From ADIZ to UDIZ (but NIMBY-do shall never surrender)

Shinzo Abe's sabre-rattling tactics have paid beyond his wildest expectations: he needed China to play its imperialist tune a bit louder to justify his sick return to Imperial Japan militarism, and Beijing kindly obliged. Abe probably helped his fellow hardliners from the Middle Kingdom (who'd been champing at the bit for months) make the best of the recent plenum, and get the nod for pushing a few more stones on the East Asian go board.

China first brought the 'battleships' game from the sea to the air level by redrawing its ADIZ - Air Defense Identification Zone over disputed territories, triggering outrage from Korea and Japan (see "One Flew Over the Senkaku's Nest - Nationalist maps of Asia"), and later opened an underwater front by claiming ownership of thousands of shipwrecks across the region:

After the skies, China brings East Asia "Battleships" game to yet another level: underwater ("UDIZ"?): "China Takes Territorial Disputes to Shipwrecks in South China Sea" (WSJ 20131202)
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/407379744577957888 (20131202)

Nothing new under the sun: archaeologist have already been drafted before (most notably for the infamous "Northeast Project"), and if you wonder about underwater or shipwreck disputes, remember Ieodo, or that ship deliberately stuck in 1999 to the Second Thomas Shoal reef by the Philippines. That's around the very disputed Spratly Islands, a surrealistic space claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, and China, where a nation once lost an island while its lonely guard went to play a basketball game with a fellow Robinson*.

As we go to virtual press, Korea has yet to decide the final cut for its new ADIZ. For Winter-Spring 2013-2014, fashionistas expect longer sleeves, ideal to cover Ieodo during harsh seasons:

As Luis Mariano would sing, in "La Belle de Cadiz": "le label de KADIZ a les Ieodo velours, le label de KADIZ vous invite a l'amour" (aie aie aie)

Meanwhile, I am still keeping an eye on my much coveted rocks of Nimby-do, claimed as "Nukeyoushima" by Japan and "Zatsmain Dao" by China:

"I hereby declare a 3-mile ADIZ around these rocks, and won't hesitate to intercept any Tomcat entering our garden"
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/406199988419457024 (20131129)

BREAKING: my "Nimby-do" Islets are now claimed by Japan (as "Nukeyoushima") and China (as "Zatsmain Dao")
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/406257017292984320 (20131129)

And meanwhile, rumor has it all the seas in the region could be soon renamed Yellow Dust Desert.

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* Speaking of Mrs Robinson... "are you going to Scarborough Shoal?" (...) "tell her to find me an acre of land" (...) "Then she'll be a true love of mine" fields.

One Flew Over the Senkaku's Nest - Nationalist maps of Asia

China just tested Japan's nerves by patrolling its newly redefined "East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone"*. 

The "battleships" game between Japan and China around the Senkaku-Diaoyu islands has moved to a new level: the skies. Next step? Space, probably in an episode titled "The Empire Strikes Back".

Of course, China's air defense zone includes Ieodo, a (contested) Korean (submerged) territory we already mentioned, and Seoul is not very happy about that (see "China Claims Buffer Airspace from Korea, Japan" - The Chosun Ilbo 20131125).

Actually, across the region, the Facebook status of most islets - sometimes whole archipelagos - reads "it's complicated". And ultra-nationalists like Shinzo Abe love to fan the flames because they feed upon them. I won't replay all the previous moves of this sick and silly games, but here are a couple of them:

• "France claims the British Isles at the United Nations",
• "Shinzo Abe: an offensive Defense White Paper ahead of the elections... and Constitutional Revolution",
• "Dokdo, Senkaku, Ieodo, Kuril,... Hashima?",
• "Ieodo: I smell a fish"
• ...

And just to help you get it, here are simplified versions of a few nationalist maps of Asia:

Note that Shinzo Abe only claims part of the old Japanese Empire. Even hardcore fascists have soft spots, it seems.

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* see for instance "Chinese pilots patrol controversial air zone over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands" (The Telegraph 2013112)

Dokdo, Senkaku, Ieodo, Kuril,... Hashima?

Some day, Hasbro will make a fortune by releasing a Far East Islands Edition of its popular Risk board game. That would require anamorphic maps where islets no bigger than shrimp farts would outsize mainland China, so that each player could place all his armies and nuclear warheads.

Impossible to list all the hotspots, but they must involve at least two nations. To name some of the biggest stars
- Dokdo (Korean, claimed by Japan)*
- Senkaku (claimed by Japan and China)**
- Ieodo (claimed by Korea and China)***
- Kuril (claimed by Russia and Japan)
- Taiwan (claimed by China and... Taiwan)
- Gushiddink-do (claimed by the Netherlands and Korea... Gus kiddin'. Well barely, actually)
- ...

No one has lived on Hashima since the mid seventies, but no one contests the fact that this speck belongs to Japan. It's just that Korea has something to say about its submission to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.


"Do you remember?"
A poster similar to this ad
(published in the NYT last may) has just
been installed on Times Square. Koreans
ask Japanese politicians to officially
apologise, like Chancelor Willy Brandt
did when he knelt in front of the Warsaw
memorial for victims of the Holocaust

Hashima is truly an amazing and spectacular site. Mitsubishi used to own this island very rich in coal: the company built industrial facilities and dwellings over the mine, closed them in 1974, and eventually ceded everything to Nagasaki Prefecture ten years ago. I remember a beautifully scary documentary, a long time ago, about this islet fully covered with abandoned concrete structures on the verge of collapse.

