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Revision as of 03:49, 14 February 2003 by Nanshu (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Although it is generally accepted, the name Sea of Japan is disputed by North Korea and South Korea. South Koreans prefer the name East Sea for this body of water, while North Koreans demand East Sea of Korea.
Koreans traditionally call surrounding seas after their directions: namhae (south sea), donghae (east sea) and seohae (west sea). They were vaguely used and their boundaries were ambiguous. It is uncertain when they first perceived donghae as the equivalent of Sea of Japan. At the end of the 20th century they translated Donghae into English and began to use "East Sea".
The equivocality "East Sea" has makes it almost impossible to become an international geographic name. Koreans assert that "East Sea" means east from the Asian Continent. What is located to the east of the Asian Continent is not only the Sea of Japan but also the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and these seas are called "East Sea" by Chinese and Vietnamese respectively.
In China, the East China Sea is referred to as "East Sea" (Dong Hai 東海 in Chinese). The name Dong Hai has already registered as "East China Sea (Tung Hai)" in The Limits of Oceans and Seas published by IHO. (Tung Hai is another romanization of Dong Hai).
The Vietnamese name for the South China Sea is Bien Dong (Biển Đông), which literally means East Sea. They also use "East Sea" in English.
Japan is a special case. Japanese used to vaguely call the Pacific Ocean as Tokai, whose meaning is East Sea, since it is located to the east of Japan, but it is no longer in use. Instead, Tokai indicates the Pacific coastal region. It is worth noting that for the Japanese people the word "East Sea" indicates the other side of the Sea of Japan. It is one of the reasons that Japanese strongly oppose the name of East Sea. Who does not get confused if both sides of a nation are called the same name!
An official name for a geographic feature is translated into each language. It is obvious that if the name "East Sea" become official, name collisions will occur in a lot of languages.
The "Sea of Japan" was not named by the Japanese people, but Koreans contest this information and contend that Japanese imperialism has given rise to this name. According to the Koreans, the Sea of Japan was indeed called the East Sea on some pre-18th-century maps. Since the mail flooding attack by Korean internet user group VANK, many international organizations have either adapted both names on maps, or leave the area blank to avoid Korean cyber terror. The Koreans also call the Yellow Sea "West Sea". However Koreans have never claimed against China.
The Korean government has taken this dispute to the United Nations body of International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB), which has recently decided to drop the name Sea of Japan and leave the area blank. VANK, a volunteer Korean Internet organization, has also recently begun an e-mail campaign to raise international awareness of the dispute.
The Japanese government is now contesting the decision by IHB, arguing that the name has been in use for over 200 years, during which it became a standard in international maps. Koreans argue the name East Sea was predominant in pre-19th-century maps, and contend Japanese imperialism, compounded with their tendancy to revise history and distort historical facts have given rise to the current appellation of Sea of Japan.
External Links
- East Sea in World Maps Korean Information Service
- Sea of Japan Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Koreas unite against Japan BBC News, August 16, 2002
- A sea by any other name Guardian, August 23, 2002
- VANK