same as with baltic/east sea
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Then shall we change the South China Sea to the “East Sea” as well, since that is how the Vietnamese refer to it? And the “East China Sea” to the “South Sea”, as the Koreans sometimes call it? How about the Philippine Sea to the “South Sea”, since it is south of Japan? Or perhaps “Southeast Sea” to reflect the view from the Republic of China? What about the Indian Ocean? It is east of 6 countries, south of 3 and west of two more, plus north of some French-owned islands! Should we put it to a vote? Majority wins?
I don’t see any Korean campaigns to rename the Yellow Sea or East China Sea to fit the local names, which tells me quite a bit about what the real issue here is.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
So, they want to call it “East Sea”… while there is already East Sea (East China Sea) for China?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
From 2000 years ago?
It’s crazy!! According to their opinion, US government has to give their land back to Native American. Australia too?
Regarding of this issue, S Korea have never accepted to fight in the international court so far.
Why not? Because they do know that they never win.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“It’s crazy!! According to their opinion, US government has to give their land back to Native American. Australia too?”
Well…to be honest, they should. But not everything that should happen in this world will happen, now will it?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Do not be serious. I am a sarcastic person. WWWW
Person to person, I believe we can make good friendship but nation to nation it’s very difficult. I wish an invasion by a creature from outer space!
To be honest, I have just been fed up with their attitude these days.
(Japanese government diplomatic skill is deadly poor too.)
They have said “ Apologize! Apologize!” for more than 60 years.
(I wonder if they will keep it for thousand years as a diplomatic card.)
If they want to appeal “ 2000 years” they should take up the invasion to JP by the complex troops Korean, Chinese , Mongolian 700 years ago. ( It’s crazy!!! Haha)
Also they should disclose every documents of bargain between JP and SK after ww2 to the world. Most of people in the world might not know it in detail.
Have you ever read Korean text book for children?
Ask an impression about JP to Korean children when you have an opportunity.
Almost of all them will say “I hate Japan” or “Japanese is evil ” I think it is a kind of brain wash. How can we make good friendship with people who are imputed negative images against JP at school? You can image that is very difficult.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
qoute
“It’s crazy!! According to their opinion, US government has to give their land back to Native American. Australia too?”
“Well…to be honest, they should.”
/quote
You, Mr. “concerned Filipino” has just embarrassed a fellow Filipino with this comment of yours. Before you say something like return America to the Native Americans, you should first say that the dominant Tagalogs should just return the lands of the various ethnic groups they appropriated a century ago (or heck, even during the past 30 or 40 years, you know, like some parcels of Cordilleran land, all because the ethnic groups of the mountains had no idea that you can actually, you know, “own” land simply by applying for it with the government). Or better yet, return all of the Philippine land (yes, all of our land titles) to the Itas and Negritos, who happen to be the first inhabitants of the Philippines hundreds or thousands of years ago. I’m not sure about you, but I agree with yhap that it is crazy. And next time you comment, kindly modify your handle. Thanks.
And regarding the issue, I say the best way to resolve this is to bring it to the International Court. The fact that it hasn’t been brought to court yet means that one party thinks that their case is weak and they’ll lose. To bring the issue closer to home, it’s the same with the Spratly island hullaballoo between the Philippines, Vietnam and China. China refuses to bring the dispute to the International court despite the fact that the Philippines would welcome the move (not sure about Vietnam) because they know their sole claim to the islands is this “ancient” map from whenever (that has been proven to be erroneous by the way). So they just send the PLA and their subs to “assert” their claims over the islands. No way they’re going to the International Court.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Whether this body of water is called Tonhe or Nihon-kai strikes me as a less important issue than so many others they could have addressed. I wish they had asked for an official apology to the ‘comfort’ women. Or failing that, the promise of history textbooks that don’t whitewash Japan’s role in WWII or deny that war crimes were committed against the Korean people.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
actually i just read in a french historic magazine that that rock is corean and claimed by the japanese
Rate this comment:
0 
0
US won the Texas Revolution and we still call it the Gulf of Mexico. Omg, lets take it back!
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I guess Koreans has more than 10,000 years of history and Chinese territory belongs to Korea, Not!
Rate this comment:
0 
0
does anyone in america even care? I know I sure don’t. Just another page I don’t read in the Times.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I have proposed to Koreans that they should just meet in the middle with the Japanese. They can have the “East Sea of Japan” and “Dokashim”.
It’s win/win for everybody!
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I just made my own map and named all the countries, oceans, and territories according to my own whims.
The Sea of Japan / East Sea on my map is simply called “an international political mess of an ocean”. Takeshima/Dokdo is “pride island”.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“an international political mess of an ocean”
Shouldn’t that be either the Aegean Sea or the Persian Gulf? Both are far bigger “international political messes” than the Sea of Japan.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
No, that would be silly.
