East Sea or Sea Of Japan

Part I: In Search of the Lost Name, “East Sea”
1.The East Sea at a Glance 19
2.The Name “East Sea” 29
3.Different Names of the East Sea/Sea of Japan and Their Toponymy 39
4.International Organizations and the Name“East Sea” 63
5.The Name “East Sea” in the World 77
6.Map Road 91
7.Korea Road 107

Part II: Notation of the Name “East Sea” in the World
1.Arabs’ Advance to the East and Their Perceptions of Korea 127
2.Old Maps and the Notation of the Name “East Sea” in Italy 137
3.Old Maps and the Notation of the Name “East Sea” by Vatican Missionaries 147
4.Old Maps and the Notation of the Name “East Sea” in the German-speaking World 157
5.Old Maps and the Notation of the Name “East Sea” in Portugal 165
6.Old Maps and the Notation of the Name “East Sea” in the Netherlands 177
7.Old Maps and the Notation of the Name “East Sea” in France 195
8.Old Maps and the Notation of the Name “East Sea” in Great Britain 233
9.Old Maps and the Notation of the Name “East Sea” in Russia 255
10.Studies of the Names “East Sea” and “Sea of Japan” and their Notation in Japan 271
11.Notation of the Name “East Sea” in Chinese Historical Records 285
12.Notation of the Name “East Sea” in Korean Historical and Cultural Documents and Old Maps 311

Part III: Papers on the Notation of the Name “East Sea”
1.Japanese Studies of Old Western Maps and Their Problems with Focus on the “Origin and Functions of Geographical Names” 339
2.Why We Object to the Use of the Name “Sea of Japan” Alone? 371

References 387

서문 Preface

When I was an elementary school student, I always went to school earlier than the other students because I lived nearby. When I arrived at the classroom, I looked up and down the Korean map on the wall everyday and read the names of the mountains, mountain ranges, and seas on it. I could see that the East Sea was larger than the Korean peninsula. The East Sea, along with the Yellow Sea to the west and the South Sea to the south, made a deep impression on me.

Then, the Korean War broke out in the year when I started middle school and the school closed. The next day, I went to a coffee shop with one of my relatives and found a Korean map in English for the U.S. armed forces on a chair near the stove. I had nothing to do, so I sat and opened the map. Surprisingly, I saw “Sea of Japan” in the East Sea. It was not the same name that I had seen every day when I went to elementary school. I assumed that the name must be a misprint. “The American soldiers are ignorant and don’t know that the proper name is the ‘East Sea.’” I resolved to learn English more and tell them that they had made a mistake.

It was not a particularly great shock to me, and I was so engrossed in my studies that I completely forgot about it. Then, about 15 years later in the late 1960s when I was about to finish my studies in France, I visited Versailles. There, in a living room of Louis XIV, I noticed an old terrestrial globe. I saw the small country Korea with the marking “Mer Orientale” beside it. At that moment, I screamed at myself, “That’s it! The French knew the proper name. I’ll study this!” However, I was studying French language and literature and the new topic seemed too removed from me. I, therefore, decided to tell Korean students studying Korean Studies in France what I had found when I met them at a meeting. Contrary to my expectations, they were completely indifferent. They were only interested in their research papers.

When I returned to Korea, I told of my discovery to friends of mine who were newspaper reporters. They responded much more positively. One of them printed the story. It gave me a stronger sense of responsibility of a kind, and I felt obliged to prove to them that what I told them was true. I visited France during my summer vacation that year and tried to get a copy of the map that I had seen. I talked with a French student who was studying geography, and he told me that there were some map shops along the Seine. I went there and asked for an old map of Korea. What they brought me was a map with the notation “Sea of Korea” instead of “East Sea.” I bought the map anyway and showed it to the geography student. He told me that he didn’t know much about the map and proposed that we go to the library and find a catalogue of maps. After some searching, we found a record that the map that I had bought was one which was influenced by D’Anville and did not have much original content. I then decided that I would have to find a map by D’Anville.

That decision led me to the hard life of collecting old maps. I visited France every year to collect old maps under the pretext of everything that I could think of. This was costly to me, but I could not get out of the swamp of the old maps that I happened to fall into.

While collecting old maps with the notation of the East Sea, I began to wonder if calling the sea to the east of Korea the ”East Sea” was Korea-centric since such a name was obviously based on Korea's geographical position? If every country named a sea this way, wouldn’t that be a cause of confusion? A linguistic major myself, I consulted a scholar who was versed in nomenclature about this problem. He explained that, when a common noun is used as a name and then is turned a proper noun, the noun loses the etymological meaning of the common noun and is treated as a proper noun. However, when the noun contains a proper noun in the first place, the noun retains the value of the proper noun even after the name becomes a proper noun. Therefore, such names as “Sea of Korea” and “Sea of Japan” are exclusive and thus inappropriate, but “East Sea” is not: Once it becomes a proper noun, it drops the meaning of a common name, or the meaning “a sea in the east,” and remains a simple proper noun. Wherever it is seen in the world, the name “East Sea” is a proper noun, whether it is seen in the United Kingdom to the west of Korea or in Russia to its north, and not a sea to their east. To foreigners who do not know the meaning, he added that all that is needed is a note that it refers to “the sea between Korea and Japan.”

I collected old maps from the late 1960s to the 1990s. I joined the Society for East Sea and continued my research. In the early days, I thought that the “East Sea” was the right name and it should be used on maps in place of the “Sea of Japan.” However, I gradually changed my mind: as the “Sea of Japan” has recently come into more frequent use and is supported by vested interests, it would be more rational to use both names. I then started to research the maps with the notation “Sea of Japan” in addition to those with the “East Sea.” I wrote this book with the conviction that the “East Sea” and the “Sea of Japan” should be used together. To this end, I studied the notations of the sea between Korea and Japan on maps of many countries of the world and attempted to relate the truths about the “East Sea/Sea of Japan” as objectively as possible.

I did the overall organization for the original Korean edition of this book. However, as the problem of the name “East Sea” involves many fields, I could not do everything all by myself. I am greatly indebted to Professor Kim In-Whan for sponsoring my collection of old maps and writing the chapters about Europe in this book.
For this English edition, I decided that the original Korean text needed to be revised and supplemented throughout. This work was done by Park Young-Min, who also assisted greatly in the translation of this book.
I would like to thank Gimmyoung Publishers, the publisher of the original Korean book, for gladly permitting the publication of its English edition, and the Korea Foundation for sponsoring the publication of this book. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Kim In-Chul, the president of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, for making the publication of this book possible. I also extend my appreciation to the director and staff of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Knowledge Press. I express my thanks to Professor Suh Min-Suk for making every effort to organize the draft, despite his busy schedule.
I also hereby extend my great thanks to the Society for East Sea for their substantial help in such matters as my relationship with international organizations, historical study of the name of the East Sea, and the notations of the East Sea in foreign countries, including China, Russia, and Japan. I frequently referred to the papers presented at the annual International Seminar on Sea Names hosted by the Society for the last 20 years.
Finally, I earnestly hope that the East Sea will become not a flashpoint of dispute between Korea and Japan but a sea of friendship and peace between them. I have great confidence that it will.

Nov. 2015
Representing the two authors,
Soh Jeong-Cheol