Diplomat’s Comment Spurs Protests

About 150 protesters converged outside the Japanese Consulate in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday to demand an end to Japan’s claim to a pair of islands called Dokdo, which are under South Korean control.

Shouting, “Is Japan still dreaming militarism?” and “Dokdo is Korean territory,” the mainly Korean American demonstrators from Los Angeles and Orange counties said they were upset by a Japanese diplomat’s statement last month that the islands belonged to his country.

“It is hard to believe that 60 years after we were liberated from them, Japan wants what has always been ours,” said Kee Sook Choi, an Orange County resident who was 7 when World War II ended.

To Koreans, Japan’s claim to Dokdo symbolizes its 35-year colonial rule of the Korean peninsula and the conscription then of hundreds of thousands of Koreans as forced laborers and sex slaves. After its surrender at the end of World War II, Japan renounced its claims to the Korean peninsula, although the peace treaty did not specifically mention the two islands.

Reiterating his country’s official stance, Yoshiyuki Isoda, a spokesman for the Japanese Consulate in Los Angeles, said Thursday that the two nations have held “different positions” on the islets.

“However, it is not beneficial for both our countries to incur emotional conflict over this issue,” he said. “It is important to maintain a good and friendly relationship regardless of the differences in our positions.”

Among the demonstrators Thursday was visiting South Korean painter Kwon Young Seob, 47.

Rolling out a 6-by-21-foot sheet of cotton on the sidewalk in front of California Plaza, Kwon painted Dokdo from memory in ink with sweeping strokes.

“I have done exhibitions of my Dokdo paintings in Australia, China, North Korea,” said Kwon. “But this is the first time I am painting during a demonstration.”

After visiting Dokdo for the first time in 2000, he became so moved by the beauty of the rocky islets that he has devoted his career to painting them, he said.

Passersby stopped to admire Kwon’s work and ask what was going on.

When told, Alfredo Reynaga, a Cal State Northridge student who is preparing to become a teacher, said, “I can relate to that. I am Mexican. California used to be our land.”

The islands, in water rich with fish, are currently occupied by a South Korean garrison.

After the Japanese ambassador to South Korea made a public statement last month that the islands historically and legally belonged to Japan, emotions on both sides of the dispute began to rise. The Japanese legislative body of Shimane Prefecture designated Feb. 22 as “Takeshima Day,” using the Japanese name for the islands and commemorating the date when Japan effectively took control over the Korean peninsula in 1905. Five years later, Japan annexed Korea.

Protests erupted last week in Seoul. Two people each cut off one of their own fingers to symbolize what they believed the loss of the islands would mean to their nation.

Dr. Yong Tai Lee, president of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles, met with Yuko Kaifu, acting deputy consul general, for about 15 minutes Thursday at the consulate on Grand Avenue. Lee submitted a statement demanding, among other things, that the Japanese government repeal its territorial claim to Dokdo and stop using the name “Sea of Japan” for the body of water between the two countries. Korea calls it the East Sea.

Although many Western maps call it the Sea of Japan, many older maps labeled it the Sea of Corea, Sea of Korea or the East Sea. Numerous international publications use both the East Sea and Sea of Japan.