South Korea tells Japan to call off event celebrating Dokdo-Takeshima Islands

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Ida Torres in National with 4 Comments
South Korea tells Japan to call off event celebrating Dokdo-Takeshima Islands

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young is strongly urging the Tokyo government to cancel an event they are planning to hold to promote and celebrate Japan’s territorial hold on the Takeshima Islands, known as Dokdo in South Korea.

According to several media reports, the event to be hosted by Shimane Prefecture might have Aiko Shimajiri, a vice-ministerial official and a member of the upper house of parliament and 18 other government officials as special guests, including Hiroyuki Hosoda, executive acting secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and Shinjiro Koizumi, director of the LDP‘s Youth Division. February 22 was declared as a day to promote Takeshima since 2006 and it has always been celebrated with various programs to strengthen Japan’s territorial claims over the disputed islands. But Tokyo has never sent any government official from the top three posts in a government ministry or agency to attend the ceremony.

“The hosting of such an unjustifiable event attended by government figures equals going against history. I urge Japan to face history and come forward,” Cho said. He also urged Japan to “reflect upon its wrongdoings” and start coming up with actions to rectify its past behavior. Tensions between the two countries have risen in the past few months, ever since then President Lee Myung-bak visited the islands last August, the first time for a president. Japan protested the action and started being vocal once again about their claim to the islands. South Korea has a small police detachment on the islets, which puts them effectively under their control.

[ via Yonhap News ]
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  • Truth

    If JDP is going to use Korea news outlets like Yonhap News for its articles, then it is going to have to filter out the political biases and propaganda.

    Under international law Korea’s illegal occupation of the Takeshima islets does not amount to “effective control”. The illegal occupation has no legal justification whatsoever.

    Please correct.

  • chinditone

    Japan needs to abide by the Potsdam Declaration and return all assets stolen or taken in its wars between 1850 and 1946 to their rightful owners. The Diaoyou Islands need to be returned to China and the Dokdo Islands returned to Korea. Japan’s needs to show South East Asia that its past war time aggression is truly a thing of the past and that its now a respectable law abiding nation and that countries in the region can once again trust Japan. Japanese politicians celebrating Japan’s past crimes will not make Japan popular.

    • Fail nation

      China needs to abide by the international law and stop cherry picking what is only good for them. China is so blind they only see laws that are profitable for them. Fail nation is fail.

    • Whirled Peas

      The problem with turning back the clock to 1850 is that you take the good with the bad. Korea might be thrilled in 1850 to not yet be part of Japan, but less than thrilled to find itself part of China! And China, even with Korea as a possession was a small fraction of what it is today. It did not yet have full control over the areas that are now the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet and Mongolia. Would China actually want to shrink? And then there is the rest of the world. Slavery was still common. In the US it had not yet been abolished. There’s no point in turning back the clock to a time when you imagine it is most advantageous to you or your country, because there is always something you didn’t foresee. Oh, and by the way, Japan has already shown by 68 years of peace and cooperation with its neighbors that it is a respectable law-abiding nation. Japan has not only apologized numerous times, but has provided economic assistance and technical aid as well as shared its technology with its neighbors. Frankly I am less concerned that Japan will resume aggressive behavior of the distant past than I am about some leaders in China throwing its weight around now that it has become an economic power.

      And please be clear, I am definitely NOT anti-China. I have been a strong supporter of China since the days of normalization and have even participate in US-China friendship activities, and have looked forward to seeing how China’s “capitalism with Chinese character” be successful. It is only recently that I have become aware that the Chinese military has gained so much power, and I have noticed so many Chinese using anti-Japanese rhetoric and dredging up the past — almost like reading a script. It is worrisome. I guess that is to be expected after the CCP consciously instituted anti-Japan agitprop and education in 1990′s after the Tien An Men square incident. Excellent way to divert Chinese citizen’s concern over internal problems. Before 1990 there was no where near the level of anti-Japanese sentiment and rhetoric as today. But some clever person in the CCP remembered that the CCP won state power by organizing and utilizing the United Front against Japanese aggression, so why not unite the Chinese people, who have lots of gripes about the domestic situation, against a foreign enemy again (real or imagined). It’s too bad, because China and Japan could be a great team. Smart people, good workers, and on the whole, people with a really good heart.