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Nelson Algren

Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer. His 1949 novel The Man with the Golden Arm won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name.

Algren articulated the world of "drunks, pimps, prostitutes, freaks, drug addicts, prize fighters, corrupt politicians, and hoodlums". Art Shay singled out a poem Algren wrote from the perspective of a "halfy," street slang for a legless man on wheels. Shay said that Algren considered this poem to be a key to everything he had ever written. The protagonist talks about "how forty wheels rolled over his legs and how he was ready to strap up and give death a wrestle."

According to Harold Augenbraum, "in the late 1940s and early 1950s he was one of the best known literary writers in America." The lover of French writer Simone de Beauvoir, he is featured in her novel The Mandarins, set in Paris and Chicago. He was called "a sort of bard of the down-and-outer" based on this book, but also on his short stories in The Neon Wilderness (1947) and his novel A Walk on the Wild Side (1956). The latter was adapted as the 1962 film of the same name (directed by Edward Dmytryk, screenplay by John Fante).

Life
Algren was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Goldie (née Kalisher) and Gerson Abraham. At the age of three, he moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois, where they lived in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood on the South Side. His father was the son of a Swedish convert to Judaism and of a German Jewish woman, and his mother was of German Jewish descent. (She owned a candy store on the South Side.) When he was young, Algren's family lived at 7139 S. South Park Avenue (now S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) in the Greater Grand Crossing section of the South Side.

When he was eight, his family moved from the far South Side to an apartment at 4834 N. Troy Street, in the North Side neighborhood of Albany Park. His father worked as an auto mechanic nearby on North Kedzie Avenue.

In his essay Chicago: City on the Make, Algren added autobiographical details: he recalled being teased by neighborhood children after moving to Troy Street because he was a fan of the South Side White Sox. Despite living most of his life on the North Side, Algren never changed his affiliation and remained a White Sox fan.

Algren was educated in Chicago's public schools, graduated from Hibbard High School (now Roosevelt High School) and went on to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in journalism during the Great Depression in 1931. During his time at the University of Illinois, he wrote for the Daily Illini student newspaper.

Literary career and marriage
Algren wrote his first story, "So Help Me", in 1933, while he was in Texas working at a gas station. Before returning to Chicago, he was caught stealing a typewriter from an empty classroom at Sul Ross State University in Alpine. He boarded a train for his getaway but was apprehended and returned to Alpine. He was held in jail for nearly five months and faced a possible additional three years in prison. He was released, but the incident made a deep impression on him. It deepened his identification with outsiders, has-beens, and the general failures who later populated his fictional world.

In 1935 Algren won the first of his three O. Henry Awards for his short story, "The Brother's House." The story was first published in Story magazine and was reprinted in an anthology of O. Henry Award winners.

His first novel, Somebody in Boots (1935), was later dismissed by Algren as primitive and politically naive, claiming he infused it with Marxist ideas he little understood, because they were fashionable at the time. The book was unsuccessful and went out of print. Algren married Amanda Kontowicz in 1937. He had met her at a party celebrating the publication of Somebody in Boots. They eventually would divorce and remarry before divorcing a second and final time.

His second novel, Never Come Morning (1942), was described by Andrew O'Hagan in 2019 as "the book that really shows the Algren style in its first great flourishing." It portrays the dead-end life of a doomed young Polish-American boxer turned criminal. Ernest Hemingway, in a July 8, 1942, letter to his publisher Maxwell Perkins, said of the novel: "I think it very, very good. It is as fine and good stuff to come out of Chicago." The novel offended members of Chicago's large Polish-American community, some of whose members denounced it as pro-Axis propaganda. Not knowing that Algren was of partly Jewish descent, some incensed Polish-American Chicagoans said he was pro-Nazi Nordic. His Polish-American critics persuaded Mayor Edward Joseph Kelly to ban the novel from the Chicago Public Library.

Military service
Algren served as a private in the European Theater of World War II as a litter bearer. Despite being a college graduate, he was denied entry into Officer Candidate School. There is conjecture that it may have been due to suspicion regarding his political beliefs, but his criminal conviction would have most likely excluded him from OCS.

According to Bettina Drew in her 1989 biography Nelson Algren: A Life on the Wild Side, Algren had no desire to serve in the war but was drafted in 1943. An indifferent soldier, he dealt on the black market while he was stationed in France. He received a bad beating by some fellow black marketeers.

Fame

Algren's first short-story collection, The Neon Wilderness (1947), collected 24 stories from 1933 to 1947. The same year, Algren received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a grant from Chicago's Newberry Library.

It was in that same year that Algren had an affair with Simone de Beauvoir. Mary Guggenheim, who had been Algren's lover, recommended De Beauvoir visit Algren in Chicago. The couple would summer together in Algren's cottage in the lake front community of Miller Beach, Indiana, and also travel to Latin America together in 1949. In her novel The Mandarins (1954), Beauvoir wrote of Algren (who is 'Lewis Brogan' in the book):

"At first I found it amusing meeting in the flesh that classic American species: self-made leftist writer. Now, I began taking an interest in Brogan. Through his stories, you got the feeling that he claimed no rights to life and that nevertheless he had always had a passionate desire to live. I liked that mixture of modesty and eagerness."

Algren and Beauvoir eventually became disenchanted with each other, and a bitter Algren wrote of Beauvoir and Sartre in a Playboy magazine article about a trip he took to North Africa with Beauvoir, that she and Sartre were bigger users of others than a prostitute and her pimp in their way.

Algren's next novel, The Man with the Golden Arm (1949), would become his best known work. It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1950. The protagonist of the book, Frankie Machine, is an aspiring drummer who is a dealer in illicit card games. Frankie is trapped in demimonde Chicago, having picked up a morphine habit during his brief military service during World War II. He is married to a woman whom he mistakenly believes became crippled in a car accident he caused.

Algren's next book, Chicago: City on the Make (1951), was a scathing essay that outraged the city's boosters but portrayed the back alleys of the city, its dispossessed, its corrupt politicians and its swindlers. Algren also declared his love of the City as a "lovely so real".

The Man With the Golden Arm was adapted as a 1955 movie of the same name, starring Frank Sinatra and directed and produced by Otto Preminger. Algren soon withdrew from direct involvement. It was a commercial success but Algren loathed the film. He sued Preminger seeking an injunction to stop him from claiming ownership of the property as "An Otto Preminger film", but he soon withdrew his suit for financial reasons.

In the fall of 1955, Algren was interviewed for The Paris Review by rising author Terry Southern. Algren and Southern became friends through this meeting and remained in touch for many years. Algren became one of Southern's most enthusiastic early supporters and, when he taught creative writing in later years, he often used Southern as an example of a great short story writer.

Algren had another commercial success with the novel A Walk on the Wild Side (1956). He reworked some of the material from his first novel, Somebody in Boots, as well as picking up elements from several published short stories, such as his 1947 "The Face on the Barroom Floor". The novel was about a wandering Texan adrift during the early years of the Great Depression. He said it was superior to the earlier book. It was adapted as the 1962 movie of the same name. Some critics thought the film bowdlerized the book, and it was not commercially successful.

Decline and second marriage
A Walk on the Wild Side was Algren's last commercial success. He turned to teaching creative writing at the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop to supplement his income.

In 1965, he met Betty Ann Jones while teaching at the Writers Workshop. They married that year and divorced in 1967. According to Kurt Vonnegut, who taught with him at Iowa in 1965, Algren's "enthusiasm for writing, reading and gambling left little time for the duties of a married man."

Algren played a small part in Philip Kaufman's underground comedy Fearless Frank (1967) as a mobster named Needles.

In 1968, he signed the Writers and Editors War Tax Protest pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.

According to Bettina Drew's biography, Algren angled for a journalism job in South Vietnam. Strapped for cash more than a decade after his only two commercially successful novels, he saw Vietnam as an opportunity to make money, not from journalism fees but dealing on the black market.

Hurricane Carter and Paterson, New Jersey
In 1975, Algren was commissioned to write a magazine article about the trial of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the prize fighter who had been found guilty of double murder. While researching the article, Algren visited Carter's hometown of Paterson, New Jersey. Algren was instantly fascinated by the city of Paterson and he immediately decided to move there. In the summer of 1975, Algren sold off most of his belongings, left Chicago, and moved into an apartment in Paterson.

Death
In 1980, Algren moved to a house in Sag Harbor, Long Island. He died of a heart attack at home on May 9, 1981. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Sag Harbor, Long Island.

Posthumously published works
After Algren died, it was discovered that the article about Hurricane Carter had grown into a novel, The Devil's Stocking, which was published posthumously in 1983.

In September 1996, the book Nonconformity was published by Seven Stories Press, presenting Algren's view of the difficulties surrounding the 1956 film adaptation of The Man With the Golden Arm. Nonconformity also presents the belief system behind Algren's writing and a call to writers everywhere to investigate the dark and represent the ignored. The Neon Wilderness and The Last Carousel were also reprinted by Seven Stories Press and recognized as the Library Journal Editors' Best Reprints of 1997.

