This is a bit of a hot button and there's a lot of discussion going on, but if you don't know the background I will be concise about it.
The protest centers on the ongoing debate about the Liancourt Rocks, a pair of uninhabitable islets in the middle of the Japan Sea, and Japan and Korea have been in a dispute over whom they belong to.
The islets are referred to as Takeshima (in Japanese) or Dokdo (in Korean), but those names have been historically used to incorrectly identify other islands between Japan and Korea (the historical maps are inaccurate). To make things short, the earliest historical documents show that Japan claimed the rocks in 1905, and a Japanese-made geological survey at the time indentifies the correct rocks, however Japan has since continually changed its stance on whether or not the rocks belong to Japan or Korea, since at the time there was still confusion about exactly which islands were disputed. Pro-Koreans maintain that Dokdo has been part Korea since long before 1905, but there is as of yet no historical evidence that Korea had discovered the actual Liancourt Rocks, since all documents pre-1905 appear to identify a different pair of islands in their cartography and description.
The Japanese government announced that it would make changes to its education textbooks that would identify the Liancourt Rocks as being Japanese (barring any evidence that disproves the 1905 claim), which has led to the uproar in Korean protesters, who say that allowing Japan to claim the rocks is allowing Japan to rewrite history and to maintain its imperialist behavior.
Which leads to yesterday's incident. There have been protests before of all sorts, but yesterday's protest involved about 40 Korean veterans standing outside the Japan Embassy and killing live pheasants (Japan's national bird) while soiling Japanese flags:
You can imagine all the fuss that's going around right now.
There is a bit of irony though. As one astute reader pointed out, Japan's national bird is actually the Green Pheasant (Phasianidae versicolor). The birds killed in the protest were the Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), and is actually referred to in Japan as Kourai-kiji (高麗雉), or "Korean Pheasant".
Links:
Korean protesters smash birds with hammers
Japanese textbooks to mention territorial claim
EDITORIAL: Takeshima issue
The protest centers on the ongoing debate about the Liancourt Rocks, a pair of uninhabitable islets in the middle of the Japan Sea, and Japan and Korea have been in a dispute over whom they belong to.
The islets are referred to as Takeshima (in Japanese) or Dokdo (in Korean), but those names have been historically used to incorrectly identify other islands between Japan and Korea (the historical maps are inaccurate). To make things short, the earliest historical documents show that Japan claimed the rocks in 1905, and a Japanese-made geological survey at the time indentifies the correct rocks, however Japan has since continually changed its stance on whether or not the rocks belong to Japan or Korea, since at the time there was still confusion about exactly which islands were disputed. Pro-Koreans maintain that Dokdo has been part Korea since long before 1905, but there is as of yet no historical evidence that Korea had discovered the actual Liancourt Rocks, since all documents pre-1905 appear to identify a different pair of islands in their cartography and description.
The Japanese government announced that it would make changes to its education textbooks that would identify the Liancourt Rocks as being Japanese (barring any evidence that disproves the 1905 claim), which has led to the uproar in Korean protesters, who say that allowing Japan to claim the rocks is allowing Japan to rewrite history and to maintain its imperialist behavior.
Which leads to yesterday's incident. There have been protests before of all sorts, but yesterday's protest involved about 40 Korean veterans standing outside the Japan Embassy and killing live pheasants (Japan's national bird) while soiling Japanese flags:
You can imagine all the fuss that's going around right now.
There is a bit of irony though. As one astute reader pointed out, Japan's national bird is actually the Green Pheasant (Phasianidae versicolor). The birds killed in the protest were the Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), and is actually referred to in Japan as Kourai-kiji (高麗雉), or "Korean Pheasant".
Links:
Korean protesters smash birds with hammers
Japanese textbooks to mention territorial claim
EDITORIAL: Takeshima issue
