User blog:YouTubeKorea/Korea: True Or False?

I'm here today to point something out.

It's about Korea. And as I learned from a lecture today, what I think of Korea and what you may think of Korea might be two very different things. I am just putting this into a blog post because I went around today in Itaeowon(이태원; a street in Seoul with a lot of foreigner-friendly places) and asked them the first word that came to their mind when thinking of Korea. The top two most frequently-said words were 'Split' and 'North'.

Which breaks my heart, because to think that our country is only known as 'the only divided country in the world'...I came to know Korea didn't have such a good reputation at all. So if you have even the slightest side of believing this, listen to what I say.

Yes, it's true that Korea had a very bad war and ended up split, North and South. And because of this, many people believe that Korea is still a poor country. But it's also true that we had been able to achieve economic prosperity and democracy in about sixty years, which, as I know, is a world record. So yeah, Korea is not such a poor country after all.

History textbooks all around the world(paticularly in the US), however, obviously don't know this. Or maybe they want people to keep thinking that Korea is still a poor country. Because, when you look at a normal history textbook and read the pages about Korea(if Korea is even mentioned at all), it keeps dubbing Korea as "the Hermit Kingdom", due to the fact that Korea is supposedly a "weakling" standing in the way between two "whale countries", China and Japan. If that isn't enough, they strongly emphasize that Korea was a "slave country" to China until the Japanese took over in the post Russo-Japanese War.

Now, I'm not saying this is false. Indeed, Korea had constantly been bothered by Chinese interventions, and Japan did turn Koreans into slaves until the end of World War 2. But calling it "the Hermit Kingdom" suggests that Korea never had the chance to stand up on its own. I am here to tell you that during Goguryu(고구려; an old country that ruled the land before Korea) times, half of China's land was ruled by them. Not to mention Balhae(발해; another old country, descended from Goguryu) conquered all the land Goguryu previously conquered, plus even some of Russian land. So Korea wasn't exactly "the Hermit Kingdom". And Japan was only able to become a "whale country" because Korea provided them  with food, protection from China, and treasure when they were barely a standing country to begin with. Only to get stabbed in the back.

Another thing that ticks me off is the inevitable fact that the US favors Japan over Korea, which is why, again in American textbooks, you see these.





Starting off, 'Takeshima' is not the real name of this island. The real island name is Dokdo(독도). The reason American textbooks say this is because Japan keeps arguing that it is indeed "owned" by Japan, and that they have ruled it for centuries. However, Korea has ruled this island for over than a millenium, and Japan only ever got access to this island during their colonial rule over us.

Then there's the dispute over the East Sea.

Now, you may all have learned this region as the Sea of Japan, because yet again, to US, Japan > Korea. But while I'm not saying it should be changed to the Sea of Korea, the sea shouldn't be given to Japan. The sea is between Korea, Japan, and Russia, and China, which is why in this case, Korea's not the only country complaining. But it's a sad fact that not even Wikipedia is helping.



So all I'm asking is this:

Next time someone asks you what you think of Korea, just don't use the words 'divided' or 'split'.

Next time someone asks you what the sea between Korea, Japan, and Russia is called, call it the East Sea.

Next time someone asks you what the island between Korea and Japan is called, call it Dokdo.

Because this is the truth, you know. And if you have read this through, it means you have been educated properly.