In 2009, Seven Stories then published Entrapment and Other Writings, a major collection of previously unpublished writings that included two early short stories, "Forgive Them, Lord," and "The Lightless Room," and the long unfinished novel fragment referenced in the book's title. In 2019, Blackstone Audio released the complete library of Algren's books as audiobooks. And in 2020 Olive Films released Nelson Algren Live, a performance film of Algren's life and work starring Willem Dafoe and Barry Gifford, among others, produced by the Seven Stories Institute.

Political views and FBI surveillance
Algren's friend Stuart McCarrell described him as a "gut radical," who generally sided with the downtrodden but was uninterested in ideological debates and politically inactive for most of his life. McCarrell states that Algren's heroes were the "prairie radicals" Theodore Dreiser, John Peter Altgeld, Clarence Darrow and Eugene V. Debs. Algren references all of these men – as well as Big Bill Haywood, the Haymarket defendants and the Memorial Day Massacre victims – in Chicago: City on the Make.

Algren told McCarrell that he never joined the Communist Party, despite its appeal to artists and intellectuals during the Great Depression. Among other reasons, he cited negative experiences both he and Richard Wright had with party members. However, his involvement in groups deemed "subversive" during the McCarthy years drew the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Among his affiliations, he was a participant in the John Reed Club in the 1930s and later an honorary co-chair of the "Save Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Committee" in Chicago. According to Herbert Mitgang, the FBI suspected Algren's political views and kept a dossier on him amounting to more than 500 pages but identified nothing concretely subversive.

During the 1950s, Algren wished to travel to Paris with his romantic companion, Simone de Beauvoir, but due to government surveillance his passport applications were denied. When he finally did get a passport in 1960, McCarrell concludes that "it was too late. By then the relationship [with de Beauvoir] had changed subtly but decisively."

Algren and Chicago Polonia
Algren described Ashland Avenue as figuratively connecting Chicago to Warsaw in Poland. His own life involved the Polish community of Chicago in many ways, including his first wife Amanda Kontowicz. His friend Art Shay wrote about Algren, who while gambling, listened to old Polish love songs sung by an elderly waitress. The city's Polish Downtown, where he lived for years, played a significant part in his literary output. Polish bars that Algren frequented in his gambling, such as the Bit of Poland on Milwaukee Avenue, figured in such writings as Never Come Morning and The Man With the Golden Arm.

His novel Never Come Morning was published several years after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, a period when Poles, like Jews, were labeled an inferior race by Nazi ideology. Chicago's Polish-American leaders thought Never Come Morning played on these anti-Polish stereotypes, and launched a sustained campaign against the book through the Polish press, the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, and other Polish-American institutions. Articles appeared in the local Polish newspapers and letters were sent to Mayor Ed Kelly, the Chicago Public Library, and Algren's publisher, Harper & Brothers. The general tone of the campaign is suggested by a Zgoda editorial that attacked his character and mental state, saw readers who got free copies as victims of a Nazi-financed plot, and said the novel proved a deep desire to harm ethnic Poles on Algren's part. The Polish American Council sent a copy of a resolution condemning the novel to the FBI. Algren and his publisher defended against these accusations, with the author telling a library meeting that the book was about the effects of poverty, regardless of national background. The mayor had the novel removed from the Chicago Public Library system, and it apparently remained absent for at least 20 years. At least two later efforts to commemorate Algren in Polish Downtown echoed the attacks on the novels.

Shortly after his death in 1981, his last Chicago residence at 1958 West Evergreen Street was noted by Chicago journalist Mike Royko. The walk-up apartment just east of Damen Avenue in the former Polish Downtown neighborhood of West Town was in an area that had been dominated by Polish immigrants and was once one of Chicago's toughest and most crowded neighborhoods. The renaming of Evergreen Street to Algren Street caused controversy and was almost immediately reversed.

In 1998, Algren enthusiasts instigated the renaming after Algren of the Polish Triangle in what had been the center of the Polish Downtown. Replacing the plaza's traditional name, the director of the Polish Museum of America predicted, would obliterate the history of Chicago ethnic Poles and insult ethnic Polish institutions and local businesses. In the end a compromise was reached where the Triangle kept its older name and a newly installed fountain was named after Algren and inscribed with a quotation about the city's working people protecting its essence, from Algren's essay "Chicago: City on the Make".

Hoax broadcast
A passage featured in Algren's book The Devil's Stocking (1983) was broadcast on TV some six years earlier during the Southern Television hoax in the UK which generated international publicity when students interrupted the regular broadcast through the Hannington transmitter of the Independent Broadcasting Authority for six minutes on November 26, 1977. Issue No. 24 of Fortean Times (Winter 1977) transcribed the hoaxer's message as:

"This is the voice of Asteron. I am an authorized representative of the Intergalactic Mission and I have a message for the planet Earth. We are beginning to enter the period of Aquarius and there are many corrections which have to be made by Earth people. All your weapons of evil must be destroyed. You have only a short time to live to learn to live together in peace. You must live in peace or leave the galaxy."

The Devil's Stocking is Algren's fictionalized account of the trial of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a real-life prize-fighter who had been found guilty of double murder, about whom Algren had written a magazine article for Esquire in 1975. In the book, as a period of unrest within the prison begins, the character 'Kenyatta' gives a speech closely mirroring the Fortean Times transcript of the 1977 hoax, and those of other American newspaper reports of the broadcast. The passage in Algren's book says:

I am an authorized representative of the Intergalactic Mission," Kenyatta finally disclosed his credentials. "I have a message for the Planet Earth. We are beginning to enter the period of Aquarius. Many corrections have to be made by Earth people. All your weapons of evil must be destroyed. You have only a short time to learn to live together in peace. You must live in peace" – here he paused to gain everybody's attention – "you must live in peace or leave the galaxy!"

Honors and awards

Algren won his first O. Henry Award for his short story "The Brother's House" (published in Story Magazine) in 1935. His short stories "A Bottle of Milk for Mother (Biceps)" (published in the Southern Review) and "The Captain is Impaled" (Harper's Magazine) were O. Henry Award winners in 1941 and 1950, respectively. None of the stories won the first, second or third place awards but were included in the annual collection of O. Henry Award stories.

The Man with the Golden Arm won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1950.

In 1947 Algren won an Arts and Letters Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the forerunner to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1974 the Institute awarded him the Award of Merit Medal for the novel. And three months before he died in 1981, Algren was elected to the Academy of Arts and Letters.

Algren was also honored in 1998 with the Nelson Algren Fountain located in Chicago's Polish Triangle, in what had been the heart of Polish Downtown, the area that figured as the inspiration for much of his work. Appropriately enough, Division Street, Algren's favorite street as well as the onetime Polish Broadway, runs right past it.

In 2010, Algren was posthumously inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.

In literature and publications

 * In his 1967 novella, Trout Fishing in America, Richard Brautigan writes about crating up and mailing a crippled wino (Trout Fishing in America Shorty) to Nelson Algren.
 * In 2011, literary publication 3:AM Magazine named Algren a cult hero.

In music

 * Leonard Cohen used images from The Man with the Golden Arm in "The Stranger Song", from his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967): "you've seen that man before: his golden arm dispatching cards, but now it's rusted from the elbows to the finger."
 * In the documentary Classic Albums: Lou Reed: Transformer, musician Lou Reed says that Algren's 1956 novel, A Walk on the Wild Side, was the launching point for his similarly-titled 1972 song.
 * According to the liner notes of The Tubes' second album, Young and Rich (1976), A Walk on the Wild Side is the inspiration for their song "Pimp".
 * The Verve has a song called "Neon Wilderness" on their 1997 album Urban Hymns.
 * The Minnesota-based punk-rock band Dillinger Four quote Algren as an inspiration in the song "Doublewhiskeycokenoice" from their 1998 album Midwestern Songs of the Americas. In that song Patrick Costello sings "Nelson Algren came to me and said, 'Celebrate the ugly things' / The beat-up side of what they call pride could be the measure of these days."
 * The 2002 album Adult World by guitarist Wayne Kramer (founding member of the Detroit band MC5) contains a song titled "Nelson Algren Stopped By," in which guest band X-Mars-X provides a shuffling jazz background while Kramer reads a prose poem about walking the streets of present-day Chicago with Algren.
 * In 2005, The Hold Steady mentioned Algren in the song "Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night" from the Separation Sunday album. The first line of the song is "Nelson Algren came to Paddy at some party at the Dead End Alley/He told him what to celebrate" and toward the end the song goes "Hey Nelson Algren. Chicago seemed tired last night/They had cigarettes where there were supposed to be eyes." The name 'Paddy' in the song is a reference to Patrick Costello and the 'Dead End Alley' is the name of the house where the Dillinger Four's members used to live.
 * The Devil Wears Prada on their 2019 album The Act has the song "Please Say No" which is based on the novel Never Come Morning.

Onstage

 * In 1988, A Walk on the Wild Side was staged as a musical at the Back Alley Theatre in Van Nuys, California. Will Holt, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics, went on to win the Los Angeles Dramalogue Critics Award for his work.
 * In 2000, John Susman's play Nelson & Simone was produced at Chicago's Live Bait Theatre, directed by Richard Cotovsky, and starring Gary Houston and Rebecca Covey. The play dramatizes the love affair between Algren and Simone de Beauvoir.

