So, South Korea probably owns the island/islets of Dokdo.
Koreans say that historical maps mention the island, and heck, they are their maps... Why mention this now? Because Dokdo pride runs deep in South Korea, and just as the beef furor dies down, Dokdo fever rises up....But, if you're not from Asia, or an Asian Studies major at Columbia, you might be wondering, where the hell is Dokdo, anyway? Dokdo is small island nestled in what we Westerners would call the The Liancourt Rocks. And these, to quote my friends at Wikipedia.com...."are a group of small islets in the...East Sea. (Not, let the Wikipedia authors be reminded, the "Sea of Japan.") But back to the islands..."Sovereignty over the islands is disputed between Japan and South Korea.[1] South Korea has controlled them since after the Second World War.[2]The islets are also known as Dokdo (or Tokto) (독도/獨島, literally "solitary island") in Korean and as Takeshima (竹島, Takeshima? , literally "bamboo island") in Japanese.[3]The Liancourt Rocks comprise two main islets and 35 smaller rocks. Their total surface is 187,450 square metres and their highest elevation is 169 metres.[4] They are currently inhabited by 2 permanent Korean citizens, Kim Seong-do (김성도) and Kim Shin-yeol (김신열), a small Korean police detachment, administrative personnel and lighthouse staff.[5]Korea administers the islands as part of Ulleung County, North Gyeongsang Province. Koreans prize Dokdo, as far as I can tell...for the varied, high quality marine life, the unique birds ,the fishing rights to yummy tasting seafood, the "natural beauty" of the volcanic rock...and because they got them back from those mean, nasty land-grubbers of the 1930s and 1940s...the Japanese. But how big a deal could these small islets be? Um, in Seoul, a very big deal. Why? Well...As an Irish-American, I can understand an ages old territorial dispute building momentum over time (As late as the 1990s, in certain pubs in South Boston, Northern Ireland did not seem to exist). Land that has possibly been stolen or compromised away (I am not taking sides on that one) is easy to romanticize. Still, Dokdo's small size and rocky terrain makes it easy for a foreigner, standing on the outside, to wonder what all the fuss is about. Very few people (like 3, if you include the lighthouse keeper) actually live there on a given day. Is it the fishing rights? Or just the symbolic value of the area that matters? It is unfortunate that they didn't just attempt to settle the matter at the close of World War II in the Treaty Of San Francisco. Now that Japan has listed Dokdo as Japanese territory in their recent textbooks, Dokdo-love is trendier than I've ever seen it. From t-shirts to pencils to you-tube slide shows; inventive South Koreans espouse Dokdo pride. The most entertaining response to the Japanese claims to Dokdo that I have seen is the Hip Hop Song D.O.K.D.O...which I attempt to link to here....
http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=aX5NWYrLM0Q&feature=related
Caveat: As I only understand a small amount of Korean I CAN NOT PROMISE THAT IT DOES NOT CONTAIN LANGUAGE THAT LISTENERS WHO UNDERSTAND KOREAN AND JAPANESE WELL MIGHT FIND OFFENSIVE. It might. (I'm just a poor, struggling foreigner. Don't make mean comments on my blog.)
As I watch his Hip Hop Video, I wonder.... Can the power of music solve an age old conflict? Probably not, but it dos have a good beat. :)
Koreans say that historical maps mention the island, and heck, they are their maps... Why mention this now? Because Dokdo pride runs deep in South Korea, and just as the beef furor dies down, Dokdo fever rises up....But, if you're not from Asia, or an Asian Studies major at Columbia, you might be wondering, where the hell is Dokdo, anyway? Dokdo is small island nestled in what we Westerners would call the The Liancourt Rocks. And these, to quote my friends at Wikipedia.com...."are a group of small islets in the...East Sea. (Not, let the Wikipedia authors be reminded, the "Sea of Japan.") But back to the islands..."Sovereignty over the islands is disputed between Japan and South Korea.[1] South Korea has controlled them since after the Second World War.[2]The islets are also known as Dokdo (or Tokto) (독도/獨島, literally "solitary island") in Korean and as Takeshima (竹島, Takeshima? , literally "bamboo island") in Japanese.[3]The Liancourt Rocks comprise two main islets and 35 smaller rocks. Their total surface is 187,450 square metres and their highest elevation is 169 metres.[4] They are currently inhabited by 2 permanent Korean citizens, Kim Seong-do (김성도) and Kim Shin-yeol (김신열), a small Korean police detachment, administrative personnel and lighthouse staff.[5]Korea administers the islands as part of Ulleung County, North Gyeongsang Province. Koreans prize Dokdo, as far as I can tell...for the varied, high quality marine life, the unique birds ,the fishing rights to yummy tasting seafood, the "natural beauty" of the volcanic rock...and because they got them back from those mean, nasty land-grubbers of the 1930s and 1940s...the Japanese. But how big a deal could these small islets be? Um, in Seoul, a very big deal. Why? Well...As an Irish-American, I can understand an ages old territorial dispute building momentum over time (As late as the 1990s, in certain pubs in South Boston, Northern Ireland did not seem to exist). Land that has possibly been stolen or compromised away (I am not taking sides on that one) is easy to romanticize. Still, Dokdo's small size and rocky terrain makes it easy for a foreigner, standing on the outside, to wonder what all the fuss is about. Very few people (like 3, if you include the lighthouse keeper) actually live there on a given day. Is it the fishing rights? Or just the symbolic value of the area that matters? It is unfortunate that they didn't just attempt to settle the matter at the close of World War II in the Treaty Of San Francisco. Now that Japan has listed Dokdo as Japanese territory in their recent textbooks, Dokdo-love is trendier than I've ever seen it. From t-shirts to pencils to you-tube slide shows; inventive South Koreans espouse Dokdo pride. The most entertaining response to the Japanese claims to Dokdo that I have seen is the Hip Hop Song D.O.K.D.O...which I attempt to link to here....
http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=aX5NWYrLM0Q&feature=related
Caveat: As I only understand a small amount of Korean I CAN NOT PROMISE THAT IT DOES NOT CONTAIN LANGUAGE THAT LISTENERS WHO UNDERSTAND KOREAN AND JAPANESE WELL MIGHT FIND OFFENSIVE. It might. (I'm just a poor, struggling foreigner. Don't make mean comments on my blog.)
As I watch his Hip Hop Video, I wonder.... Can the power of music solve an age old conflict? Probably not, but it dos have a good beat. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment