A 23-year-old stamp collector released on Sunday two maps—one black and white and one color—that not only indicated that Gando was part of Joseon Korea, but also marked the East Sea as the “Sea of Korea.”
The B&W and color maps were versions of the same map, the “Modern Map and Chart: Asian Map” produced by the Royal Geographic Society (or predecessor thereof) in 1740. Both marked the East Sea as the “Sea of Korea,” while the color map drew Korea’s northern border as running east from Shenyang to the present Sino-Russo-Korean border, with Gando being on the Korean side.
Kim discovered the map in a New York antique book store while he was attending a 2006 world stamp exhibition.
The first map marking Gando as Korean territory was the 1718 map of China produced by French Jesuits led by Jean-Baptiste Regis (fascinating guy, it would seem) on behalf of the Qing court. The 1718 map was used by European mapmakers in the 1740s to produce their charts of Asia. The 1909 Kando Convention between Qing China and Japan, however, would make the Yalu and Tumen rivers the border separating Korea and China.
We here at the Marmot’s Hole, however, can immediately tell the maps are fake. After all, we all know nobody spelt Corea with a “K” before the Japanese imperialists changed the spelling so Korea would come after Japan alphabetically.
On a more serious note, just to give a look at how your serious Korean irredentists look at the world, I direct you to this, produced by the Headquarters to Reclaim Gando. Some irredentists are not as greedy, however, as indicated by this nicely colored map.
Note to self: Despite appearances—and by appearances, I mean that Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon once publicly indicated that Korea could raise the Gando issue at a later time and a certifiably loony lawmaker managed to get 58 of his fellow lawmakers to sign on to a bill to nullify the 1909 Kando Convention—it’s the “evil” Japanese right who are hell-bent on territorial aggrandizement.
20 Comments
Since when did it become the “East Sea”, Marmot?
I take it you’d prefer “Sea of Corea,” then?
this map must be authentic, Corea is spelled correctly.
http://img412.imageshack.us/im.....9317vn.jpg
Sunbin,
If you were able to read Korean, you would have noticed at the bottom, the map is labeled “2040 AD Map of Asia.”
thanks sonagi.
i knew this was a photoshop job, probably by some netizen.
Robert - I’d like to call it the Koizumi Sea or the Gulf of Takeshima, whichever pisses off VANK the most.
Ha! Imperialist propaganda and nothing more! How dare they spell Corea with a ‘K’!
Ah… to wax nostalgic over old foreign maps of our country… Maps that were drawn based on even older maps. You see? Korea wasn’t always the small country it is today — this Frenchman says so.
When we get to rename the “Gulf of Mexico” the Gulf of Texas or Gulf of Florida, then we can rename the Sea of Japan to the East Sea.
It does not make sense to name a body of water with a cardinal direction, it only applies to one direction. Aishhhhh
When are these Wankers going to get a life? Like blogging or commenting on blogs?
Long time reader, first time poster…
For me, the problem with trying to prove the ‘true’ name of the body of water between Korea and Japan based on old maps is this…
I can find maps that say the world was flat. Does that mean that the world is flat? NOPE!
Perhaps the easiest solution is to do what they did with the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup… share the name.
I think I could get used to, ‘the sea of Korea/Japan’
Again I say:
You win a war, you get to name things. period. I don’t care about “old” maps and their naming conventions. Since that map was made the Japs conquered the whole region and got to change names into what they are today. done.
And furthermore, these old maps of the Qorean penninsula just go to prove what I have said all along. The whole region is just a bunch of Chinamen anyway.
If the Qoreans can claim 2nd + 3rd generation Qorean-Americans (who for the most part can’t speak Qoreanese)are still “Qorean” (ie. Any Qorean-American in the LPGA)then I can call all of them Chinamen.
Nothing escapes “Sonagi” nang-ja!
In all seriousness, some of those revisionist maps would make Korea larger than it was during the height of Koguryo!
The other day I had some middle school students tell me Japan wants to invade Korea again.
I was like, “Why? It’ll cost them more to invade than it will to buy Korea’s only exports of kimchi and BoA outright.”
“The other day I had some middle school students tell me Japan wants to invade Korea again.”
The problem is that I had some people in position of power who were saying the same b*llshit.
koreans are loons
Slim, you just made my day. I had a crappy day at school today, and you made me laugh. Thank you oh so very much. Some kind of metaphor with the waves of the Koizumi Sea/Gulf of Takeshima referring to the waves in Koizumi’s hair would be perfect, but I am nothing of the literary genius that could work that in some how.
How about KoizUMI?
.. can’t write it in kanji
ko-izumi is where it breaks 
StKY,
The name Sea of Japan came into popular usage in the ealy 19th century, way before Japan had any say in such matters.
Probably, that was when the last region left uncolonized by western powers, Northeast Asia, came into the spotlight. I can only guess that for them, Japan had a stronger impression than Korea.
I haven’t seen any Japanese literature before the 19th century that use the name “Nihonkai,” although I’ve seen the names Hokkai (North Sea) and Chosenkai (The Sea of Chosun) used in some.
And as for whether 3rd-generation Korean Americans are Koreans or Americans, it all depend on citizenship, does it not? I think many Koreans confuse the modern concept of citizenship with ancestry. Thus, you have 3rd-generation Koreans in Japan who are indeed Koreans, because they have not completed the paperworks required to obtain Japanese citizenship. (Some sadly refuse to do so, saying they don’t want to be assimilated into the Japanese, while demanding equal rights.) I believe US citizenship is given automatically to anyone born there, so I guess there are no 3rd-generation Koreans (citizenship-wise) in the US.