Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Koreans Head To America and A Collective Groan From The Western World

Koreans Flocking to American Universities

Let's start out with a story about higher learning, rather than a dumbing down of the world. According to an article in The Korea Times, Korean students make up the third largest source of foreign students in American Universities.

That stat doesn't surprise me at all. With the way Koreans push traveling to foreign, English-speaking countries, it's no shock that they make up such a huge chunk of the foreign students in the United States of America.

South Koreans follow only Indians and Chinese in student population.

While I was visiting my brother in New York City during my time at home, we met a bunch of Columbia University students through his roommate, Chris, who is in a graduate program there.

One of the girls I met told me that Koreans make up the largest number of foreign students at the university. That's a theory that the article would certainly suggest is true.

Dokdo Island (maybe not Takeshima?) ... Again

All those nerds driving an advertising bus across the country and taking out full page ads in major New York City newspapers must be beside themselves with joy right now.

An article in The Korea Times
(not a hugely reliable source) claims that a lawmaker obtained a post-war document from a Japanese official that marks Dokdo Islands as foreign territory.


From the article:

'The document, obtained by South Korean lawmaker Park Sun-young from a Japanese official, shows the Japanese finance ministry proclaimed in Notification 654 on Aug. 15, 1946 that "Jukdo," the former name for the islets, is foreign territory. The document was compiled to settle Japanese companies' debts after Tokyo surrendered in the war.'

I'm guessing that every westerner in Korea who read this article just growned, mostly with an apathetic tone, I'm sure. We have to hear about Dokdo all the time. It's annoying as anything here.

"Do you know Dokdo?" That's one of the most common questions you'll hear from a Korean. They're all ready to tell you that the tiny rocks, inhabited by only one fisherman, his wife and some police, are an important source of resources. Maybe I don't know much about resources.


Anyway, Korea is not known for journalistic integrity in any way. The article doesn't say a thing about how the document was obtained and doesn't say which Japanese official gave away the biggest source of annoyance the Japanese have been using against the Koreans in recent years.

We'll see if anything more comes out of this. I'm actually surprised there weren't parties in the streets at the admittance that Dokdo Islands are considered foreign territory to Japan. Of course, it doesn't say who this foreign territory belongs to, does it? Oh well. I'm sure the Koreans will let us know.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is not a hugely relaible source?
Let's see. it means early Japanese goverment document is not a relaible source. hmmm.

"Japanese Prime Ministerial Ordinance No. 24 and Finance Ministerial
Ordinance No. 4 are the two decrees in question. The former, issued on June
6, 1951 in order to dispose of Japan's colonial assets after World War II,
lists nearby islands under its control but excludes Jeju Island and
Ulleungdo as well as the Dokdo islets from areas under its control. The
latter, issued on Feb. 13, 1951 with the aim of reorganizing the pension
scheme, leaves out Korean territories including Jeju Island, Ulleungdo and
Dokdo, as well as the Russia-controlled Kuril Islands, the sovereignty of
which is currently disputed by Japan."
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/01/16/200901160073.asp


Japanese Document Shows Dokdo as Foreign Territory
Japan's Ministry of Finance issued a notice document numbered 654 on Aug.
15, 1946, a year after Korean independence, that says Dokdo is foreign soil
along with Korea, Taiwan, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and the South Sea
Islands.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/11/16/2009111600438.html

Fatsy Le Shaft said...

Thanks for the extra info, K. Also, saying the Korea Times isn't reliable says nothing about the Japanese document. But the story I saw didn't have that much information about it. While I enjoy some of the features and do learn some things from the Korea Times, their lack of sources and attribution always makes it difficult to know whether something is a legitimate story.

Gomushin Girl said...

Most of the actual news items that get printed in the English language dailies are abridged versions (or altered) of the ones from the Korean papers, or picked up from AP or Reuters. Internet versions tend to be even more abridged. Newspapers in general are bad about giving the sort of citation that would gladden an academic's heart, but they're just there to report the find.
Also, a few words about Dokdo. Despite how it often appears, the issue isn't as big on the minds of the Korean people as most expats seem to assume. Yes, it's a particular hobbyhorse of some people, and there is a wide concensus on the issue among Koreans at large. But for most people, interest in the issue is cyclical and generally sparked only by outside incidents and events, such as documents being found or the Shimane prefecture deciding to declare it "Takeshima Day."
Certainly, the efforts many Koreans have taken to publicize the issue are heavy handed and clumsy. There's little thought or awareness of how to approach others about the issue (or about the wisdom of it, considering Korea currently has physical control of the islets.) But it's not the major topic on most people's minds.
Now that I think about it, I've probably had more conversations about with expats than Koreans^^

Anonymous said...

Informative site :

http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com/

http://www.geocities.com/mlovmo/page4.html

3rd party Acdemic document.

"Legal Issues Related to Sovereignty over Dokdo and Its
Maritime Boundary by University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, USA"

http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com/jonvandyke-doc.pdf



I know chosunninja ID owner is not normal.
(even if he and i are same korean.)

But, Japanese bashing Korean by using chosunninja.

I really sad you westerner do not know what is the real japanese-korean relation.

Korea is enemy of Japanese.
so they spread falsed rumor as possible as they can.

Japanese says, Dokdo issues are also Korean "fake".

buy we must distingush "fact" from "some comedy claim"(like chosunninja ID owner)

Here is the truth about Dokdo.
Japanese official phamplet hide this fact.

http://english.dokdohistory.com/museum/m_j_history02.html

Here is the good academic document from Japanese scholar.
This document tell everything about dokdo dispute.

http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com/kazuo-hori-doc.pdf