Nelson Algren Award
Each year the Chicago Tribune gives a Nelson Algren award for short fiction. Winners are published in the newspaper and given $5,000. The award is viewed with more than a little irony by Algren admirers; the Tribune panned Algren's work in his lifetime, referring to Chicago: City on the Make as "an ugly, highly scented object." In an afterword to that book, Algren accused the Tribune of imposing false viewpoints on the city and promoting mediocrity.

Studs Terkel, writer Warren Leming, and three others founded the Nelson Algren Committee in 1989. At the time, there was a renewed interest in Algren's work. Somebody in Boots and Never Come Morning, both long out of print, had been republished in 1987. The first biography of Algren, Bettina Drew's Nelson Algren: A Life on the Wild Side, was published in 1989 by Putnam. All of Nelson Algren's words are now back in print.

The Committee awards community activists an annual Algren award and sponsors an Algren birthday party.

Novels

 * Somebody in Boots. 1935; as The Jungle, Avon, 1957.
 * Never Come Morning. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942; Four Walls Eight Windows, 1987; Seven Stories, 1996.
 * The Man with the Golden Arm. Doubleday, 1949; Seven Stories, 1996.
 * A Walk on the Wild Side. 1956.
 * The Devil's Stocking. New York: Arbor House, 1983; Seven Stories, 2006.

Short-story collections

 * The Neon Wilderness. New York: Doubleday, 1947; Four Walls Eight Windows, 1986.
 * Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters: 13 Masterpieces of Black Humor. Algren-edited anthology with one Algren story. 1962.
 * The Last Carousel. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons 1973; Seven Stories Press, 1997.
 * He Swung and He Missed. Short story for younger readers. 1993.
 * The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren. 1994.
 * Entrapment and Other Writings. Posthumous collection of fragments of the unfinished titular novel, uncollected stories, and poems. New York: Seven Stories, 2009.

Nonfiction

 * Galena Guide. The City of Galena, Illinois. 1937.
 * Chicago: City on the Make. Prose Poem. 1951.
 * Who Lost an American?. Travel book. 1963; in Notes From a Sea Diary & Who Lost an American, Seven Stories, 2009.
 * Conversations with Nelson Algren. Interviews by H. E. F. Donohue. 1964.
 * Notes from a Sea Diary: Hemingway All the Way. Travel book. 1965; in Notes From a Sea Diary & Who Lost an American, Seven Stories, 2009.
 * America Eats. Travel book. 1992 (written 1930s).
 * Nonconformity: Writing on Writing. Essay. 1996 (written 1951–1953).

title: Nelson Algren


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Talk:Religious pluralism

Any criticisms?
Reading the article it does not look like many people (except some fervent religious sects) have opposed religious pluralism. Is this true? How is religious pluralism linked to relativism ? Does one lead to the other?

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Religious pluralism


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Sea of Japan naming dispute

A dispute exists over the international name for the body of water which is bordered by Japan, Korea (North and South) and Russia. In 1992, objections to the name Sea of Japan were first raised by North Korea and South Korea at the Sixth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. The Japanese government supports the exclusive use of the name "Sea of Japan" (日本海), while South Korea supports the alternative name "East Sea", and North Korea supports the name "Korean East Sea". Currently, most international maps and documents use either the name Sea of Japan (or equivalent translation) by itself, or include both the name Sea of Japan and East Sea, often with East Sea listed in parentheses or otherwise marked as a secondary name. The International Hydrographic Organization, the governing body for the naming of bodies of water around the world, in 2012 decided it was still unable to revise the 1953 version of its publication S-23 – Limits of Oceans and Seas, which includes only the single name "Sea of Japan", to include "East Sea" together with "Sea of Japan".

The involved countries (especially Japan and South Korea) have advanced a variety of arguments to support their preferred name(s). Many of the arguments revolve around determining when the name Sea of Japan became the common name. South Korea argues that historically the more common name was East Sea, Sea of Korea, or another similar variant. South Korea further argues that the name Sea of Japan did not become common until Korea was under Japanese rule, at which time it had no ability to influence international affairs. Japan argues that the name Sea of Japan has been the most common international name since at least the beginning of the 19th century, long before its annexation of Korea. Both sides have conducted studies of antiquarian maps, but the two countries have produced divergent research results. Additional arguments have been raised regarding the underlying geography of the sea as well as potential problems regarding the ambiguity of one name or the other.

Arguments

Both sides in the dispute have put forward a number of arguments to support their claims.

Arguments from South Korea
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for South Korea, the name Donghae (동해, literally East Sea) has been used in Korea for over 2,000 years, including in History of the Three Kingdoms (1145), the monument of King Gwanggaeto, and "Map of Eight Provinces of Korea" (八道總圖, 1530). The first documented map to name the area the Sea of Japan was the world map drawn by the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci in China (1602) named Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (坤輿萬國全圖). No Japanese record published up to the late-18th century indicated any name for the body of water. Furthermore, South Korea has pointed out that a few 19th-century Japanese maps referred to the sea as, including the Simplified Map of Japan's Periphery (日本邊界略圖) and New World Map (新製輿地全圖). South Korea argues there was no standard name prior to Japan's military expansion in the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Additionally, it specifically states that the name Sea of Japan was not widely used, even in Japan, as late as the mid 19th century. Thus, South Korea argues that the current name reflects active promotion by Japan during a time when Korea could not represent its interests internationally. In 1992, the name "East Sea" was agreed upon in South Korea and claimed by the country for the sea during its participation in the U.N. Conference on Standardization of Geographical Names.

Arguments from Japan
The Japanese government claims that the name Sea of Japan was internationally used since the 17th century and established by the early 19th century, during a period in which Japan was under an isolationist policy (Sakoku) of the Tokugawa shogunate, which restricted cultural exchange and commerce with foreign countries except China and the Netherlands until 1854. Accordingly, they state, Japan could not have, at that time, had an influence on the international community regarding the naming of the sea.

The invention of the marine chronometer in the late 18th century enabled Western explorers, such as Jean-François de Galaup from France, William Robert Broughton from Britain, and Adam Johann von Krusenstern (Ivan Fyodorovich Kruzenshtern) from Russia, to measure time and longitudes on the sea precisely and map the detailed shape of the Sea of Japan. Krusenstern was an admiral and explorer, who led the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe. According to Japanese records, it was Krusenstern who popularized the name "Mer du Japon" (Sea of Japan) in the West. In his work "Reise um die Welt in den Jahren" (1812), he wrote, "People also call this sea area the Sea of Korea, but because only a small part of this sea touches the Korean coast, it is better to name it the Sea of Japan." The original book was published in St. Petersburg in German and Russian, translated into Dutch, French, Swedish, Italian and English, and distributed widely among Europe. As a result, the international name of the sea changed from no name to the Sea of Japan, on the maps drawn by countries other than Japan or Korea during the 17th to 20th centuries. Thus, the Japanese side argues that the South Koreans misunderstand the history of the name.

Surveys of antiquarian maps

To provide evidence for the date when Sea of Japan came to be used internationally, both South Korea and Japan have undertaken surveys of various historical maps.

In 2004, South Korea surveyed ancient maps archived in the British Library, the Cambridge University Library, the University of Southern California (USC) East Asian Map Collection, the U.S. Library of Congress, the National Library of Russia, and the French National Library. South Korean researchers examined 762 maps. They found that 440 maps had used Sea of Korea (Corea), Oriental Sea/East Sea, 122 had used Sea of Japan, and 200 had used other terms. In the French language, the word orientale includes both the meaning of "eastern" related to compass direction and the meaning of "oriental", the Asiatic region. The same ambiguity is present in the Russian language, with both "eastern" and "oriental" indicated by one word.

From 2003 to 2008, Japan conducted a number of surveys of different collections. In 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) published their conclusions; they found that among 1,332 maps from the Berlin Library, 279 used Sea of Korea, Oriental Sea, or East Sea (or some combination thereof), 579 used Sea of Japan exclusively, 47 used China Sea (with or without other names), 33 used another term, and 384 used no term. MOFA said the Struck collection (a collection of antiquarian maps owned by a European map collector) showed that out of 79 maps, 35 used Sea of Japan, 9 used the Sea of Korea, 2 used Oriental Sea, and 33 were unmarked. MOFA reported that among four Russian libraries and document archives holding 51 maps, 29 used Sea of Japan, 8 used Sea of Korea, 1 used Korea Strait, 1 used East Sea, 1 used Sea of China, and 11 used no name. MOFA said that among 1,213 maps from the U.S. Library of Congress, ones that gave a name for this body of water showed that 87 percent used Sea of Japan, 8 percent used Sea of Korea, 5 percent used other terms, and none used Oriental Sea or East Sea. Similarly, MOFA said that 58 maps from the British Library and the University of Cambridge showed 86 percent used Sea of Japan, 14 percent used Sea of Korea, and none used Oriental Sea, East Sea, or other terms. MOFA said that they looked at 1,485 maps in the French National Library. They reported that 95 percent of 215 French maps used Sea of Japan.

