New Jersey Lawmakers Want To Rename The Sea Of Japan

[meegbear]

Source: TalkingPointsMemo.com

A group of local politicians in New Jersey would like to rewrite maps of Asia. On Monday, five New Jersey Democrats introduced a bill that would rename the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula.

Currently, the sea is known as the Sea of Japan. But, according to the Star-Ledger newspaper, the bill would require "the state and all its political subdivisions, 'to the extent practicable'" to refer to the body of water as both the "East Sea" and the "Sea of Japan." Textbooks in New Jersey schools would have to adopt the new names starting in 2016.

The five backers of the bill represent what the Star-Ledger described as a "large and politically active Korean-American community." South Koreans have argued the name "Sea of Japan" is "colonialist" while the Japanese government has said the name is more familiar to the international community.

According to Kyodo News International, Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga discussed the bill at a press conference Thursday.


Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/new-jersey-sea-of-japan

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Really guys? REALLY?

[RGinNJ]

1. Sometimes I hate my state.

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. That's all they have to do with their time?

WTF............

[Blue_Tires]

12. I'm guessing someone owed someone a favor

or some wealthy folks in the Korean-American community scratched out some re-election fund checks...

[UpInArms]

3. what an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars

the time spent, the printing costs

all of it -

stupid stupid stupid

[Chorophyll]

4. Well, it's not like anything else is going on in New Jersey.

[calimary]

7. LOL!!!

Understatement of the year! Are they republi-CONS? Maybe they're looking for something - anything - to distract?

[Bryce Butler]

10. They're Democrats.

"On Monday, five New Jersey Democrats introduced a bill that would rename the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula."

[durablend]

13. His point still stands

Did those five people have any connection to Christie by chance?

[Spirochete]

20. Can't be Republcons

or they'd want to rename it the Sea of Reagan...

[calimary]

26. LOL!!!!!!!

Dayum! You just made a GREAT point!!!!

[awoke_in_2003]

29. DUzy alert...

And a solid home run.

[sulphurdunn]

5. Well, there goes

the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, the South China Sea, the Philippine Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, the Singapore Straight, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Irish Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the English Channel, and the list goes on.

[happyslug]

18. Don't knock it, Saudi Arabia wants the Persian Gulf renamed the "Arabian Gulf".

AND some US news sources have complied. It is opposed internationally do to the Arabian Sea being similar AND at one time the Red Sea was known as the Arabian Gulf (we like reading documents that use names we can ID today, thus when someone in the past wrote about the "Arabia Gulf" was in talking about the Red Sea, the Arabia Sea or the Persian Gulf? Thus changing names is generally bad UNLESS it is to clarify names.

On the other hand sometimes a change in name is called for. Even today you have people who take a plane to Washington State (or Washington DC) and end up in Washington DC (Or Washington State) when they wanted to go to the other Washington. Some people have called for Washington State to be renamed "State of Pudget Sound" or "State of Cascadia" to make it clear it is NOT Washington DC. The Republic of the Congo (previously the Belgium Congo)did this in the 1970s, renaming itself Zaire, to separate it from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Previously the French Congo). Both Congos are along the Congo River and thus share the rivers, but have never been in the same state even on Colonial days (Thus some times called "Belgium Congo" and the "French Congo" to this day). In the 1990s, do to an overthrow of the Government that adopted the name Zaire, Zaire changed its name back to the Congo (I hate to say this, but calling in Zaire was easier then the Former Belgium Congo).

During the break up of Yugoslavia, names became important. Macedonia was the name of the Ancient Country north of Greece that produced Alexander the Great. In the 900s the Greek Rulers of the Byzantine Empire were of the "Macedonia" Dynasty. Thus Macedonia had a huge meaning in the Greek Speaking world. On the other hand, Macedonia itself has been a Slavic bastion since the Slavic Invasions of the 600s. To the Greeks, Macedonia extends into present day Greece, and thus any country with that name is a threat to Greek Unity. Greece would tolerate a Provence of Yugoslavia being called Macedonia, but not an independent state with that name. Thus when Macedonia became independent with the breakup of Yugoslavia it had to adopt the name "The Former Yugoslavia Nation of Macedonia" instead of "Macedonia", the Greeks would NOT tolerate that state calling itself Macedonia.

On the other hand, sometimes other factors kick in, for example what use to be called "Custer's Last Stand National Memorial Park" is not "Little Big Horn National Memorial Park". The later is a less judgmental and more accurate name.

Just a comment, that names do mean things and changing them is something we have be careful with.

[sulphurdunn]

19. If you think there's

one to many places named after Washington, I'm all for changing DC to Briberia or maybe Graftotopia. I like Pathomopolis too.

[snooper2]

6. This takes more than a little bit of stupid

And since they are acting in a group...

A whole bunch of stupid LOL

[Swede Atlanta]

8. Oh good grief!!!!

It isn't our sea to rename.

[bkanderson76]

9. How about New Jersey Lawmakers doing New Jersey law....nt

[jsr]

11. WTF

[MisterP]

14. crap, no we're gonna be forced to hear Moby and Sean Penn's geopolitical opinions again

Last edited Sat Feb 15, 2014, 02:13 AM - Edit history (5)

maybe they can meddle in every other nationalistic claim--there's hundreds

soon they'll declare "D-War" NJ's official--no, only!--movie

[NV Whino]

15. Why don't we just rename New Jersey instead

How about the state of Stupid.

[cosmicone]

16. Will they cause a traffic jam in the sea lanes

if the bill is not adopted?

[rocktivity]

17. The Eastern Sea? Snore-some.

Last edited Fri Feb 14, 2014, 05:14 PM - Edit history (3)

They could call it the Christie Memorial Sea instead. Or how about the Sea of Springsteen?


rocktivity

[geomon666]

21. They did this already in Virginia

But why New Jersey? What's the motivation behind this and who is backing it?

[KamaAina]

24. The Korean community

Palisades Park, NJ, for example, is mostly Korean, while neighboring Edgewater has a sizable Korean population.

[kiranon]

22. Maybe Japan will rename New Jersey to "New Japan" in all its textbooks.

[FSogol]

23. Not exactly. Korea has always called it the East Sea. Japan has always called it the Sea of Japan.

The US has always used Japan's name. Korean makes up a large part of the Democratic Party in VA and asked for VA to request that text books include both names. Japan's govt had a hissy fit and threatened to put economic sanctions on VA. I'm sure the same thing is happening in NJ.

[tclambert]

25. I thought this was gonna be Republicans wanting to rename it the Sea of Reagan.

They want to rename everything after Reagan.

[daleo]

27. They might consider renaming New Jersey

It's not really new and it's not really Jersey.

[kestrel91316]

28. Well of course. Because the jobs situation has been resolved,

as has the crime problem, and the poverty problem, and...............

Well, really. It's such a noble cause, don't you think?

[valerief]

30. OR...now this is just an idea I'm tossing out there...they could try to repeal Obamacare.

That would be just as useful a way to spend their time.

[davidpdx]

31. Part of it is implied ownership

including the islands in the sea. There are disputes among the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans over many islands. It is the reason in my opinion that the Chinese are getting away with claiming they totally control the ocean between China and Korea all the way down to the Philippines.

The problem is once you start coming up with neutral names a precedent is started. There are plenty of other seas which have non-neutral names that would be contested.

The Japanese and Chinese have started this, not the Koreans or the Americans.