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Question

How is the name for the East Sea area written in the modern geography textbooks of Korea and Japan?

Answer

In all ages and countries, name is essential to geographical awareness. A place name is either native or foreign depending on its origin. For example, if East Sea is a native name, Sea of Japan is a foreign name used first by the Westerners. In modern Korea and Japan, the name Sea of Japan had been used in various geography books and maps under the Western influence. But this period has not been studied in Korea because emphasis has been placed instead on the argument that the name East Sea dates back to 2,000 years ago. As the geography textbook is the best reflection of the geographic awareness of the time, the modern geography textbooks of Korea and Japan offer a glimpse into the naming trends of the East Sea area.

To begin with, in Japan, a number of maps and geography textbooks for primary and secondary schools have been produced since the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Gaejisinpyeon by Hashizume Kanichi in 1869 used North Sea, the native name used by locals at that time, in place of Sea of Japan. On the other hand, Seikaikunidukuji by Hukuzawa Yukichi, published in the same year, used the name Sea of Japan. This is due to the literal translation of the name used by the history and geography books published in the U.K. and the U.S. Hukuzawa Yukichi and other enlightenment philosophers had introduced Western institutions and books, and faithfully translated and accepted the name Sea of Japan in the process. While the name Sea of Japan gradually spread to the geography textbooks of Japan as a result, the tendency to avoid naming the East Sea area or write it as North Sea still remained until the end of the 19th century. It was Japan's victory of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 that played the decisive role in establishing the name Sea of Japan in Japan.
Recognizing the importance of this sea, Japan adopted Sea of Japan as its official name to signify that it was Japan's territory.

Meanwhile, in Korea, from the beginning of modern education to Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910, thirty kinds of government-inspected and authorized geography textbooks (including appended maps) had been published. They used a variety of names for the East Sea area: East Sea, Vast Sea, Blue Sea, Great Sea, Sea of Joseon, Sea of Great Korea, Sea of Japan, or combinations of the above. The first geography textbook ever published in Korea in 1889 was 『Saminpilji』 by Homer Hulbert, an American missionary and teacher of Royal English School, where the East Sea area is written as Sea of Japan. This is due to the literal translation of the name Sea of Japan as written in the original American geography textbook. In 1895, the Ministry of Education published its first 『Joseon Geography』 and 『World Geography』 textbooks, both of which used Sea of Japan as the official place name in the text. This is because then Minister of Education Lee Wan-Yong had commissioned Editor-in-Chief Takami to make the textbooks and Takami had faithfully translated the textbooks of Japan containing the name Sea of Japan.

As described above, the name of the East Sea area was written as Sea of Japan during the dawning of the modern geography education of Korea due to the influence of the West and Japan. Nevertheless, many of the geography textbooks during this period also used the name East Sea. And the names 'Sea of Great Korea' and 'Sea of Joseon' were also used as independent alternatives to Sea of Japan. Although various names were used for the East Sea area in the modern geography texts of Korea, Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910 eventually made Sea of Japan the official name in its colony Joseon.