In November 2007, the National Geographic Information Institute of South Korea published a report on a survey of 400 ancient maps. According to the report, nine maps used East Sea for the water currently called Sea of Japan, while 31 maps used East Sea for the water currently called East China Sea. The number of maps that used Sea of Japan is not disclosed. Furthermore, the report says "In the late 18th century (1790–1830) the name Sea of Japan emerged. From the 19th century (1830 onward), there was a rapid increase in the use of the name Sea of Japan." Japan stated, "This clearly shows the fallacy of the ROK's assertion that the name Sea of Japan was the result of the Japanese policy of expansionism and colonial rule, and can be interpreted as affirming that the name Sea of Japan was in widespread use well before Japan's colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula".

Geographical arguments
Japan argues that, the name Sea of Japan has been and should be used because the marginal sea is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Japanese Archipelago. Korea argues that the adjective "East" describes its geographical position east of the Asian continent, although it is west of Japan and south of Russia. It states that this is analogous to the North Sea, which lies north of the European continent, but west of Scandinavian countries and east of Great Britain. However Koreans call the sea on their east side the East Sea (동해, 東海, Donghae), on their south side the South Sea (남해, 南海, Namhae), and on their west side the West Sea (서해, 西海, Seohae).

Arguments relating to ambiguity
The Japanese Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japanese Coast Guard has claimed that the name East Sea is confusing and unsuitable as an international geographic name, because the local name for a variety of seas can be translated into English as East Sea. Examples include Dōng Hǎi (东海), the Chinese name for the East China Sea; Biển Đông, the Vietnamese name for the South China Sea; and the Baltic Sea, whose name is equivalent to East Sea in several European languages such as German (Ostsee), Swedish (Östersjön) and Finnish (Itämeri). East Sea is officially used as an English name for the body of water by the Government of Vietnam and the Government of Vietnam thusly uses East Sea for South China Sea in its English-language publications; likewise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China uses 'East Sea' for the East China Sea in its English-language publications. Even within Japan itself the term East Sea (東海) is already used to refer to the parts of the Pacific Ocean east of middle and upper Honshu, as can be seen in the naming of the Tōkaidō region and the Tōkai region. The Japanese government is concerned that the name change could set a bad precedent and cause more naming disputes worldwide.

Position of international bodies
The main two international organizations which have been involved in the naming dispute are the International Hydrographic Organization and the United Nations.

International Hydrographic Organization
The International Hydrographic Organization is an organization that coordinates with member countries over hydrographic issues. One of the organization's functions is to standardise the delineation of nautical regions. In 1929, the organization (then called the International Hydrographic Bureau) published edition 1 of "IHO Special Publication 23" (IHO SP 23) – Limits of Oceans and Seas, which included the limits of the sea area between the Korean peninsula and Japan and the name Sea of Japan; however, at that time, Korea could not participate in the IHO because it was under Japanese rule. The name Sea of Japan remains in the current edition 3 of S-23, that was published in 1953. South Korea officially joined the IHO in 1957.

In 1974, IHO released Technical Resolution A.4.2.6. This resolution stated that: "It is recommended that where two or more countries share a given geographical feature (such as a bay, a strait, channel or archipelago) under different names, they should endeavour to reach agreement on a single name for the feature concerned. If they have different official languages and cannot agree on a common name form, it is recommended that the name forms of each of the languages in question should be accepted for charts and publications unless technical reasons prevent this practice on small scale charts." South Korea has argued that this resolution is relevant to the debate about the Sea of Japan and implies that both names should be used; Japan, however, argues that the resolution does not apply to the Sea of Japan, because it does not specify this body of water and only applies to geographical features for which sovereignty is shared between two or more countries.

The IHO agreed to conduct a survey of available evidence in 2011. Previously, South Korea had been pushing the IHO to recommend only using the term East Sea, but announced on 2 May 2011, that it now preferred the gradual approach of using both names now, and eventually dropping the Sea of Japan name.

On 26 April 2012, after several different attempts over many years to revise the 1953 edition of S-23 – Limits of Oceans and Seas, the IHO Member States decided that it was not possible to make progress with a revision. As a result, only "Sea of Japan" continues to appear in S-23. An IHO consulting group is meant to report on the issue in 2020. In September 2020, the IHO announced that it would adopt a new numerical system, also known as "S-130". In November 2020, S-23, the previous version of the nautical chart made in 1953 will be made public as an IHO publication to demonstrate the evolutionary process from the analogue to the digital era. The IHO approved the proposal of the new official nautical chart. The new chart will be marked with a numerical identifier without a name.

United Nations
While the United Nations has never directly addressed the issue of establishing an official, standardized name for the sea, several resolutions and statements by the UN have had relevance to the topic. Japan joined the United Nations in 1956, while South and North Korea both joined in 1991.

In 1977, the Third U.N. Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN) adopted Resolution III/20, entitled "Names of Features beyond a Single Sovereignty". The resolution recommended that "when countries sharing a given geographical feature do not agree on a common name, it should be a general rule of cartography that the name used by each of the countries concerned will be accepted. A policy of accepting only one or some of such names while excluding the rest would be inconsistent as well as inexpedient in practice." As with IHO Technical Resolution A.4.2.6, South Korea and Japan disagree about whether or not this policy applies to the Sea of Japan.

In 1992, during the 1992 Sixth UNCSGN, the South Korean government, in their first time participating in the UNCSGN, requested that the name of the sea be determined through consultation, which the North Korean representative concurred with. The Japanese representative stated that the name of the Sea of Japan had already been accepted worldwide and that any change would introduce confusion. The conference recommended that the parties work together on the issue outside of the conference.

In 1998, South Korea raised the issue again at the Seventh UNCSGN. Japan, however, opposed the method by which the South Korean government proposed the issue, arguing that they had not followed the proper procedure for doing so. Following some debate, South Korea withdrew the issue, and instead recommended that the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names work so that a resolution could be submitted to the Eighth UNSCGN conference. The president of the conference urged that Japan, South Korea, and North Korea work towards a mutually acceptable agreement.

At the Eighth UNCSGN in 2002, South Korea and Japan presented a number of papers to the conference regarding their positions on the naming issue. South Korea asked for a resolution to adjudicate the name, while Japan asked that the name be decided through resolution outside of the conference. No resolution was passed, and the Committee again urged the countries to develop a mutually agreeable solution. The chairman further noted that standardization could only occur after consensus had been reached. The same situation occurred at the Ninth Conference in 2007. South Korea and North Korea both proposed a resolution by the UNCSGN, while Japan expressed a desire to settle the matter outside of the conference, and the Committee urged the members to seek a mutual agreement.

On 23 April 2004, the United Nations affirmed in a written document to the Japanese government that it will continue using the name Sea of Japan in its official documents. However, it agreed to leave the topic open for further discussion. In a letter to South Korea, it was explained that the UN was not determining the validity of either name, but wished to use the term most widely used until the parties resolved the disagreement. The letter further stated, "The use of an appellation by the Secretariat based on the practice is without prejudice to any negotiations or agreements between the interested parties and should not be interpreted as advocating or endorsing any party's position, and can in no way be invoked by any party in support of a particular position in the matter."

On 6 August 2012, representatives from North and South Korea addressed an assembly at the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, asking that the names "East Sea" and "Sea of Japan" be used concurrently for the sea. Ferjan Ormeling Jr., chairman of the conference, responded that the organization had no authority to decide the issue and requested that the involved countries resolve the differences over the name amongst themselves.

Other countries
Russia calls this sea "Япо́нское мо́ре" (Yapónskoye móre, Japanese Sea). Japan believes that Russia played a major role in establishing this name internationally, as mentioned above. Chinese government websites exclusively use the name 日本海 (rìběnhǎi, 'Japan Sea'). In 2003, the French Defense Ministry issued nautical maps that included both terms Sea of Japan and East Sea. It reverted to Sea of Japan as a single name in the map issued in 2004. The United Kingdom and Germany officially use the Sea of Japan.

The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) continues to advocate the use of Sea of Japan without qualification in U.S. government publications. The World Factbook published by the Central Intelligence Agency follows the BGN's guidance. On 8 August 2011, a spokesman for the United States Department of State stated that the United States Board on Geographic Names considered the official name of the sea to be "Sea of Japan". According to Yonhap, the U.S. has officially recommended to the IHO that "Sea of Japan" remain as the official name for the sea. In response to this failure of the South Korean campaign, South Korean foreign minister Kim Sung-hwan suggested advocating other historical names, such as "Sea of Korea".

In 2011, Virginia state lawmaker David W. Marsden, acting on behalf of Korean-American voters, introduced a bill to the education panel of the Senate of Virginia that would have required public school textbooks to include both "Sea of Japan" and "East Sea" as names. The panel rejected the bill by an 8–7 vote on 26 January 2012. The issue was revisited two years later on 3 February 2014, with the Education Committee of the Virginia House of Delegates passing legislation to use both "Sea of Japan" and "East Sea" in school textbooks.

