The Falklands, Asian style
If 9/11 has become a trigger for overweaning flag-waving around the United States, its current equivalent in Korea is Dokdo.
Dokdo is an island off Korea's east coast, and it's a site of which the Koreans are fiercely proud, at the moment, despite it being a rock you can walk across in perhaps five minutes. You see, some months ago, some Japanese conservatives dug up an old map (drawn by a European, I'm told by one of my students) that shows Dokdo as part of Japanese territory, and have used this as a basis for making a claim on the island. They frankly haven't a leg to stand on, as there are scores of other old maps that claim the opposite, but Koreans (certainly Korean kids) take this issue very seriously indeed. There are Dokdo tee-shirts (I own one; it's very pretty, and written, for reasons unknown, not in Korean or Japanese, but in Chinese), Dokdo songs, Dokdo posters, Dokdo photography exhibits, and ... Dokdo movie previews.
The Dokdo preview is computer animation. It starts out with a view of Dokdo's pristine and rocky shore (only one; it isn't big enough to merit a plural), with its sea bird nests and lighthouse. It then portrays the most pathetic fleet of ships ever to hit the silver screen. This is a ramshackle collection of aged galleys that seem half made out of garbage, sloshing its way towards Dokdo, crewed by offensively stereotyped Japanese, commanded, apparently, by a diminutive, mustashioed, buck-toothed, samurai-helmeted, katana-waving, screechy little guy hopping up and down as he howls orders. As the seagulls look on in bemusement a disturbance stirs the deep waters and an ENORMOUS FUCKING ROBOT (dripping irony as much as sea water to my uninvolved American eye) rises up out of the sea and busts this offensive little invasion fleet to splinters. The hopping, foaming admiral ends up with a crate for a flagship and goggles and howls for the few moments preceding the well-aimed salvo of seagull droppings that unseats him from his perch. The view then pans out for a panoramic view of Dokdo, with its robotic defender visible beneath the waves, holding it benevolently in the palm of one hand.
I will admit from the outset that my opinion of nationalism in general is pretty damn poor. Respect for cultures and history aside, upholding your own culture tends to go hand in hand with denegrating others, and that, in turn, makes it easier to justify seeing them as less than human. Witness Serbia. Witness Sudan. Witness Japan itself during World War 2. My opinion of it gets even worse when it provokes this kind of propagandistic tripe, which recalls the "slap a Jap" posters of WW2. One of my students-- one I usually give credit for basic intelligence as opposed to mindless jingoism-- suggested nuking Tokyo if Japan dared to make a move on Dokdo. He suggested buying a nuke from the US, sticking it on a missile, and launching it into the largest, most populous metropolis in Japan. Why? To teach them a lesson.
Total ASS. Granted, certain of my middle school classmates were all for nuking Iraq during the first Persian Gulf War, so I'm not taking that too seriously, except that I've got this sneaking suspicion that it's not that uncommon a sentiment-- and possibly not just among kids.
To be fair, the Dokdo argument isn't really over the pile of rocks itself, but over fishing rights in the surrounding waters (pretty good fishing spot, apparently). Considering each country's seafood intake, I can see how this would be a big deal, but still. There have already been incidents of people setting themselves on fire in front of the Japanese embassy. If this issue goes any hotter, it's only a matter of time before someone decides that the best protest is the one that makes an object lesson of a foreign national.
Someone needs to tone down the rhetoric before somebody gets hurt. Or killed. My recent impression has been that Japan has toned down a few of its more offensive calls for this or that, but I'm not sure of the truth of this. What I do know is, if there is bloodshed over this, it will be a stupidity of the first order, and no, I will not be understanding about it.
Dokdo is an island off Korea's east coast, and it's a site of which the Koreans are fiercely proud, at the moment, despite it being a rock you can walk across in perhaps five minutes. You see, some months ago, some Japanese conservatives dug up an old map (drawn by a European, I'm told by one of my students) that shows Dokdo as part of Japanese territory, and have used this as a basis for making a claim on the island. They frankly haven't a leg to stand on, as there are scores of other old maps that claim the opposite, but Koreans (certainly Korean kids) take this issue very seriously indeed. There are Dokdo tee-shirts (I own one; it's very pretty, and written, for reasons unknown, not in Korean or Japanese, but in Chinese), Dokdo songs, Dokdo posters, Dokdo photography exhibits, and ... Dokdo movie previews.
The Dokdo preview is computer animation. It starts out with a view of Dokdo's pristine and rocky shore (only one; it isn't big enough to merit a plural), with its sea bird nests and lighthouse. It then portrays the most pathetic fleet of ships ever to hit the silver screen. This is a ramshackle collection of aged galleys that seem half made out of garbage, sloshing its way towards Dokdo, crewed by offensively stereotyped Japanese, commanded, apparently, by a diminutive, mustashioed, buck-toothed, samurai-helmeted, katana-waving, screechy little guy hopping up and down as he howls orders. As the seagulls look on in bemusement a disturbance stirs the deep waters and an ENORMOUS FUCKING ROBOT (dripping irony as much as sea water to my uninvolved American eye) rises up out of the sea and busts this offensive little invasion fleet to splinters. The hopping, foaming admiral ends up with a crate for a flagship and goggles and howls for the few moments preceding the well-aimed salvo of seagull droppings that unseats him from his perch. The view then pans out for a panoramic view of Dokdo, with its robotic defender visible beneath the waves, holding it benevolently in the palm of one hand.
I will admit from the outset that my opinion of nationalism in general is pretty damn poor. Respect for cultures and history aside, upholding your own culture tends to go hand in hand with denegrating others, and that, in turn, makes it easier to justify seeing them as less than human. Witness Serbia. Witness Sudan. Witness Japan itself during World War 2. My opinion of it gets even worse when it provokes this kind of propagandistic tripe, which recalls the "slap a Jap" posters of WW2. One of my students-- one I usually give credit for basic intelligence as opposed to mindless jingoism-- suggested nuking Tokyo if Japan dared to make a move on Dokdo. He suggested buying a nuke from the US, sticking it on a missile, and launching it into the largest, most populous metropolis in Japan. Why? To teach them a lesson.
Total ASS. Granted, certain of my middle school classmates were all for nuking Iraq during the first Persian Gulf War, so I'm not taking that too seriously, except that I've got this sneaking suspicion that it's not that uncommon a sentiment-- and possibly not just among kids.
To be fair, the Dokdo argument isn't really over the pile of rocks itself, but over fishing rights in the surrounding waters (pretty good fishing spot, apparently). Considering each country's seafood intake, I can see how this would be a big deal, but still. There have already been incidents of people setting themselves on fire in front of the Japanese embassy. If this issue goes any hotter, it's only a matter of time before someone decides that the best protest is the one that makes an object lesson of a foreign national.
Someone needs to tone down the rhetoric before somebody gets hurt. Or killed. My recent impression has been that Japan has toned down a few of its more offensive calls for this or that, but I'm not sure of the truth of this. What I do know is, if there is bloodshed over this, it will be a stupidity of the first order, and no, I will not be understanding about it.