Despite a strong protest from Korea, a legislative committee in Japan's Shimane Prefecture has passed an ordinance proposal declaring February 22 "Takeshima Day." The bill calls for prefecture to go on a nationwide campaign in Japan to assert Japanese control over the Dokdo islets. It may be a provincial government, but it is clearly a violation of territorial sovereignty.
Japan's national government is not without responsibility for abetting and supporting Shimane's activities. All it has done is have its foreign minister send the prefecture's governor and speaker of the legislature a document outlining Korea's protests on the matter. The claim that it cannot interfere with each and every activity of a prefectural legislature is a cunning excuse meant to hide territorial ambitions. On February 23, immediately after the bill was submitted to committee, Japan's ambassador to Korea stood in the middle of Seoul and said the islands are Japanese territory.
Should the bill pass the main floor of the legislature the responsibility for all that takes place, such as a complete reexamination of relations, will lie with Japan. As Korea's foreign minister Ban Ki Moon has said, "Dokdo is a issue pertaining to the nation's territory and sovereignty, and is therefore a higher priority than Korean-Japanese relations." There is therefore no more reason for vacillation about the matter. Ordinary measures such as recalling Korea's ambassador must be considered, as should other measures, including making them occupied islands by moving a considerable number of residents there. The people of the Republic of Korea support a resolute and consistent response from the government.
We encourage the Japanese government to think this over thoroughly. The only opportunity it has at this point would be for it to actively discourage the Shimane legislature from introducing the bill to the main floor. It its also far from a "future-oriented" approach for Japanese civil society to be maintaining silence on something that could be a major turning point for Korean-Japanese relations.
The Hankyoreh, 11 March 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Japan Trying to Ruin Relations? |
