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And now it's time for our arts and culture segment.
Yim Yoonhee is here to share this weeks latest. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon. We're going to be a looking at a special exhibition today that centers
on a collection of old maps, which provide evidence in a dispute that dates back decades.
This is the argument over what to call the body of water between Korea and Japan.
The map collector has spent the past 30 years of her life traveling around the world,...
gathering these maps and she hopes they will help resolve the issue.
Let's take a look.
[PACKAGE START] It's human nature to be curious...in fact,
curiousity is what drove people to the unknown...leading to the creation of the universal language
of a map. The lines and shapes have come together over the years, drawn by many, used by many
more.
Early world maps date back to hundreds of centuries ago. And since, mapmakers also known
as Cartographers have been blending art and science, creating these masterpieces.
But as beautiful as maps are to look at, they're undeniably necessary in our lives, both in
the present, as well as for the past.
[KOREAN] "This exhibition is meant to be seen by many
people. We want them to come and learn from these maps because maps have something to
say. They're not just to look at. They're meant to be read and used to record history."
KIM Hye-jeong has been actively studying and collecting maps since her 2nd year in college.
She's been all over the world...studying cartography and how maps came to be.
It all started when she realized that the body of water between Japan and Korea had
originally been called "Sea of Joseon," referring to the ancient dynasty of Korea.
These maps, also made in Japan, continue to show the body of water as "Sea of Joseon"...throughout
the years.
[KOREAN] "This map is called , made in 1810 in Japan.
Here it's labeled Sea of Joseon. This map made by the Japanese shows
that they called it "Sea of Joseon" and Koreans at that time also recognized it by that name
as well. Now if you look here it says "The Great Sea of Japan." Since the 1700s, that's
the way they had it but during the 1800s, when the Japanese
Imperialism began to take hold, maps started changing, and the Sea of Joseon became Sea
of Japan.
It's not just with Japanese made maps. Maps from around the world show similar findings.
Cartographers from various countries continually labelled the body of water as "Correan Sea"
or "Gulf of Corea"...yet many people today fail to recognize this title.
Kim is determined to correct this error and pass on the truth for the generations to come,
because she believes yesterday's history is today and today is tomorrow.
[STUDIO] The disputes we've seen erupt between Korea
and Japan in recent years have pushed relations to new lows.
That's resulted in many people harboring negative feelings. Does Kim fall in that category?
You know, she doesn't. Kim Hye-jeong, the map collector, said she doesn't have any negative
feelings about Japan. She actually spent the majority of her childhood
in Japan and some of her closest friends are from there.
She said she just wants to show people the truth and leave a present for not just future
Korean generations, but for the world.
You mentioned earlier that this exhibition has been to different countries. Where have
they been, and where will they go next?
So far she's already been to Mongolia, Italy, even Japan with these maps.
She said her next target is the U.S....
Where the state of Virginia recently passed legislation that will require textbooks to
use both the East Sea and Sea of Japan names...
That's right, and Kim actually contributed to that.
But she wants to visit the U.S. with her maps because she believes that it should be called
***-hae, with East Sea put in brackets on the side.
The reason being is that ***-hae actually means the "sea of sunrise" and it has sacred
meaning to Korea. Many early maps did use this title, including
maps from China. So she hopes her findings can help end the
arguments, and restore the rightful name to this body of water.