On 29 June 2012, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt M. Campbell affirmed the BGN's position in his response, published on the White House website, to a We the People petition concerning the usage of "Sea of Japan", in which he stated, "It is longstanding United States policy to refer to each sea or ocean by a single name. This policy applies to all seas, including those bordered by multiple countries that may each have their own names for such bodies of water. Concerning the body of water between the Japanese archipelago and the Korean peninsula, longstanding U.S. policy is to refer to it as the "Sea of Japan". He also stated, "We are aware the Republic of Korea refers to the body of water as the 'East Sea,' and the United States is not asking the Republic of Korea to change its nomenclature. U.S. usage of the 'Sea of Japan' in no way implies an opinion regarding any issue related to sovereignty."

Compromise names
On 18 November 2006, during the APEC summit in Hanoi, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun informally proposed to the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe that the sea be called instead the "Sea of Peace" or "Sea of Friendship", which Abe rejected. In January 2007 Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki opposed the idea, saying that there was no need to change the name of the Sea of Japan.

Response of media and publishers
A number of maps, encyclopedias, and other publications have switched to using both names. For example, the Manual of Style of the National Geographic Society states that disputed place-names in international waters or jointly controlled by two or more countries should use the conventional name first with other names following in parentheses. As such, their policy on this sea states that "The internationally accepted name is Sea of Japan, although Korea prefers East Sea. When scale permits, Geographic maps show the alternative name East Sea in parentheses after Sea of Japan."

In 2006, Google put both names on Google Earth, using East Sea near the Korean coast and Sea of Japan near the Japanese coast. In the 2007 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, the primary article is called "Sea of Japan". A secondary article called "East Sea" notes "see Japan, Sea of". On the encyclopedia's map of Japan and other Asia maps, Sea of Japan appears as the primary label and East Sea appears as a secondary label in parentheses. However, on the map of Korea the name East Sea appears as the primary label and Sea of Japan appears as a secondary label in parentheses. Other examples of publishers who use similar systems include Microsoft Encarta, the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, and About.com.

In 2012, French encyclopedia publisher Larousse replaced "Mer du Japon" ("Sea of Japan") with "Mer de L'est (Mer du Japon)" ("East Sea (Sea of Japan)") in maps of South Korea and North Korea in two of its books. However, other maps, such as those of Asia, China, Japan, and Russia, continue to use "Mer du Japon". Furthermore, the article "Mer du Japon" does not mention "East Sea" at all.

title: Sea of Japan naming dispute


text:
Talk:Sea of Japan naming dispute

Unlock
As usual, on a controversial page like this locking the page favors the status quo. Is that what we want? Are we saying no progress can be made from here? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 36.11.229.172 (talk) 02:20, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

Heavily Misleading Conclusion of IHO about Naming Dispute
In a both Wikipage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Japan_naming_dispute In November 2020, the IHO rejected South Korea’s demand and continued the use of the Sea of Japan name alone in official nautical charts.[37]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Japan#Naming_dispute "In November 2020, the IHO approved a proposal that supports the use of Sea of Japan name alone in official nautical charts."

This paragraph is misleading the IHO decision.

First, IHO doesn't approved a proposal that support the use of Sea of Japan name alone in official nautical chart. The Third Edition S-23 made in 1953 is just kept publicly available as part of the existing IHO publications to demonstrate the evolutionary process from the analogue to the digital provision of limits of oceans and seas. IHO approved a proposal that support the use of "no name" between Korea and japanese  Sea as new offical nautical chart. The 4th Edition of new Official nautical chart (S-130 based on S-100). S-23 is the 3rd edtiton which was made in 1953 that is used as the offical nautiacl chart for decades but In 3th edition S-23 is no longer be the offical nautical chart after the the IHO decision in 2020. the Japanese Agenda that exclusive naming "Sea of Japan" was already refused in 2012. I transalted the Article below.

Article Title: Japan, Sea of Japan Exclusive mark agenda, failure of the issue agenda by the member states.

Date: 2012 Apirl 26

on 25, Japan try to mark ‘The Sea of Japan’ alone in fourth edition, as to put the agenda on the table of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). However, it failed due to opposition from member states. "Let's discuss ways to make partial revisions based on the third edition of 1953," Japan said at the IHO General Assembly in Monaco. And put this to a vote. However, only Japan voted in favor of the vote, while the remaining 77 member states opposed or abstained. In the end, Japan's agenda was scrapped without even being introduced on the proposal table. on 26 in the morning local time IHO decided to resume discussions on the naming of Sea between Korea and Japan(East Sea).

Here is the original article source in korean with more various different news source cover it. Source donga ilbo :https://www.donga.com/news/Politics/article/all/20120426/45799668/1 Source YTN in Kor : https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20120425134300085 Source YTN in French : https://fr.yna.co.kr/view/AFR20120426000700884 Source YTN in arabic: https://ar.yna.co.kr/view/AAR20120426001400885?site=lang_ar Source KBS in Kor: http://mn.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=2468240 as the various reliable news source say, Japanese Government want to make the 4th Edition as same as 3th Edition which was made in 1953 and written the sea between South korean and Japan as " Sea of Japan". So we know that the  Naming Sea dispute between Korea and Japan is about the Revision of Old 3rd Edtion and making 4th Edtion, for making an New Official Nautical Chart.

Second

the Ministry of Foregin Affair of Korea and Seoul News(Seoul Shinmun), Korean Press(The Hankook Ilbo) and other journals point it out that the Old Third Edition is no longer the offical nautical chart. So In the 4th Edition of Offical nautical chart, there will be no name such as "Sea of Japan", "South China Sea" and the Japanese Government and Press is misleading the fact. And the S-23 is existing as IHO publications to demonstrate the evolutionary process from analogue to the digital.

the Ministry of Foregin Affair of Korea : http://www.mofa.go.kr/www/brd/m_4080/view.do?seq=370721 Seoul News(Seoul Shinmun): https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20201117500129 Korean Press(The Hankook Ilbo): https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/A2020092116420001010

IHO and the members of IHO have discussed about the revision of S-23(3rd Edition) to make a new offical  nautical chart the 4th Edition. the Korean Gov. want to name The East sea along with The Sea of Japan. Japanese Gov. want to name it The Sea of Japan exclusively.

The IHO decision of Making a new official nautical charts (4rd Edition) in 2020 is actually from the proposal of Korea in 2017 Apirl Monaco. the Proposal of korea is accepted in 2017. "It makes no sense that there has been no revision of the IHO publication since 1953," South Korea's claim was accepted, and the decision was adopted at the 2017 General Assembly. to form an informal consultative body among related countries. The consultation results will be reported to the General Assembly in three years. In 2019  Japan's passive attitude has slowed down discussions on revising the IHO's international standard publication. the Yomiuri Shimbo cover the news that IHO pressured Japan to actively discuss the name of the sea between Korea and Japan on the informal consultative body. So they can just pass the Proposal in 2020 after the Three years.

Source JoongAng Ilbo : https://news.joins.com/article/23302734

Finally Every country  agreed to the proposal Including Korea,Japan,US,UK,France except China so that there will be new offical Nautical chart and there will be no name on it but just numerical identifier on the map. Korea and Japan the members of IHO agreed with this new proposal and This IHO decidie to make a fair and nutraul map. So IHO leaving S-23 the 1953 version The 3rd Edition is existing as IHO publications to demonstrate the evolutionary process. The Official new official nautical charts will be S-130. So "The Sea of Japan" is not an offical name between the Sea Korea and Japan. In the Meeting they don't even mention one single word "Sea of Japan". they rather call "The naming of the sea area between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago" in a very Neutral way.

In closing of the Agenda item addressing Proposal 1.9, the Assembly Chair made the following statement: “This proposal aims to make S-23 limits of ocean and sea areas fit for purpose based on modern digital technology. While developing a dataset to designate geographic sea areas by a system of unique numerical identifiers only, S-23 is kept publicly available as it is, as part of existing IHO publications to demonstrate the evolutionary process from analogue to the digital provision of limits of oceans and seas. The IHO is a technical and consultative organization. I therefore inform you that the final approval of this Proposal as a whole, which deals with limits of sea areas only, will bring a positive closure to the debate on naming issues that has persisted for far too long within the IHO.”

As you would notice the "Talk" in "South China Sea" document in Wikipedia. There are naming dispute between South East asian countries and China.

And the China disagree with this Agenda that make the new Edition S-130 as offical nautical chart. obviously China want to leave the name of the sea. East China Sea and South East China Sea and there are actual political dispute.

CHINA: Stated that the nature of IHO is consultative and technical and shall not include the activity to solve the names and limits of the Oceans and Seas which is highly politically sensitive. China did not recommend the revision of S-23 or the development of a specific dataset called S-130.The fact that a lot of resources have been spent but fruitless told that S-23 is highly political. The continuation of this discussion or further attempts to revise S-23 are not recommended. Together with the other members, China has always been committed to support IHO deal with hydrographic technology, protect IHO’s technicality and specialization not be violated by political issues.

