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| Korea-Japan Rapport as Rocky as Dokdo |
| Chris Carpenter outlines the animosity coming from both sides of the East Sea/Sea of Japan |
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Christopher Carpenter (internews)  |
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Published 2005-03-18 17:43 (KST) |
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 |  | |  A protestor's clothing catches fire outside the Japanese Embassy in downtown Seoul, March 18. | | | ©2005 Yonhap | It was a few minutes past noon on Friday, March 18, when the man's clothes caught on fire. One minute he was standing quietly outside the Japanese embassy in downtown Seoul on a sunny afternoon, and the next yellow flames leapt from his coat, pants and body two feet into the air over his head.
With a scream he tore the coat from his back and flung it away. Still burning, it draped itself over a news cameraperson's head. She pushed the coat aside and went on filming.
The people around the man who was still on fire pushed him to the ground where he began to roll. They pulled off their own coats and began to beat him to extinguish the flames.
A riot policeman across the street picked up a fire extinguisher, and looking as if he had seen people set themselves on fire before, crossed and put out the flames with a single squeeze of a lever. A cloud of dust and ashes enveloped the man and he lay still as an ambulance approached to take him to the hospital.
It was the end of a long week of protests. On Monday, two Koreans each cut off their own small fingers to bring attention to the latest dispute between South Korea and Japan -- a cluster of small, rocky islands in the East Sea called Dokdo.
The protests began in response to a move by Shimane prefecture in Japan. On Wednesday, the Shimane legislature declared Feb. 22 "Takeshima Day." The Japanese call the islands Takeshima and have claimed them since Feb. 22, 1905, five years before Japan began colonial rule of the entire Korean peninsula.
Koreans maintain they have controlled the islands for 1,500 years and insist that the area returned to Korean hands when Japanese colonial rule ended in 1945. Today Korea maintains a small maritime police outpost on the islands, which are also a designated nature preserve.
 | | | This small collection of islands is a big headache for both governments. | | | ©2005 Kwon W.S. | | The "Takeshima Day" declaration comes during "Korea-Japan Friendship Year 2005," which began Jan. 27. It was supposed to be a year of social, cultural and political exchanges to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Korea and Japan establishing diplomatic ties. Communities across Korea are already canceling events to celebrate the friendship year in response to Dokdo.
The friendship year has also seen a swirl of controversy surrounding proposed Japanese textbook accounts of Japan's colonial rule of Korea. Koreans claim the accounts whitewash colonial rule by claiming the 35 years Japan occupied Korea moved Korea ahead developmentally.
A Mr. Kim, who stood outside the embassy during the protest Friday, said his grandparents were kidnapped during the Japanese occupation and taken to Japan where they were forced into labor. Kim said he was raised in Japan hearing the tragic stories of lost relatives and broken ties with his homeland.
"I have been in tremendous anger for these 27 years," Kim said about his life in Japan.
Most Japanese have priorities much higher than Dokdo, Kim said. The Dokdo issue has come to the forefront at the hands of Japanese politicians who are seeking favor from an increasingly conservative electorate. Kim said he thinks the Japanese are becoming more conservative as their economy struggles and rivals China and Korea rise to prominence in East Asia. Kim said the Japanese may be becoming more conservative, but Dokdo is important to a select few.
 | | | A protestor attempts to stab himself outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, March 15. | | | ©2005 Kwon W.S. | | "This is really, really absurd," he said about the "Takeshima Day" declaration. "Actually only right-wing extremists care about the Dokdo issue."
Kim said the protestors in Seoul are bringing the issue to the attention of the Japanese public, but the main message that comes across is that Koreans are angry with Japanese.
Kwon Boung Chan, a member of The Citizen's Organization who also stood outside the embassy Friday, said publicity would help the Korean cause in the Dokdo and textbook issues. Kwon went so far as to call the Dokdo and textbook issues Japanese terrorism.
"According to our constitution, Dokdo Islands are (under) our ownership," Kwon said.
If China, Russia and other countries near Japan lend the protestors in Seoul a sympathetic ear, the countries together will be able to pressure Japan to stop provoking Korea, Kwon said.
Whether protests effectively unite other countries behind the Korean cause or not, and whether the Japanese national government heeds calls to intervene in Shimane prefecture's declaration or not, the Dokdo controversy and the dispute over accounts in Japanese textbooks show that both countries have a long way to go before Korea and Japan are ready to celebrate their friendship.
 | | | Korean protestors outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul hold placards that read "Dokdo is our land!" on March 17. | | | ©2005 Nam S.Y. | | Japanese politicians and people need to realize that the wounds of Japanese occupation in Korea are not entirely healed. Self-preserving actions, such as reasserting a claim to the Dokdo islands or interpreting history through a Japanese lens, may be good for Japan, but they detract from a friendship with Korea during a year that is supposed to be about friendship.
While Koreans have every right to stand up to unfair treatment, they also need to realize that most Japanese cannot be judged according the actions of a handful of politicians.
Until both countries learn to grow together, the "Korea-Japan Friendship Year 2005" will remain as rocky as the Dokdo islands themselves.
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| Christopher Carpenter is a freelance writer living in Incheon, South Korea. |
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©2005 OhmyNews
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