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| Subject: "East Sea" is wrong |
Author: Sasaki
Date: 11/17/2002 3:06 am CDT
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@The United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names and IHO rejected Korea government's insists about the name of "Sea of Japan"/"East Sea". We are confidence that the legitimacy of "Sea of Japan" was accepted in the world. But Korean government vever stops apealing their "wrong" insists.
And the IHO refuged Korean Government claims about this sea zone, if you mention "East Sea",please revise your maps, and please mention the sea zone, as ONLY "Sea of Japan(Japan Sea)"
I am one Japanese who don't agree with Korea government's insists about the "Sea of Japan"/"East Sea"
I think you have already known about this problem, but I cannot help appeal all Japanese mind. We hope you read our insists.
At first, I'm good at English writing, there may be something wrong expressions.
The reasons why I have informed you about this problem is below,
1. Japan has compromised and accepted the name "Korea Strait" instead of "Tsushima Strait."
2. If there were not the Isles of Japan, the whole region (what we call the Sea of Japan) would be the Pacific Ocean.
3. "The Sea of Japan" refers to the sea that is separated from the east of the Pacific Ocean by isles of Japan.
4. China calls "East China Sea" as "East Sea." And IHO permits the China government use "East Sea" as sub name of "East China Sea". And Viet Nam calls the "South China Sea" as "East Sea"
5. The simple name, "East Sea", exists throughout the world.
6. The name, "the Sea of Japan", was already established in the international community in late eighteen century.
7. Korea government insists to change only the name of the "Sea of Japan" and does not demand to change the name of "Yellow Sea" to "West Sea" and "East China Sea" to "South Sea." This is inconsistent.
8. There is no evidence that Japan compelled the name, "the Sea of Japan", to Korea during the years Japan occupied Korea because of the reason explained in 6. Korea could not have been the colony of Tokugawa shogunate which closed Japan from the rest of the world during that era.
Korea government only insists that the Japan Empire pressured other countries to use the name of the "Sea of Japan", but the Korea Government hasnft given any evidences.
9. Korea government insists that the usage of the name of a particular country for the sea zone that extends over several regions and countries is an insult to the other countries around that sea zone. Furthermore, Korea government insists that there is no such sea zone which adopts the name of a particular country. However, there are seas such as the Norwegian Sea, the "Irish Sea", the "Philippine Sea", the "Gulf of Mexico", the "Gulf of Guinea", etc. Korea government totally ignores to make any insistence nor proposals about these seas.
10. Because of the examples explained in 9, if Korea government insists to change the "Sea of Japan" to the "East Sea", Korea government should also propose the name change of "Korea strait".
As explained above, Korea government claims regarding the name change of the "Sea of Japan" to the "East Sea" is filled with full of contradictions.
I'm sure that you have lots of e-mals and letters about this sea zone problem.
I'll show that the problems of usage "East Sea". Please look at attatchment file, or please look at these web pages,
http://www1.kaiho.mlit.go.jp/cue/KIKAKU/nihonkai/index_eng.htm
http://isweb24.infoseek.co.jp/area/oslo/index.en.html
As one of Japanese and world citizen, I have to note that there are a lot of people who do not appropriately recognize South Korea's inconsistent argument.
1.The main points against the claim brought up by Korea
(a) Misunderstanding of historical fact
The Korean Government is asserting that the diffusion of the name "Japan Sea" all over the world is the result of Japanese policy of expansionism and colonialism in the first half of 20th century. But the fact is different. It is firmly believed that the name "Japan Sea" first appeared in Matteo Ricci's Map of World Atlas in 1602 and the name started to appear also in the maps of western countries in 18th century during the Age of Great Voyages. Thus, as the geographical feature of Japan Archipelago was gradually being unveiled by map producers,geographers, explorers and navigators of western countries, the name "Japan Sea" was internationally established as the single name for the sea area by early 19th century. The name "Japan Sea" focuses on one key geographical feature - the Japanese Archipelago that separates the sea area from the Northern Pacific Ocean.
For your information, relevant statistics are provided as follows, showing the proportional change of the names used for the sea area during the period of 17th to 20th century.
Consequently, the argument raised by Korea that the name "Japan Sea" is the remnant of colonialism (1910-1945) is utterly groundless
The Korean delegation distributed a booklet "EAST SEA in World Maps" to the delegations of other IHO member States at the 16th International Hydrographic Conference (April 2002, Monaco). In the booklet Korea insists that Japan named the sea area "Sea of Japan", but the fact is that Japan borrowed the name from the maps of western countries and started to use it as the name of the sea area.
And Korea criticizes in its booklet that Japan registered the term "Sea of Japan" with the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) without consulting Korea in 1928. But it should be pointed out that Japan simply accepted the single name already internationally used at the time but not registered.
(b)Questions on "East Sea" as universal name
As to the name of the sea area concerned, it is actually called "Tonghae" (means East Sea) in Korea. The name is completely different in origin from the name "MARE ORIENTALE" or the other similar names quoted in the Korean booklet "EAST SEA in World Maps". The names in the booklet used to be on the old maps published in western countries. The names of "MARE ORIENTALE" etc. mean the ocean in the Orient in the eyes ofthe Occident. But "Tonghae" only means the sea to the east of the Korean peninsular. Since 1995, Korea began to use the English name "East Sea" domestically, a direct translation of "Tonghae", on its nautical charts. It is very difficult to find the name "East Sea" in the international community before 1992, when Korea raised the issue for the first time at the UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographic Names. Actually none of the maps quoted in the booklet show the name "East Sea" on the old maps. You should be careful to the trick that Korea identifies the names of "East Sea" with "MARE ORIENTALE" etc. on its booklet. Thus "East Sea" must be a quite new name, which appeared after 1990' in the international community.