Please Check the Original Source Both "Volume 1, 2" Source IHO : https://iho.int/uploads/user/pubs/periodical/P6A2_2020_Vol1_ENG.pdf Source IHO : https://iho.int/en/periodic-publications Source Yonhap News Agency  : https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20201117003700325

it is weird to see Japanese Government and Japanese press cover the article wrong way and i mislead information and interpret the decision of IHO. Japanese government was rejected the exclusive naming proposal for new version of 3rd Edtition S-23 in 2012. Now IHO have been discussed about the New version of Nautical chart(S-130) based on S-100 standard without any name. In the General Assembly, Assembly Chair Marc Van der Donck mention that numerical identifier without name  will bring a positive closure to the debate on naming issues that has persisted for far too long within the IHO since 1997. And China disagree with this because they know South China Sea having country name on it. Anyway it is finally solved through consensus. It's so obvious. Then Japanese Press and Government claim IHO approves use of 'Sea of Japan' as sole designation and it is exclusive name of that Sea. without any explanation of background. If they claim that just because Previous Version of nautical chart made in 1953 is still written as "Sea of japan" and S-23 will be made public as an IHO publication to demonstrate the evolutionary process from the analogue to the digital era. It's so wrong. they interpret that the whole discussion from 2017 to 2020 and final assembly meeting  in 2020 through cherry picking few word without any background. "IHO approve the proposal that "the name Sea of Japan" will be excluded in the New Offcial Nautical Chart." is more accurate than the previous one.

And the new Official Nautical chart will be marked with numerical identifier without name. because it is the final conclusion and solution to bring the neutral way to end the the long naming issues. If you write just the fact "IHO avaiable to use S-23 is still written as "Sea of japan " then this is the most wrong way to give you the information without any proper background explanation. "

As the above decision was made by the member of IHO and the Chairman of the IHO's remarks, this issue was well resolved neutrally.

The conclusion is that it finally eliminates the name of the official map and adopts the method of writing neutrally through numbers.

Many IHO members, including Japan,South Korea,United States,UK have already negotiated for years to reach this final conclusion. The some international community claims sovereignty or exclusive economic zones on the names of these particular named sea Like Recent South China Sea dispute as you can see China disagree to this new consensus. The Reason why this kind of case is important is that this misleading conclusion could goes more wrong. There are so many Similar case can be found such as Wikipedia's South China Sea Talk.

After reading whole this talk i think we should edit the heavily misleading Final Conclusion.

"In November 2020, the IHO rejected South Korea’s demand and continued the use of the Sea of Japan name alone in official nautical charts.[37]" "In November 2020, the IHO approved a proposal that supports the use of Sea of Japan name alone in official nautical charts." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Japan_naming_dispute

If we keep letting this misleading conclusion then in a same way. Another wrong conclusion can be reached. "In November 2020, the IHO continued the use of the South China Sea name alone in official nautical charts." "In November 2020, the IHO approved a proposal that supports the use of South China Sea name alone in official nautical charts." Even if the Chinese panel oppose this proposal. The way of Japanese press and the source doesn't even say the word Official nautical but very cleverly delivers information to mislead the conclusion of IHO.

In conclusion, the third edition of the 1953 edition, which was used as an official map, exists as a publication that shows the process of changes in the map, not as an official one.IHO member states, including both countries, agreed to use a number-neutral official map instead of a "name" for the new official map. This map will be the fourth revision and will be an official one after production.

Let me know if anyone have a more helpful source as the original IHO minutes, Chairman's remarks after IHO's decision, the remark of the IHO. Imperfect IMTFE (talk) 04:00, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sea of Japan naming dispute


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Bishōnen

Bishōnen is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)" and describes an aesthetic that can be found in disparate areas in East Asia: a young man of androgynous beauty. This word originated from the Tang dynasty poem Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup by Du Fu. It has always shown the strongest manifestation in Japanese pop culture, gaining in popularity due to the androgynous glam rock bands of the 1970s, but it has roots in ancient Japanese literature, the androsocial and androerotic ideals of the medieval Chinese imperial court and intellectuals, and Indian aesthetic concepts carried over from Hinduism, imported with Buddhism to China. Today, are very popular among girls and women in Japan. Reasons for this social phenomenon may include the unique male and female social relationships found within the genre. Some have theorized that provide a non-traditional outlet for gender relations. Moreover, it breaks down stereotypes surrounding feminine male characters. These are often depicted with very strong martial arts abilities, sports talent, high intelligence, dandy fashion, or comedic flair, traits that are usually assigned to the hero/protagonist role.

Origin

The prefix bi (美) more often than not refers to feminine beauty, and bijin, literally "beautiful person", is usually, though not always, used to refer to beautiful women. Bichūnen (美中年) means "beautiful middle-aged man". Biseinen is to be distinguished from bishōnen as seinen (青年) is used to describe men who are of age, including those who have entered or completed tertiary education. The term shōnen is used to describe boys of middle and high school age. Last, bishota can be used to refer to a beautiful, pre-pubescent male child or a childlike male. Outside Japan, bishōnen is the most well-known of the three terms, and has become a generic term for all beautiful boys and young men.

The aesthetic of the bishōnen began as an ideal of a young lover, originally embodied in the wakashū (若衆), or adolescent boy, and was influenced by the effeminate male actors who played female characters in kabuki theater. The term arose in the Meiji era, in part to replace the by then obsolete erotic meaning of the older term wakashū, whose general meaning of "adolescent boy" had by this point been supplanted by the new term shōnen. The bishōnen was conceived of as "aesthetically different from both women and men [...] both the antithesis and the antecedent of adult masculinity".

The bishōnen typically has the same traits as idealized female beauties in Japan: lustrous black hair, opaque skin, red cheeks, etc., but simultaneously retains a male body, making them aesthetically different from both men and women. Western audiences may perceive bishonen as effeminate, but Japanese see them as something like angels, wholly male and female.

Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Amakusa Shirō have been identified as historical bishōnen. Ian Buruma notes that Yoshitsune was considered by contemporaries to be not physically prepossessing, but that his legend later grew and due to this, he became depicted with good looks. Abe no Seimei was depicted according to the standards of a Heian-era middle-aged man, but since 1989 he has been depicted as a modern-style bishōnen.

Kyokutei Bakin wrote many works with nanshoku undertones featuring bishōnen characters, and in 1848 he used the term bishōnen in the title of a work about the younger wakashu partner in the nanshoku relationship.

The bishōnen aesthetic is continued today in anime and manga, especially shōjo and yaoi.

Usage
Some non-Japanese, especially American, anime and manga fans use the term to refer to any handsome male character regardless of age, or any homosexual character. In the original Japanese, however, bishōnen applies only to boys under 18. For those older, the word bidanshi (美男子) is used. In the place of bishōnen, some fans prefer to use the slightly more sexually neutral bijin (美人) or the Anglicized slang term "bishie" (also spelled "bishi"), but these terms remain less common. The term binanshi was popular in the 1980s. Bishōnen is occasionally used to describe some androgynous female characters, such as Takarazuka actors, Lady Oscar in The Rose of Versailles, or any women with traits stereotypical to bishōnen.

Scottish pop singer Momus notably used the term in his song "Bishonen" from the Tender Pervert album (released on Creation Records). Almost 8 minutes long, the song is an epic tale of a young boy raised to die young by an eccentric stepfather.

Popular culture
According to Pflugfelder, the bishonen concept can be related to the "smoothie/roughneck" dichotomy of the Edo period. Sophisticated Japanese young men (smoothies) competed for hierarchical sexual dominance with so-called "roughneck" (juvenile delinquent) men, with occasional reports of violence between the two groups. By the 1920s the "smoothie" men had won out over the roughnecks in the popular imagination; "rough was no match for smooth", writes Pflugfelder.

In particular, Japan's largest male talent agency, Johnny & Associates Entertainment Company, specializes only in producing male Tarento idols. Accepted into Johnny & Associates in their early teens, these boys, collectively known as 'Johnnys', are trained and promoted to become the next leading singing-acting-commercially successful hit sensations. Almost all can be classified as bishōnen, exhibiting the same physically feminine features combined with a sometimes deliberately ambivalent sexuality or at the very least, a lack of any hint of a relationship to maintain their popular availability. Many of the bishōnen stars hired by Johnny & Associates eventually abandoned their princely image, and became stock characters in variety shows and other normal day-to-day programming.

Art
Besides being a character type, bishōnen is also a distinct art style not usually forgotten in books about drawing manga. In art, bishōnen are usually drawn delicately, with long limbs, silky or flowing hair, and slender eyes with long eyelashes that can sometimes extend beyond the face. The character's "sex appeal" is highlighted through introducing the character by using an "eroticized" full-page spread. Characters with "bulging muscles" are rarely considered bishōnen, as they are too masculine.

Bishōnen characters are fairly common in shōjo manga and anime. Many of the male characters show subtle signs of the bishōnen style, such as slender eyes or a feminine face.

