The Great Game -- in Asia

As part of the Great Game -- originally describing the cold-war-like battle between Russia and Great Britain in the 1800s -- between China, Korea, and Japan, recent elections of more conservative and certainly more nationalistic leaders have led to a war of words. We all worry that the words may escalate to more damaging exchanges.

As South Korea is now trading furiously with China on the economic front, the political connections continue as well. While I was in China last month, the news media trumpeted the repatriation of the remains of Chinese soldiers killed in "the war against American Imperialism" (later editions termed it "the korean war"(all lower-case)). China Daily's front page displayed a nice photo of military honor guard bearing caskets at an airport, and described the great care that South Korea had taken in disinterring the remains. A few days earlier the same newspaper reported that a new holiday had been declared, to commemorate the end of the War against Japanese Imperialism. It also noted the recently-established memorial to freedom fighter Ahn Jung-Geun who assassinated the chief representative of imperialist Japan in 1909 (They neglected to note that the location, Harbin, was then part of Russia. The city of Harbin is now proudly part of China (in fact, our tour guide in Beijing was originally from Harbin). The Korean government will be sending an official delegation to the museum next month (unless, we presume, the Japanese relent in some other supposedly unrelated disputes).

South Korea and China both are tussling with the Japanese over sovereignty rights in the waters between their respective nations. And what shall we call the ocean between Korea and Japan? Korean-American activists have worked hard to convince the state of Virginia to mandate that Virginian social studies students will now learn that the body of water between Japan and Korea is possibly known as the East Sea, rather than the prejudicial imperialist term Japan Sea. Oklahoma is next -- or so reports the Korea Times.

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