Is it Dokdo? Is it Takeshima?

Every weekday morning, there is a familiar uproar in the form of impassioned speeches, group chants, and rock music across the street from the Japanese embassy in the designated protest area, which happens to be 7 stories right below my window.



(You can see the Japanese flag flying on the roof - upper right corner.)

Japanese/Korean relations have been icy for hundreds of years, but mostly since the occupation during the first half of the 20th century. Consequently, that protest area is backlogged with countless groups waiting their turn to shout their grievances at the front gate.

The most popular one nowadays involves a new turn in a decades-old dispute over a small hunk of rock WAY out in the ocean.






Detailed history here.
The international community has long recognized it as Korean-controlled Dokdo Island, but Japan disputes this claim and refers to the island as Takeshima. This disagreement has mostly led to no more than grumbles, until a couple of years ago when the Japanese Ministry of Education issued a directive that Japan's ownership over "Takeshima" would now be taught as fact in schools.

The day I took the pic above & video below, a large clump of Korean veterans from (believe it or not) the Vietnam War were doing the protest. Notice across the street that the police guarding the embassy are massed between two large busses.

There is a cool little model of Dokdo at Anguk metro station.


As Michael demonstrates here, there's just something about this island that awakens some real aggression.

Location:Japanese Embassy (aka outside my window), Seoul, South Korea