THE ASAHI SHIMBUN2008/7/28
The latest flare-up between Japan and South Korea over the Takeshima islets has led to the cancellation of exchanges between students, who are now calling on their governments to settle the dispute.
The outrage in South Korea stems from the July 14 announcement by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on a revised manual for junior high school teachers, which will be applied from 2012.
The manual refers to the Takeshima islets in the Sea of Japan as Japanese territory.
The South Korean government, which also claims sovereignty to the islets it calls Tokto, expressed immediate anger and called back its ambassador to Japan.
Now, the diplomatic dispute has filtered down to student exchange programs. Soon after the education ministry's announcement, the Seocho ward government in Seoul informed Tokyo's Suginami Ward that it has suspended exchange programs for junior and senior high school students in the two wards.
A delegation of about 20 from Seocho had planned to visit Suginami for four days starting July 31.
The exchange program started five years ago.
A Seocho ward section chief in charge of the program said the visit would be impossible under the current circumstances, given the sentiment of people in the ward and the nation.
The exchange program was not affected in summer 2005 after the Shimane prefectural assembly in March adopted an ordinance designating Feb. 22 as "Takeshima Day," aiming to formally establish the prefecture's claim over the islets.
"The antipathy in South Korea is stronger (than in 2005) because the latest move is by the Japanese state government," the Seocho official said.
The planned visit from Aug. 6 to Yeongcheon city in South Korea by high school students in Kuroishi, Aomori Prefecture, was also scrapped.
An official of Yeongcheon said local citizens are more sensitive to the territorial dispute because the city is in Gyeongsangbuk-do province, which claims ownership of the islets.
In addition, the mayor of Yeongcheon cancelled a planned trip to Kuroishi.
The Musashino municipal government in western Tokyo called off a visit by junior and senior high school students to Gangdong ward in Seoul at the request of the ward government.
Musashino Mayor Morimasa Murakami said it is very regrettable that a state-level dispute has affected relationships at the local level.
"We will continue with the exchange program," Murakami said.
Other officials of grass-roots exchange programs are also determined to survive the worsened bilateral ties. Yokote Seiryo Gakuin high school in Yokote, Akita Prefecture, welcomed 23 students from a South Korean high school on July 22.
The prefectural high school formed a sister-school alliance with the South Korean school in 2006.
An 18-year-old South Korean student said he believes the two countries should enhance ties by further promoting private-sector exchanges.
A 17-year-old Japanese female student said the dispute between the two state governments should not be brought into high schools.
The Kawasaki municipal government plans to carry out a scheduled exchange event for high school students with Puchon, a friendship city in South Korea.
The exchange program started in 2000.
This summer's event will include a discussion about the Takeshima issue.
Hiroshi Kazamaki, a teacher at Kanagawa Prefectural Asao High School in Kawasaki who has led the program, said a serious debate will help nurture the students' relations.
"We want to expand grass-roots exchanges so that the Takeshima dispute will not start a chain of negative reactions," the teacher said. (IHT/Asahi: July 28,2008)
Posts
