Sea of Japan VS East Sea (Korea Sea): Why do Korean historians keep distorting historical facts?

Question

First off, please read the following article posted at Yonhapnews, a Korean news agency, on April 15th.
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Korea finds 17th century marine chart depicting Sea of Korea
SEOUL, April 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has found a 17th century nautical chart made by a British explorer marking the expanse of water between Korea and Japan as the Sea of Korea.

The chart drawn by Sir Robert Dudley in 1646 was revealed just a week ahead of a general assembly meeting of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) scheduled for April 23 through 27 in Monaco, which may possibly change the name of the waters currently named as the Sea of Japan.
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Here's the original article in Korean language:
http://app.yonhapnews.co.kr/YNA/Basic/article/new_search/YIBW_showSearchArticle_New.aspx?searchpart=article&searchtext=%EC%9D%BC%EB%B3%B8%ED%95%B4&contents_id=AKR20120414031400004
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Okay, let's check this map first.
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/8078094/img/Anonymous/PYH2012041500070001300-P2%5B1%5D.jpg
This is the map from Yonhap news.

First of all,You can easily find " Mare di Corai (lit. Korea Sea)" just east of Korea.
Second, it is bit difficult to check, but you can read two "Mare di Giapon", east and west of Kyushu island.

Their explain finish here.

But...keep serching. Something written right side of double-head bird symbol, draw in the center of this map..
http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/8078086/img/Anonymous/1646.North%2BJapan%2Bsea%5B1%5D.bmp

This Korean media photo is vague and difficult to detect what it is written.
So, check more clear image of very similar Dudley 1646 map stored in Finland national library.

Click here to Finland national digital archive http://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/59106
Then choose P105-106 _kr201619_maps12.pdf　（12.66MB）　
Quote;http://uni.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/newsplus/1334486803/175

Again, something is written right side of double-head bird symbol.
http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/8078261/img/8078261.jpg
”Il Mare Il Mare Sewenvorionale de lappone o Giappone”
(North Japan or habon Sea)

Yes, this map says Sea of Japan is "NORTH SEA OF JAPAN"
"Mare di Corai (Korea Sea)" is drawn at the just a east coast of Corean peninsula. It is not the position of Sea of Japan.

Yes, now you realize that this Korean historian Kim Munguil's typical method. He use vague map images and wrong map explanation to deceive Korean and world wide people with WICKED AMBITIOUS to justifies historical distortion for Korean national pride!
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Do you admit that this Korean historian distort the fact?

Answer 1

I don't think you've fully understood what the Korean article says or what this guy is claiming. He does acknowledge that the map says Sea of Japan. He does not deny that. According to the article, this map has been verified by the Japanese as well. All he is claiming is that part of what is currently known entirely as the Sea of Japan should be changed to the Korean Sea. He is not claiming that all of Sea of Japan be changed. We currently call that area the Eastern Sea in Korea. He suggests that that portion should now be changed to the Korean sea in light of this map since it's an earlier map than what has been used until now.



Until now, maps from the 18th and 19th century were used to name the entire sea between Japan and Korea in the western world as the Sea of Japan. It's somewhat understandable that explorers from that era would have named the entire area as the Sea of Japan. After all, Japan was much more open to westerners than Koreans during that time. If it were the other way around, I am certain that the entire area would have been named the Sea of Korea on current western maps. This map is just an earlier account of a western explorer that named the seas differently. The area of the sea directly east of Korea was named the Korean sea, the part of the sea that lies west of Japan and north of Korea was named the North sea of Japan and the area that lies east of Japan was named the Sea of Japan. You have to keep in mind that this map is very skewed. The area he named North sea of Japan actually lies above the peninsula, not parallel to it like it is depicted in this map. So it's understandable why he would have named it the North harbor or the North sea of Japan rather than naming that entire sea the Sea of Korea.



All this guy is claiming is that what is known entirely as the Sea of Japan on western maps be divided into 2-3 sections as in the map since this is the earliest account of the seas being named by a westerner.



Hopefully that clears things up a bit.



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I agree that re-naming it the East Sea would be a bit absurd. We only call it the east sea because it's on our eastern side. That would obviously be odd for Japan. I honestly don't know much about this topic and I'm trying to think as unbiasedly as I can, but the video kind of fails to validate it's own argument about imperialism. The video clearly shows a line graph that shows the number of maps with Sea of Japan to have skyrocketed since the 19th century, which is around when Japanese imperialism started to begin. Prior to that, the number of maps with Sea of Japan and Sea of Korea were about the same. Doesn't that tell you something? This sort of makes sense. It was only around this era when Japan started to become heavily influenced by the west. Influence obviously goes both ways. With that in mind, you are going to have many more westerners in Japan which is probably why Sea of Japan dominated the maps after the 19th century. The video goes to show a series of pie charts that show that the majority of maps from various western countries depicted the Sea of Japan. However, this data is somewhat meaningless when you already have the data from the very first chart as it doesn't account for any dates. The conclusion that this video makes completely disregards the data of these charts. It's basically arguing that most western maps today say Sea of Japan because the earlier maps from the 1600's use the Sea of Japan. However, that goes both ways. Until the 19th century, you had just as many maps saying Sea of Korea. It's hard to deny that imperialism did have something to do with the reason why the number of maps that depicted the Sea of Japan suddenly sky rocketed around the 19th century. With better and more maps since the 19th century, it's pretty clear why Sea of Japan ultimately ended up on most maps from the western world today. If it was Korea has expanded, the number of maps saying Sea of Korea would have sky rocketed and the majority of maps today would have said Sea of Korea.



I think the quote from the article is saying is that the term Sea of Japan really first started appear in larger numbers since the 19th century. I mean come on, the guy is using a map from the 1600's that clearly says Sea of Japan. Sea of Japan wasn't initially coined by Japanese imperialists, but the data from the video speaks for itself that imperialism did have something to do with the wider use of the term.

Answer 2

korea is jealous of Japan. san francisco peace treaty, just proves the it's call Sea of Japan

Answer 3

Everything here, is ****** up.



The original Koreans, just like the Ainu came from Siberia.

I dunno who this "British explorer" is. Russia and Japan fought over who controlled Korea for years.



Japan won every time. So Japan has to suffer with Korea constantly begging for an apology, hah!

And Korea has the right to say all this nonsense because of all the rape, and worse that happened in Korea under Japanese rule.

Answer 4

Off topic, but the Imperial Japanese raped a lot of Russian women, too. ^^