Go eat your Chinese food and relax. I had 갈빔žÃ¬Â°Å“, 김치, ê¹Â?딘Â?기, and 대구탔¢ for dinner. YUMMY!

Sorry, I should have written that the change occurred by the 1890s.

I really should blog my research, but I’m preparing it for a real-print article, so I want to do it carefully, but I will be able to show that when Japan took over Korea is irrelevant to the Corea/Korea issue.

It’s a red herring, pure and simple. Its only value is as a lithmus test for identifying people who express mindless outrage without checking the facts first.

Although Kushibo, Japan did have quite a lot of control over Korea in the 1890s, it just hadn’t been taken over outright yet.

The Korea/Corea thing is a stupid nationalistic red herring. There is already a body of evidence showing that the Korean government changed the spelling to Korea sometime in the 1890s, before Japan had any such control over the country.

Fortunately most of the Korean public isn’t buying that idea, and a bill to change the country’s spelling back to Corea died a quick death.

This is easy-peasy—in 90 days you’d have “Republic of Corea” sans the letter k. If this is a grievance, petition Roh.

Yes, I disagree with Curzon and Mutantfrog on some issues. We’ve been having some good discussions both online and via email about them as well. But, I respect both of their opinions and they make me think and sometimes really dig to justify what I have said.

Of course, I’m always right and they are always wrong, but that is beside the issue. ;-)

Plunge, and yourself, are just wrong. You’re hearing it now from the horse’s mouth itself and that still doesn’t convince you? Did you read what Roh said?

This is what the horse said: “We call on Japanese leaders not to make new apologies but to make actions suitable for the apologies already made“¦ In this context, we are not demanding any new apologies from Japan.”Â?

In other words, he’s asking for action to make the prior apologies actually mean something. In other words:

apology + action backing up apology = Plunge’s “strong apology”Â?

June, I am not interested in your sexual orientation! As for the Manila Times editorial, I heard some American nut recently say we should nuke the DPRK, but that doesn’t mean American demands such action. Similarly, I see an editorial in a newspaper asking for an apology, not evidence that Filipinos demand an apology.

But let Japan again apologize to the Philippines, why not? If it does some good, go for it. I just don’t think their claims make much senseã€Â? and to requote myself in re Japan’s numerous apologies to Korea:

The collective denial in this regard is curious: Japan has apologized, paid reparations, and the Korean government accepted it. Koreans I talk to repute this, saying the aforementioned apologies and reparation payments “don’t count”Â? because 1.) the Korean government at that time was not democratic (a tool of US interests!), and 2.) Japan wasn’t “sincere,”Â? whatever that means.

I got a good laugh though!

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/apr/24/yehey/opinion/20050424opi1.html

“...we are not demanding any new apologies from Japan.”

I think it is Plunge’s point that an apology of mere words is meaningless. When Murayama has to water down his apology by a Diet that rises up in protest against the words he is using, and when 80 or 90 Diet members visit Yasukuni Shrine on the day it is announced Koizumi will apologize, then the apology says little other than that the government-dominating LDP knows an apology is demanded.

In that link, Plunge describes several ideas for backing up the words to make it a real apology. Nothing along the lines of a sincere apology has happened, so we’re in no position to say that apologizing has failed.

The problem is not the reception to the strong apology, but that no strong apology has been forthcoming.