The Persian Gulf is “a huge nuclear ocean of fire waiting to happen”.
The Aegean Sea is just a good, if not risky, vacation spot.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I call the sea of Japan “West Sea” then.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Teeter, I don’t know where you hail from, but we learned about slavery in the California schools and it wasn’t just because our principal was African-American, either — it was in our textbooks. (And before you ask, there was nothing about the slaves being happy and well cared for.) We saw a film on the Trail of Tears, too; our history teacher rented it especially for us. It wasn’t on the curriculum and he told us about this, but he didn’t get fired or receive hate mail for his actions. Even the internment of Japanese-Americans was discussed in our history class, as was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Contrast that with the current Japanese policy of reinventing history so that ‘invasion’ is no more than a group of soldiers politely entering another nation and even the U.S.A. comes out a little better than Japan.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
*coughICJcough*
But seriously, it’s such a big mystery why they keep refusing to settle this in court once and for all if they’re so sure it’s theirs … unless, you know, they’re not.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Dok do is correct. East Sea is correct. Why?
Let’s look at the history.
Some Japanese recall Dok Do as their properties as well as the southern part of the Russia and southern part of China. Because they’ve captured those lands through war.
Let’s go back even before. Japan was once governed by Korea prior to 600 AD. Japan wasn’t civilized back then and Korea, Baek-Jae, one of the old nation in Korea, helped Japan set up the civilization. You will find a lots of similarity between Baek-Jae’s culture and Japanese culture. One of the Prince from Baek-Jae even went over to Japan and ruled the country.
Is this mean that Japan belongs to Korea since the prince of Baek-Jae ruled Japan previously? Would Japan agree to it? I wish they do!!!
Nobody in Korea ever liked Japan took over Korea between 1909 – 1945. Matter in fact, Koreans were fighting against Japan to free Korea. Luckily, Japan was too greedy and US smacked Japan’s ass big time, which resulted Japan losing their war as well as all the deprived properties from other countries through out the war.
Let’s put it this way. Was southern part of China ever part of Japan originally? Was southern part of Russia ever part of Japan? Hell NO! So was Dok-Do. Dok Do always have been with Korea even beofore Japan was civilized!!!
Japan is just being greedy again as they were being greedy before. It’s because they have lack of resources and need lands to expand. Japan should be shameful of modifying history based on untrue fact.
In adds, the title of this article, “Korean Ultra Activist Group…etc” it’s totally wrong again. It’s a singer, a single singer, paid the all the advertisement fee to NYT. You are making things look bad so that your activist gets mad at Koreans. You never get things right, don’t you? Why don’t you start write history and issues based on the true fact???? You should be ashamed yourself.
— Go Gu Ryu
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Was Korea even Korea before it was Korea? At one point it was three separate kingdoms and didn’t unite into Goryeo until the end of the 10th century.
What I notice about most of the arguments on the Korean-side of debates is that logic is second-place to unyielding passion and name-calling. By the same token, Korea should apologize for trying to invade Japan in the late 13th century, unprovoked. They may as well just say, “You started it.” And that was possibly not even the first time. There was also the Toi Invasion of Japan in the early 11th century, of which some were Korean pirates amongst Manchurian pirates.
As far as apologies for atrocities committed before the end of WWII – The current government of Japan was established after the war, meaning this Japanese government has nothing to do with old-Japan. It’s a new nation. At it’s very core, Koreans are holding the son accountable for the sins of the father. Still, Japanese have apologized for the actions of their countrymen, 41 times in fact. What the Japanese don’t like is being demanded of by nationalist nations abroad.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Nationalism brings to the surface the most disgusting elements of the human psyche. It seems obvious that a lot of individuals who have invested an extreme amount of emotions into these issues are not looking for a solution to the problem, but rather conflict in order to have a shot at getting “their way.” Many people die in such conflicts over matters of “national pride.” I wonder if afterwords these people will really think it was worth it. I doubt it.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
we call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico even though it was there long before Mexcio even existed or had a name. Much of it is bordering US states as well but we dont call it the gulf of the US.
The Sea of Japan is its name in English for the same reason the Japanese use the American word Soccer for Football. America diecides what to call everything not anyone else. And Americans went by the Japanese name.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
False. The name “Sea of Japan” seems to derive from European-made maps – the name may have been given by a French explorer. When Japan opened itself up to the world and modernized, it changed the names on its maps to reflect the already-existing international standard (which had not been decided by America).
LOL. What did you expect of inferiority complex ridden Koreans? This complex is driving their ultranationalism because they know that they’re nobody compared to Japan and China–both of which have been their masters. But the real entertainment is watching them protest: eating flags, writing in blood, etc. In this day and age, what kind of primitive and barbaric race do stuff like that? Really pathetic.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
This would have never happened if president Lee Myung-Bak wasn’t elected.
Rate this comment:
0 
0