And "East China Sea" is written with the same Chinese characters as "East Sea" in China (This means that the Chinese call "East China Sea" just "East Sea" in their own language). If "East Sea" is adopted as a name of the sea near "East China Sea", it may make confusion for the navigators or the rescue team who has a command of Chinese character or its language.
Furthermore, the Korean call the east side sea, south side sea, and west side sea "Tonghae","Namhae", "Sohae" respectively with centering Korean Peninsular. Each name means merely the sea in east, south, and west. We don't think that it is proper to apply such naming as universal naming with its own egocentric idea without considering the direction from other country.
(c) Korea accepted "Japan Sea" until early 1990's
It should be noted that Korea itself did not raised the issue either in UN or IHO before early 1990's and moreover that they described "Japan Sea" on its own official nautical charts until 1995. There is the historical fact that Korea had accepted the name "Japan Sea" for about 50 years after it was released from the Japanese influence under the World War II.
(d) "Japan Sea" recognized as a single name universally for the concerned sea area
According to a survey we conducted on 392 typical maps published in 60 foreign countries in the year 2000, only 11 maps did not use "Japan Sea" as a single name, which represents only 2.8% of all. But the all 11 maps used both "Japan Sea" and "East Sea", and there was no map which used only "East Sea".
Furthermore the nautical charts of concerned area of UK (1863-), US (1854-), Russia and France have been applying "Japan Sea" as the only name for the concerned sea area on their nautical charts since their hydrographic offices were established.
2. Talks between Japan and Korea
Japan and Republic of Korea discussed this problem on two occasions at the director level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the discussion has not yet reached the point where both countries fully express what they feel. Unfortunately, South Korea declined the offer we made to them in August to hold discussion, giving the reason that "the attitude of Japan lacks flexibility and there is no alternative proposal suggested by Japan." We believe that suggesting an alternative proposal is not an essential factor to starting negotiation. What we expect is that there may be a clue to a breakthrough in considering the solution to the problem, based on points on which both countries have a common understanding as well as points on which the viewpoints differ, which should be made clear through discussion. First of all, it is important to find any points that are commonly acceptable to both countries.
Furthermore, the Japan/Korea Hydrographic Technical Meeting has been held annually for over ten years between the hydrographic authorities of both Japan and South Korea (Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department, Japan Coast Guard and National Oceanographic Research Institute of Korea). However, South Korea has never suggested that this issue be included in the agenda. We recognize that it is necessary to seek some kind of consensus between Japan and South Korea from a technical point of view, and are suggesting to South Korea that bringing the issue up for discussion should be a prerequisite to holding the Meeting .
3. Question on applying IHO Technical Resolution to this issue
Korea demands the Directing Committee of IHO to apply mechanically the technical resolution A4.2.6 in order to inscribe "East Sea" in parallel with "Japan Sea" on S-23. However, we cannot discuss this on the same basis as other cases such as Dover Strait / Pas de Calais or Bay of Biscay / Golf de Gascogne These cases of parallel naming are based on the historical fact that the two names had been already used for a long time. But the name "East Sea", which seems to be based on its political purpose, appeared officially for the first time by Korea only at the 1992 United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographic Names. Its proposal is politically motivated and therefore it is inappropriate to apply the technical resolution of purely technical nature for such political proposal.
As noted above, the name "Japan Sea" has been historically and internationally established as the single name for the concerned sea area. Such an abusive application of the resolution would open the way for any coastal member country to unilaterally introduce a new name in the IHO at any time with respect to the body of water for which the different single name has been historically and internationally used. This would set a bad precedent for the IHO since it will go counter to the IHO's objective of achieving the greatest possible uniformity of names of oceans and seas.
*Technical Resolution A4.2.6
It is recommended that where two or more countries share a given geological feature (such as, for example, a bay, strait, channel or archipelago) under a different name form, they should endeavor to reach agreement on fixing a single name for the feature concerned. If they have different official languages and cannot agree on a common name form, it is recommended that the name form of each of the languages in question should be accepted for charts and publications unless technical reasons prevent this practice on small scale charts.
4. Our views for publishing S-23
It would be the first revision after almost 50 years and Japan also hopes its early publication. On the other hand, the IHO "has a consultative and purely technical nature" and that the Directing Committee should take a fair and impartial position so as not to take up a proposal to delete the two pages including "Japan Sea" from S-23, politically motivated by one of member states, and never to drive the public opinions of member countries into accepting such a proposal.
The name "Japan Sea" has been internationally used as the single name for a long time and the existing inscription should not be altered without consensus among all the concerned member countries. In other words, the new edition of S-23 should maintain the status quo until consultations between the countries concerned reach a successful conclusion. And this is the position to be taken by the IHO that is established to pursue "the greatest possible uniformity in nautical charts and documents" including names of oceans and seas.
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Yuji Takada |
11/16/2002 10:49 pm CDT |
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Sasaki |
11/17/2002 3:06 am CDT |
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