On Thursday****, the Korean government announced that it refused to see Hashima join the UNESCO list in 2015, because that's a place where 800 Koreans were forced into dangerous and inhumane labor, sometimes tortured, or killed. It happened during WWII, and the lucky ones who survived the ordeal were sent to Nagasaki to help clean the mess after the nuclear bombing, adding radiation to insult and injury.

The claim is not new, but new research has been delivered by a governmental agency created in 2005, the Commission on Verification and Support for Victims of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Colonialism, which already revealed last summer that, of the 7.8 million Koreans mobilized under Japanese rule (1910-1945), over 226,000 have been registered as victims.

Lately, Korean authorities have been toying with Godwin's law, and the parallel between atrocities committed across Asia under Imperial Japanese rule, and the Holocaust perpetrated by their Nazi friends in Germany. Like that "Do you remember?" campaign in the US demanding official apologies for sex slavery / "Comfort Women". In the same vein, a UNESCO listing of Hashima as a simple "industrial site" would be equivalent to the listing of Auschwitz-Birkenau under the same category.

Outrageous? Yes, because the Shoah cannot be commoditized. But certainly less outrageous than the parallel between the victims of WWII bombings in Okinawa and the victims of the Pol Pot regime*****.

And certainly less outrageous than the revisionism institutionalized within Japan's political system. Again, Japan's failure to address its duty to remember lies at the root of too many problems. And again, the longer the task is postponed, the higher the risks of fueling anger across the region (particularly since that's the very aim of the game).

I suggest Hashima be listed only if it's with a clear and full mention of all sides of the coin. Visitors should not come out marvelling about the engineering wonder, but thinking about how deep humans can dig themselves into.

I'm not sure Mistubishi will support the motion.


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* see all posts related to Dokdo,
** see the recent focus "Japan politics? No to Comfort women, yes to Political whoring"
*** see "Ieodo: I smell a fish" and other posts related to Ieodo
****  see Korean press, including "Hashima ― forgotten island of tragedy" (Korea Herald 20121004)
** see "Ad Nauseam: about Dark Tourism, the Blind Spots of Memory, and Free Thrashing Agreements"

---
UPDATE - typo title

Ieodo: I smell a fish

Long time no Ieodo claims from China!

For the Dokdo-esque fight between Korea and China over this obscure underwater territory known as Suyan Rock in Beijing, see "Korea on the rocks part II". Since Ieodo is underwater, it cannot be seen on a map*, but I positioned it (supposedly 32.122953, 125.182447) on Seoul Village map:

View Seoul Village in a larger map

The revival of such claims doesn't come as a surprise: Chinese fishing boats have recently tested South Korean nerves, the ongoing crisis culminating last December, when a Chinese fisherman stabbed a Korean coast guard to death. China has also been flexing its navy muscles across the globe, patrolling the seas with brand new fleets.

Just like with Japan and Dokdo, nationalism and politics are only part of the show: it's also about territorial waters and fishing zones, and China's catching up with its neighbors in fish and meat consumption... So skirmishes and provocations are bound to multiply.

Note that on the other side of the peninsula, Korea claimed a symbolic victory last month, when French publisher Larousse decided to switch for a balanced label to designate the body of water separating Korea from Japan: "Sea of Japan" now only appears in parentheses after the actual name, "East Sea"**.

Brace up for Ieodoisms, folks: fancy documentaries about rare planctons roaming the area? daily weather reports? 'Ieodo is Korean' bumper stickers?... you name it!

Be quick: someone may rename it.

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* even if Koreans planted a Korean Ieodo Ocean Research Station to mark the territory, without waiting for a verdict from global warming.
** "French Encyclopedia Publisher Adopts 'East Sea' Denomination" (Chosun Ilbo, February 20, 2012)

Korea on the rocks part II

Winds have been blowing in many directions over Dokdo since our last visit*.

Japanese hardliners could almost claim victory after getting from the US Board of Geographic Names to obliterate Dokdo and to promote the Japanese-leaning "Liancourt Rocks" and "Sea of Japan" labels.

But then LEE Myung-bak and George W. Bush met, sat down, prayed for a while, and voila Dokdo back on the maps.

Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese Prime Minister who obviously switched to nationalist mode only to prepare his cabinet reshuffle, will probably have to visit Yasukuni shrine a few times and ignite a few controversies in order to remain in power. I don't wish him good luck.

And now China is claiming Ieodo (Parangdo until 2001 - Suyan Rock for China and Socotra Rocks for the ROTW), a rock located between Jeju-do and China**. I'm not familiar with this issue but if the closest uncontested territories are Korean, then Chinese, then Japanese, Korea's claim seems less evident than for Dokdo.

As an underwater body, the rock cannot be claimed by anyone, but Korea built the Ieodo Ocean Research Station (along with a helipad) on its top during the 90s.

On that one, China's move seems rather defensive... But ever the best strategists, the Chinese pick the best timing to position themselves : Bush is leaving Taiwan today for Beijing in order to attend the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Speaking of games... this looks like chess : will Korea declare pat with China (OK for the neutrality of this area as an act of goodwill, but you stop claiming the Goguryeo heritage) ? or will Korea cling to this Ieodo pawn to the risk of threatening his Dokdo royal couple ?


* see "Claiming Dokdo as Takeshima equals claiming Seoul as Gyeongseong" (20080518), and the following blogules in French : "Le Japon décide de recoloniser Dokdo" (20080714) and "Néofascisme et racisme au programme" (20080719)
** see "China Promotes Claims over Korean Island" (20080808 Chosun Ilbo)