The Historical Precedent for the East Sea (Sea of Japan): An Invisible Placenaming War since 1992

Abstract

Today my presentation have brought very practical information which might be helpful for classroom education and have explained the nature of the invisible naming war between Korea and Japan. Even though the geographical themes have been shifted from one to another over the history of geography since the times of Greek, there is one theme, toponymy which has remained an important subject and a basic element for the study of regional geography. It is the well-known fact that it has been taken over many centuries in order to correct a monumental collection of incorrect place names in Ptolemy's comprehensive atlas. For geography teachers and researchers, it is essential to understand the nature of place nomenclature. In addition to geographers needs and interests, recently geographical place names have become much more important. All people need place names to communicate with each other and place names become key elements in socio-economic activities such as cartography, census and relief operations, postal services, trade, and the like. Also, when the names of certain places, especially containing or sharing historical meaning and national feelings such as a part of national anthem and ritual objective as God of the sea, are not properly used, a controversy is flamed in national and international circles.