The Results of our Effort

What is the historically correct name for the body of water lying between Korea and Japan?

East Sea : The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK) began an aggressive letter and email writing campaign in the late 1990s, all in an effort to get the world, especially map makers, travel guides and geography web sites to include the East Sea, whenever the long-established Sea of Japan is found in print. Their claim that the East Sea has as much historical precedent as the Sea of Japan has worked well, as major book and map publishers, educational web sites, along with this site and other reference materials now include the East Sea. In the end, the national pride of the Korean people is the clear winner. (November 14. 2002)

We are now adding East Sea.

Dear VANK Thank you for this communication. You will be pleased to know hat we have now adjusted our files, and have removed Chinese from the languages spoken in Korea. Regarding the Sea of Japan, We are now adding East Sea as an annotation in all our map products from now on wards. Please look at our Maps and Atlases World Factfile on www.dk.com for confirmation of this. Maybe you could circulate this news among the VANK organization. With best wishes, and thank you again for bringing this matter to my attention.

It should have East Sea

the National Geographic Society recognized the fact Dear Mr. Vank, We have received your e-mail concerning the incorrect titles for the Sea of Japan. We have forwarded the information on to the correct departments. so they are aware of the error and that it should have East Sea. If you have questions about any Society product or matter, our service representatives are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-888-647-6733. We also offer a free catalog which is available upon request.

Sea of Japan (East Sea) Early in 1999, the National Geographic Society recognized the fact that the term Sea of Japan was legitimately disputed by the South Koreans. In keeping with the Society standard place-name convention, we recognize that where a geographical feature is shared by more than one nation, and its name is disputed, we use the most commonly recognized form of the name first and label the disputed name in parentheses. Thus, on our maps, the Sea of Japan appears as the primary label for this feature while the East Sea appears below in parentheses.

– This “patch” updates plate 104 of the Atlas. 2001 National Geographic Society.
We have forwarded the correction to our travel department for update.

We have forwarded the correction to our travel department for update.

Hello, VANK Thank you for writing to Lycos. We appreciate your interest in the Maps service. We have forwarded the correction to our travel department for update.

If you have any further questions please let us know. Thank you for using Lycos RoadMaps.

We will certainly take you comments into consideration.

Hello, VANK Thank you for your recent e-mail. I appreciate your concerns and have passed your comments on to the person responsible for our Korea pages. We will certainly take you comments into consideration when updating the profile and map. Once again, thank you for your feedback. Best wishes,

– Administrative Assistant, New Media Unit, Lonely Planet Publications

We will change map of our site.

Dear VANK

Correction Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. We absolutely do want to be accurate. We will remove the map that is on the site and link to one of the map sites that you gave us. We will seek permission to use the actual map on our site but can not post it without permission. We really appreciate you looking at our site and hope you continue to do so. We also appreciate help in making sure that our site is accurate.

– Maria Mastromatteo Educational Technology Consultant PBS 45 & 49

We will show both names on our maps.

Dear VANK We have received your email and read through the information you sent. I have also logged onto the sites that you included and have found them to be quite interesting and informative. I have passed them on to our authors. At this point, I believe that the best answer we can give you is the following statement from worldatlas.com, one of the sites mentioned in your email: At worldatlas.com we play no favorites, nor do we claim to know all of the answers, so until the two countries can reach a unified decision, we will continue to show both names on our maps. We simply ask both sides for their understanding. I trust that you will gain much good experience in your volunteer efforts to further your cause.

We will also change to “East Sea”.

Dear VANK Members, Jeppesen plans to revise our affected aeronautical charts to read ” East Sea”. This change will be made on an “as revised” basis. This means that the next time we print the chart for other aeronautical changes, we will also change to “East Sea”. Because some of our charts are printed infrequently, it may take several months before all of our products are updated. Best Regards, Andrew F. Barnett Supervisor – Tier 2 Navigation & Display Support:

“Sea of Japan” instead of “East Sea” have been solved.

Dear Sirs, Regarding BWOL’s map showing “Sea of Japan” instead of “East Sea” have been solved. The editorial department put a note next to the map. You may check this link: Go to: http://www.businessweek.com/ 2000/00_51/b3712241.htm We hope this solves yours and the Korean’s concerns. We also hope you can inform the Korean and do not need to forward this message anymore. Thank you. Yours sincerely. Ava Chan Customer Service

Thanks for bringing that matter to our attention.

Dear V@NK, Thanks for bringing that matter to our attention. We’ve changed the map, and have added East Sea, following the option used by the National Geographic: http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/case_ studies/tokyo/index.shtml. Thanks for your attention and interest, Best regards,

The Water Portal team http://www.unesco.org/water

We had rectified our site with the correct information on 05th Oct 2005 afternoon.

 Dear Sir, Correction in Republic of Korea and Japan Map We are deeply indebted to the feedback of Mr Mustardseed of VANK for pointing out our error. We had rectified our site with the correct information on 05th Oct 2005 afternoon. We look forward to hear from you all. And, once again, Thanks A Lot. Best Regards