Looks like Japan is not alone in being creative with history. Recent reports by Beijing historians, supposedly sponsored by the Chinese government, has Koreans hopping mad. Here is an excerpt from a Taipei Times article by Christopher Lingle:
Showing an ability to pile outrage upon outrage, Beijing introduced inaccurate and distorted information about Korea's early history to further Chinese political hegemony. In particular, Chinese officials have offered a gross misrepresentation of descriptions of the Koguryo (Goguryeo) empire (37 BC to 668 AD) whose territory included part of a Chinese regional kingdom. This strong warrior state successively defeated invading armies of the Chinese empires.
In the Chinese version, Koguryo was incorporated into a Chinese historical timeline and included a claim that these people were of "han" Chinese descent. Beijing also interfered with an effort by Pyongyang to place Koguryo tombs on UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage list of historic sites.
Ethnic Koreans that had lived in the region previously known as Manchuria for many centuries formed the core of the empire. Eventually, their capital was moved to Pyongyang from Jian in Manchuria in the fourth century.
After Koreans and Manchurian tribes lived together for centuries, they were incorporated into Chinese territory with a treaty by Japan and the Qing dynasty in China in 1909. It is amusing to think that Marxist-Leninists insist that unequal treaties signed by imperial powers have any legitimate force. It was left to Korean learned societies to insist that Beijing place the Korean kingdom of Koguryo in its proper historical perspective.
For its part, Beijing insists that everyone else should exercise the highest standards of historical probity. For example, the media and diplomatic channels have been used to criticize the content of Japanese history textbooks. It is a blatant act of hypocrisy to be inconsistent in stating concerns over the correct retelling of past deeds and misdeeds.
It is likely that the incident is part of a well-orchestrated and purposeful attempt to increase its political influence in Northeast Asia. This probably reflects concern over the large numbers of ethnic Koreans living in the northeastern provinces of Laoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang that were granted considerable autonomy during the early 1950s.
Gee, so they built the Great Wall to keep fellow Hans out? They should be thankful that Koreans are not asking for restoration of the Koguryo territory. Here is a map of Koguryo:
Korean peninsula had its own version of the Three Kingdoms as you can tell by the presence of three other countries in the Korean peninsula. Shilla, the green colored one in the map, eventually won by allying with Dang Dynasty. People living in that area are still being blamed for that traitorous alliance. Long memory indeed.
Here is a map showing Koguryo's war with Dang Dynasty. Note Koguryo's own version of the Great Wall. Apparently, wall building was fashionable back then. Maybe Israel's walling building will bring it back. You have to build walls before you can't knock them down.
Those red dots along the wall are castles. The redline crossing the sea means Dang couldn't get through by land so they attacked by sea.
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p dir=”ltr”>BTW, the name Korea originates from Koryo (aka Goryeo), a nation that followed (I am grossly simplifying here) Koguryo (aka Goguryeo). Koreans apparently likes to recycle old names. Before Koguryo, there was Gochosun which occupied pretty much the same territory. For 500 years prior to the Japanese occupation, the name of the much shrunken country was Chosun. Maybe the next one should be just simply Ko.
Don Park's Weekly Habit 