Some manga are completely drawn in the bishōnen style, such as Saint Seiya. bishōnen manga are generally shōjo manga (girls' comics) or yaoi (girls' comics focused on homosexual relationships between beautiful boys), however shōnen manga (boy's comics) may use casts of bishōnen characters for crossover appeal to female readers. Mainstream shounen and seinen fare also often uses such characters as rivals for a traditional masculine protagonist, with some degree of comic relief, or for the blander everyman, whether as the embodiment of his insecurities in a grittier realism, or as a more lighthearted constant reminder of his less than advantageous social status and the constraints thereof. Comics for younger boys tend to use arrogant bishōnen in the role of the recurring minor rivals readers love to hate, though their effeminate good looks there will often appear older, bigger, stronger, and thus in fact more masculine than the commonly shorter and less mature protagonists.

Bishōnen and bishōjo
Bishōjo ('beautiful girl') is often mistakenly considered a parallel of bishōnen, because of the similar construction of the terms. There are major differences between the two aesthetics. The bishōjo aesthetic is aimed at a male audience, and is typically centered on young girls, drawn in a cute, pretty style; bishōnen is aimed at a female audience, centered on teenage boys, and drawn elegantly. Another common mistake is assuming that the female characters in bishōnen manga and anime are bishōjo. In truth, female characters in bishōnen manga are very different from those in bishōjo; bishōjo females are usually more petite and drawn in a style that is cute rather than beautiful, whereas bishōnen females exhibit the long limbs and elegance of the bishōnen themselves.

Critical attention
Several cultural anthropologists and authors have raised the multifaceted aspect of what bishōnen represents and what it is interpreted as, mostly to fit a particular external viewpoint. Ian Buruma noted that although Western comics for girls also included "impossibly beautiful men" who are clearly masculine and always get the girl in the end, the bishōnen are "more ambivalent" and sometimes get each other.

For Sandra Buckley, bishōnen narratives champion "the imagined potentialities of alternative [gender] differentiations" James Welker describes the bishōnen as being "queer", as the bishōnen is an androgynous aesthete with a feminine soul "who lives and loves outside of the heteropatriarchal world".

Jonathan D. Mackintosh believes that the bishōnen is a "traditional representation of youth", being "interstitial" between both childhood and adulthood and between being male and being female, regardless of the sexual issues.

Ishida Hitoshi makes the case that the image of the bishōnen is more about a grounding in sexuality than a transcendence of it, drawing on the idea of the image as being a refuge for alternative methods of looking at sexual natures, and sexual realities, at least since the 1960s, rather than the elegiac aesthetics of usages in an earlier era.

Representations of men in manga by and for men show "an idealized man being ultramasculine and phallic", bishōnen are conversely drawn to "emphasize their beauty and sensuality", and female artists have been said to react against the ultramasculine representation by showing androgynous and "aesthetically beautiful" men.

Ian Buruma, writing in 1984, considered the "bishonen in distress" to be a recurring motif in popular manga. The bishōnen in distress is always rescued by an older, protective, mentor. This scenario has an "unmistakably homoerotic" atmosphere. He also notes that bishōnen must either grow up, or die beautifully. He considers the "worship" of the bishōnen to be the same as that of the sakura, and notes that "death is the only pure and thus fitting end to the perfection of youth."

title: Bishōnen


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Paektu Mountain

Paektu Mountain or Baekdu Mountain is an active stratovolcano on the Chinese–North Korean border. In China, it is known as Changbai Mountain. At 2744 m, it is the tallest mountain in North Korea and Northeast China and the tallest mountain of the Baekdu-daegan and Changbai mountain ranges. The highest peak, called Janggun Peak, belongs to North Korea. The mountain notably has a caldera that contains a large crater lake called Heaven Lake, and is also the source of the Songhua, Tumen, and Yalu rivers. Korean and Manchu people assign a mythical quality to the mountain and its lake, and consider the mountain to be their ancestral homeland.

The mountain's caldera was formed by an eruption in 946 that released about 100 - 120 km3 of tephra. The eruption was among the largest and most powerful eruptions on Earth in the last 5,000 years. The volcano last erupted in 1903, and is expected to erupt around every hundred years. In the 2010s, concerns over an upcoming eruption prompted several countries to commission research into when the volcano might next erupt.

The mountain is considered culturally important to multiple groups in the area, including Korean, Chinese, and Manchu people. The mountain is a major national symbol for both North and South Korea, and is mentioned in both national anthems and depicted on the national emblem of North Korea. The Manchu people also consider the mountain their ancestral homeland, and the Chinese Qing dynasty saw it as a symbol of imperial power. The mountain has also been subject to territorial disputes over the past few centuries that have continued into the present.

Names
The mountain was first recorded in the Chinese Classic of Mountains and Seas under the name Bùxiánshān. It is also called Shànshàndàlǐng in the Book of the Later Han. In the Book of Wei and the Book of Sui it is also referred to as Dutàishān (徒太山), which is also mentioned as Cóngtàishān (從太山) in the History of the Northern Dynasties, likely as a misspelling of Dutàishān. In the New Book of Tang, it was called Tàibáishān. The current Chinese name, Chángbáishān, was first used in the Liao dynasty (916–1125) of the Khitans and then the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) of the Jurchens. The Liao Shi recorded that chiefs of 30 Jurchen tribes from Mount Changbai paid their tribute to the Liao in AD 985. According to the Song dynasty travelogue Songmo Jiwen, it was named as such because the mountain was "the abode of the white-robed Guanyin" and its birds and beasts were all white. The modern Manchu name of the mountain, which is golmin šanggiyan alin (ᡤᠣᠯᠮᡳᠨ ᡧᠠᠩᡤᡳᠶᠠᠨ ᠠᠯᡳᠨ), also means 'ever white mountain'.

The Korean name Baekdusan / Paektusan first appears in literature in the 10th year of Seongjong of Goryeo (991) in the Goryeosa, compiled at the beginning of the Joseon period. It means 'white-head mountain'. In other records such as the Samguk Yusa and the Jewang Ungi it is also called Taebaeksan, which means 'great-white mountain'. It was also occasionally called Changbaeksan (長白山) and Baeksan (白山) in the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty. An alternative Chinese name, Báitóushān, is the transliteration of Baekdusan.

The Mongolian name is Öndör Tsagaan Aula (Өндөр Цагаан Уул), which means 'lofty white mountain'. In English, various authors have used nonstandard transliterations.

Current geography and geology
Mount Baekdu is 2744 m tall, making it the highest mountain in North Korea and Northeast China and the highest mountain of the Baekdu-daegan and Changbai mountain ranges.

Mount Baekdu is a stratovolcano whose cone is truncated by a significant caldera. The central section of the mountain rises about 3 mm per year due to rising levels of magma below the central part of the mountain. Sixteen peaks exceeding 2,500 m line the caldera rim surrounding Heaven Lake. The highest peak, called Janggun Peak, is covered in snow about eight months of the year. The slope is relatively gentle until about 1800 m. The caldera is about 5 km wide and 850 m deep, and is partially filled by the waters of Heaven Lake.

Heaven Lake has a circumference of 12 to 14 km, with an average depth of 213 m and maximum depth of 384 m. From mid-October to mid-June, the lake is typically covered with ice. Water flows north out of the lake, and near the outlet there is a 70 m waterfall. The mountain is the source of the Songhua, Tumen and Yalu rivers. The Tumen and the Yalu form the northern border between North Korea and Russia and China.

Climate
The weather on the mountain can be very erratic, sometimes severe. The annual average temperature at the peak is -4.9 C. During summer, temperatures of about 18 C or higher can be reached, and during winter temperatures can drop to -48 C. The lowest record temperature was -51 C on 2 January 1997. The average temperature is about -24 C in January, and 10 C in July, remaining below freezing for eight months of the year. The average wind speed is 42 km/h, peaking at 63 km/h. The relative humidity averages 74%.

Geological history
The geological origin of Mount Baekdu remains a mystery. Two leading theories are a hotspot, or an uncharted portion of the Pacific Plate sinking beneath Mount Baekdu.

Beginning about 5 million years ago, Baekdu Mountain erupted, releasing a series of basaltic lava flows that formed a lava plateau. The construction of the cone of the volcano began approximately 1 million years ago, as the eruptive materials transitioned into trachytic pyroclastic and lava flows. During the cone-construction stage, major Plinian-type eruptions occurred in 448, 67.6, 85.8 and 24.5 thousand years ago (ka) and deposited ash in the Japan sea. The cone's growth was halted by two widely-recognized major explosive eruptions: Tianwenfeng and Millennium.

Tianwenfeng eruption
The Tianwenfeng eruption was the formation of a widespread thick layer of grey, yellow pumice preceding the Millennium eruption. The exact age of the eruption is uncertain, since different dating techniques have assigned 4, 51, 61, and 74 ka to this deposit. This eruption formed large areas covered in yellow pumice and ignimbrite. Proximal deposits of pumice fall of the Tianwenfeng are thicker than those of the Millennium eruption. This suggests that the eruption of the Tianwenfeng is significant and maybe of similar magnitude to the Millennium eruption, making the Tianwenfeng eruption also of VEI 6–7.

