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The Japanese Education Ministry is said to be planning to describe the Dokdo islets as Japanese territory in educational guidelines set to be completed by July. So far, Japanese curriculum handbooks and manuals mentioned the four northern islands over which Tokyo is engaged in territorial disputes with Moscow, but there was no reference to Dokdo. Private publishers of Japanese school textbooks use the Education Ministry¡¯s curriculum as guidebooks, so the latest plan will in fact lead to the printing of a wider range of texts referring to ¡°Takeshima¡± as Japanese territory.
President Lee Myung-bak said in a speech marking March 1st, Independence Movement Day that we cannot remain stuck in the past. On this basis, Lee and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced at their April 21 summit, the opening of a new era of a mature partnership between the two countries. The two leaders agreed to pursue a ¡°future-oriented¡± relationship, putting behind them the fractious old relationship that was marked by disputes over Japan¡¯s claims to Dokdo and history texts that whitewashed its World War II atrocities.
But less than a month after the two leaders hailed their new relationship, Japan has once again alienated the Korean public. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan called in Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Toshinori Shigeie to deliver a message of protest. The Japanese ambassador said Tokyo has not made an official decision on the plan. Bilateral relations have regressed to the old state, which Koreans have seen too many times before.
The Republic of Korea has effective control over Dokdo. Just teaching Japanese students that Dokdo belongs to them will not turn Korean territory into Japanese soil. As long as Japan does not annex Dokdo by military means, there is no chance whatsoever that Dokdo will become a Japanese. Japan appears to be turning Korea¡¯s Dokdo islets into an area of territorial dispute, amassing advantageous documents in the process that it could present to the International Court of Justice in the future to seek a ruling. But the subjects of judgments by the ICJ are limited to those in which all parties involved in a territorial dispute agree to take the matter to the Hague-based court. Why would Korea agree to go to court over its own territory? That¡¯s why it is so difficult to understand Japan¡¯s behavior, and there are increasing concerns that Tokyo may be harboring dark intentions.
Watching Japan repeat behavior that is endlessly snarling bilateral ties, it makes one wonder whether there are any true leaders in that country. If there are, it is about time that they voluntarily put the brakes on such counterproductive behavior.
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