Millennium eruption
The mountain's caldera was created in 946 by the colossal (VEI 6) "Millennium" or "Tianchi" eruption, one of the most powerful eruptions in the last 5,000 years, comparable to the 230 CE eruption of Lake Taupō and the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora. The eruption, whose tephra has been found in the southern part of Hokkaidō, Japan, and as far away as Greenland, destroyed much of the volcano's summit, leaving a caldera that today is filled by Heaven Lake.

According to the Korean historical record Goryeosa, in 946 "thunders from heaven's drum" were heard in the city of Kaesong, then the capital of Goryeo, about 450 km south of the volcano. The event reportedly terrified King Jeongjong so much, that convicts were pardoned and set free. According to the Heungboksa Temple's historical records, on 3 November, "white ash rain" fell in Nara, Japan, about 1100 km southeast from the mountain Three months later, on 7 February 947, explosive noises were reported in the city of Kyoto (Japan), about 1000 km southeast of Paektu.

Later history

After these major eruptions, Mount Paektu had at least three smaller eruptions, which occurred in 1668, 1702, and 1903, likely forming the Baguamiao ignimbrite, the Wuhaojie fine pumice, and the Liuhaojie tuff ring.

Research on upcoming eruption
In 2011, experts in North and South Korea met to discuss the potential for a significant eruption in the near future, as the last eruption was in 1903 and the volcano is expected to erupt around every 100 years. The Government of North Korea invited several volcanologists, including James Hammond, Clive Oppenheimer, and Kayla Iacovino, to study the mountain for recent volcanic activity. This made Iacovino the first foreign female researcher to conduct research in North Korea. The researchers began publishing their research in 2016 and in February 2020 formed the Mt. Paektu Research Center.

Flora and fauna
There are five known species of plants in the lake on the peak, and some 168 have been counted along its shores. The forest on the Chinese side is ancient and almost unaltered by humans. Birch predominates near the tree line, and pine lower down, mixed with other species. There has been extensive deforestation on the lower slopes on the North Korean side of the mountain.

The area is a known habitat for Siberian tigers, bears, wolves, and wild boars. The Ussuri dholes may have been extirpated from the area. Deer in the mountain forests, which cover the mountain up to about 2000 m, are of the Paekdusan roe deer kind. Many wild birds such as black grouse, owls, and woodpecker are known to inhabit the area. The mountain has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports a population of scaly-sided mergansers.

Cultural history
The mountain has been worshipped by the surrounding peoples throughout history. A considerable percentage of the Koreans and Manchus consider it sacred, especially the Heaven Lake in its crater.

Korea
The mountain has been considered sacred by Koreans throughout history. According to Korean mythology, it was the birthplace of Dangun, the founder of Gojoseon (2333–108 BC), whose parents were said to be Hwanung, the Son of Heaven, and Ungnyeo, a bear who had been transformed into a woman. Many subsequent kingdoms of Korea, such as Buyeo, Goguryeo, Balhae, Goryeo and Joseon.

The Goryeo dynasty (935–1392) first called the mountain Baekdu, recording that the Jurchens across the Yalu River were made to live outside of Mount Baekdu. The Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) recorded volcanic eruptions in 1597, 1668, and 1702. In the 15th century, King Sejong strengthened the fortification along the Tumen and Yalu rivers, making the mountain a natural border with the northern peoples. Some Koreans claim that the entire region near Mount Paektu and the Tumen River belongs to Korea and parts of it were illegally given away by Japanese colonialists to China through the Gando Convention.

Mount Baekdu is mentioned in the national anthems of both North and South Korea and in the Korean folk song "Arirang".

Dense forest around the mountain provided bases for Korean armed resistance against the Japanese occupation, and later communist guerrillas during the Korean War. Kim Il Sung organized his resistance against the Japanese forces there, and North Korea claims that Kim Jong Il was born there, although records outside of North Korea suggest that he was born in the Soviet Union.

The peak has been featured on the state emblem of North Korea since 1993, as defined in Article 169 of the Constitution, which describes Mt. Paektu as "the sacred mountain of the revolution". The mountain is often referred to in slogans such as: "Let us accomplish the Korean revolution in the revolutionary spirit of Paektu, the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu!" North Korean media celebrates natural phenomena witnessed at the mountain as portentous, and weather forecasts aired by state broadcaster Korean Central Television list Paektu behind only the capital of Pyongyang. The mountain's name is used for various products, such as the Paektusan rocket, the Paektusan computer, and the Mt Paektu handgun.

In the 2019 South Korean disaster film Ashfall, the mountain erupts and causes severe earthquakes in the Korean peninsula.

In the popular strategy game Europa Universalis 4 the mountain appears as part of a Korean mission entitled "Access to Mt. Paektu" where the player must obtain the province the mountain occurs in.

China
Mount Changbai was regarded as the most sacred mountain in the shamanist religion of the Manchus, and their ancestors Sushen and Jurchens. The Jin dynasty bestowed the title "the King Who Makes the Nation Prosperous and Answers with Miracles" on the mountain in 1172 and it was entitled "the Emperor Who Cleared the Sky with Tremendous Sagehood"  in 1193. A temple for the mountain god was constructed on the northern side.

The Manchu clan Aisin Gioro, which founded the Qing dynasty of China, claimed their progenitor Bukūri Yongšon was conceived near Paektu Mountain. In 1682, 1698, 1733, 1754 and 1805, Qing emperors visited Jilin and paid homage to the mountain. The rites at Mount Changbai were heavily influenced by the ancient Feng Shan ceremonies, in which Chinese emperors offered sacrifices to heaven and earth at Mount Tai. The Kangxi Emperor claimed that Mount Tai and Changbai belong to the same mountain range, which runs from northeast to southwest but is partially submerged under the sea before reaching Shandong. The geography and feng shui of Mount Changbai thus provided legitimacy to the Aisin Gioro clan's rule over China.

Baishan Heishui, "white mountain and black river", referring to Mount Changbai and the Heilongjiang, has been a traditional name for Northeast China since the Jin dynasty.

Historical
According to Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, the Yalu and Tumen Rivers were set as the borders in the era of the founder of Joseon Dynasty, Taejo of Joseon (1335–1408). Because of the continuous entry of Korean people into Gando, a region in Manchuria that lay north of the Tumen, Manchu and Korean officials surveyed the area and negotiated a border agreement in 1712. To mark the agreement, they built a monument describing the boundary at a watershed, near the south of the crater lake at the mountain peak. Volume 8 of the Annals of King Taejo, 2nd article of Gyemyo, December 14, 4th year of King Taejo, 1395, 28th year of Ming Hongwu Since the 19th century, interpretations of the inscription have been relevant in some territorial disputes.

The 1909 Gando Convention between China and Japan, when Korea was under Japanese rule, recognized the north and east of the mountain as Chinese territory.

Recent
In 1962 and 1964, China and North Korea negotiated two treaties in secret that outlined their modern borders. Both treaties especially focused on the sovereignty of Paektu and Heaven Lake. As a result of the treaties, North Korea received 280 km2 of land on and around Paektu, 9 out of 16 peaks, and 54.5% of Heaven Lake. Neither treaty is recognized by the governments of Taiwan or South Korea.

, South Korea formally claimed the caldera lake and the inside part of the ridge. However, some South Korean groups argue that recent activities conducted on the Chinese side of the border, such as economic development, cultural festivals, infrastructure development, promotion of the tourism industry, attempts at registration as a World Heritage Site, and bids for a Winter Olympic Games, constitute attempts to claim the mountain as Chinese territory. These groups object to China's use of the name Mount Changbai. Some groups also regard the entire mountain as Korean territory that was given away by North Korea in the Korean War.

During the 2007 Asian Winter Games, which were held in Changchun, China, a group of South Korean athletes held up signs during the award ceremony which stated "Mount Paektu is our territory". Chinese sports officials delivered a letter of protest on the grounds that political activities violated the spirit of the Olympics and were banned in the charter of the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia. Officials from the South Korean athletic team apologized to China.

Tourism
Most Chinese, Russian, South Korean and international visitors climb the mountain from the Chinese side. The North Korean side of the mountain is also popular among visitors to North Korea. The Chinese tourism area is classified as a AAAAA scenic area by the China National Tourism Administration.

There are a number of monuments on the North Korean side of the mountain. Paektu Spa is a natural spring and is used for bottled water. Pegae Hill is a camp site of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army allegedly led by Kim Il Sung during their struggle against Japanese colonial rule. Secret camps are also now open to the public. There are several waterfalls, including the Hyongje Falls which splits into two about a third of the way from the top. In 1992, on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Kim Il-sung, a large sign with the words "Holy mountain of the revolution" written in metal letters was erected on the side of the mountain. North Koreans claim that there are 216 steps leading to the top of the mountain, symbolizing Kim Jong Il's 16 February birth date, but this claim is disputed. On the North Korean side of the mountain, there is a funicular system with two cars. This was updated with new funicular cars built by the Kim Chong-t'ae Electric Locomotive Works, with the new cars successfully running on the funicular from 30 October 2020.

title: Paektu Mountain