Tsushima Islands

**Tsushima**
Japanese name

Hepburn Romaji	Tsushima-jima
Hiragana	つしまじま
Kanji	対馬島
Korean name
Hangul	대마도
Hanja	對馬島
Revised Romanization	Daema-do
McCune-Reischauer	Taema-to

The Tsushima Islands are islands lying in the Tsushima Strait, between the Japanese island of Kyushu and the Korean Peninsula.

The Tsushima Islands consist of Tsushima Province, an old province of Japan. Today the Tsushima Islands are part of the Nagasaki prefecture of Japan.

Contents

5 People from Tsushima

6 See also

7 External links

7.1 Blogs
7.2 News

Geography

Tsushima covers an area of 262 square kilometres, is divided at the waist by a deep sound (Aso Bay Japanese: 浅茅湾), and the southern section has two hills, Mount Yatachi (矢立山) and Shira-dake , 2,130 feet (649 metres) and 1,680 feet (512 metres) high respectively, while the northern section has Ibeshi-yama and Mi-take , whose heights are 1,128 feet (344 metres) and 1,598 feet (487 metres) respectively. It is divided between the northern Kamino-Shima and the southern Shimono-shima islands, which are joined by a causeway, along with thirteen other smaller islets surrounding it; thus it is also known as the Tsushima Islands.

The chief town is Izuhara, now merged to form Tsushima. Tsushima is the closest Japanese territory to Korea, located only fifty kilometres from Busan. The nearest Japanese port of Iki is fifty kilometres away. Together with the Iki Island, it is known as the Iki-Tsushima Quasi-national park.

Demographics

The population of present inhabitants of the islands is about 40,000, consisting mainly of ethnic Japanese, but with a large minority of Koreans who are well established on the islands, many of whom intermarry with the Japanese locals. Due in part to Tsushima's closeness to Korea, it has been more heavily influenced by Korean culture than the rest of Japan. Buddhism is the most widely followed religion, although Shintoism and Korean Shamanism have some influence upon the local people. Of late, one can also find a small Christian community made up mainly of ethnic Koreans.

One can also see Korean signs in addition to the Japanese signs, mainly to assist Koreans visiting the Tsushima Islands.

History

Archeological evidence suggests that Tsushima was already inhabited by settlers from the Korean peninsula and Japan from the Jomon period to the Kofun period. According to the Sanguo Zhi, there were 1,000 families in Tsushima, setting up the Tsuikai kingdom (対海国), which exerted control on the Iki Island as well and maintained trading links with Yayoi Japan. Since Tsushima had scarce land to cultivate, islander earned their living by fishing and trading. Japanese mythology, states that Tsushima was one of the eight original islands created by Shito deities of Izanagi and Izanami.

Since the early 7th century, Japan has claimed Tsushima as her province under the name of the Tsushima province (対馬国) or Tsushu (対州), as the Koreans rarely placed Tsushima as part of Korean territory prior to the Joseon Dynasty.

Under the Ritsuryo system , Tsushima became a province. Tsushima Province was politically and economically linked with Dazaifu and the central government as a strategic area that took a major role in the national defense against possible invasions from the continent and in trade with the Korean Peninsula. After Japan was defeated by the Tang at the Battle of Hakusukinoe in 663, border guards were sent to Tsushima and Kaneda Castle was constructed on this island.

Tsushima Province was controlled by the Tsushima-no-kuni-no-miyatsuko (対馬国造) clan until the Heian Period and then the Ahiru clan until the middle of the 13th century. The title of the Governor of Tsushima was held by the Shoni clan for generations. Since the Shoni clan stayed in Kyushu, its subject, the So clan, came to control this island. The So clan took over the whole island in the late 15th century.

Tsushima was an important trade center. After the Toi invasion, private trades started between Goryeo, and Tsushima, Iki and Kyushu, but were halted by the Mongol Invasions of Japan of 1274 and 1281. However, the Mongols were halted from further aggression into Japan. Koryosa (a history of the Goryeo dynasty) mentions that in 1274, an army of Mongol troops which included Korean soldiers killed a great number of people on the island.

Tsushima became one of the major bases of Wokou along with Iki and Matsuura. Suffering from their invasions, Goryeo and its successor Joseon soothed them by giving them trade interests as well as negotiating with the Muromachi shogunate and its deputy on Kyushu. In 1389, general Park Hyun (朴威) of Goryeo attempted to clear the island of Wokou pirates, but uprisings in Korea forced him to return home.

In 1419, the recently-abdicated King Taejong of Joseon ordered his trusted general Yi Jong Mu to clear the island of the Wokou pirates with a fleet of 227 vessels and 17,000 soldiers. At this time, Tsushima came under the sphere of influence of Joseon.

Owing to the lack of food on the islands, the local Japanese governor requested King Sejong to give help to the local inhabitants. In response, the king formally colonised and placed Tsushima as part of the Gyeongsang province, although Japan maintained claims to the island. Following which, Joseon gave the So clan its privileged position on trade with Korea with the Kakitsu Treaty . By the end of the 16th century, the So clan monopolized trade with Korea.

In the late 16th century, as Toyotomi Hideyoshi united the various feudal barons under his control and looked to unite all factions with a common cause, he planned to invade the Ming, which subsequently became the Seven-Year War, and Korean labourers were transported in large numbers to Tsushima until 1603. In preparation for the war, Tsushima became the main naval base for this invasion.

After Japan's invasion attempts failed due to Ming China's involvement in support of Joseon, peace was re-established between the two nations and the island once again became a port for merchants to dock their ships. Both Joseon and Tokugawa shogunate sent their trading representatives to Tsushima to govern trade until 1755. Japanese rule was slowly established as Joseon had no intention of colonizing the island following its policy of leaving islands uninhabited. During the late 19th century, the Meiji government of Japan officially incorporated the island into its country. However, the Joseon government did not recognise this claim, and continued printing official maps with Tsushima as part of its territory. [1]

As a result of the abolition of the Han system, the Tsushima Fuchu domain became Izuhara Prefecture in 1871. In the same year, Izuhara Prefecture was merged into Imari Prefecture, which was renamed Saga Prefecture in 1872. Tsushima was transferred to Nagasaki Prefecture in 1872 and its districts of Kamiagata (上県) and Shimoagata (下県) were merged to form the modern Tsushima city.

During the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the famous Russian Baltic fleet under Admiral Rozhdestvensky , which made a nearly year-long trip to East Asia from the Baltic coast, was crushed by the Japanese under Admiral Togo Heihachiro at the Battle of Tsushima.

After World War II, there arose a movement in South Korea to claim Tsushima, citing its historical relations to the various kingdoms of Korea.

Today, Tsushima is part of Nagasaki prefecture of Japan. On March 1 2004 the six towns on the island, including Izuhara, were unified to create Tsushima city.

Territorial claims

In a New Year press conference in 1949, President Syngman Rhee formally requested that Japan return the island to Korean rule. However, this claim was never seriously considered by the military government of General Douglas MacArthur. With the outbreak of the Korean War the next year, and the economic struggles that South Korea faced in the following decade, talk of any territorial dispute disappeared.

Provoked by the Shimane Prefecture's claim to Liancourt Rocks, the Masan city of Korea declared June 19 as "Daema-do day" on 18 March 2005, claiming Tsushima to be part of Korean territory (in the South Gyeongsang province), but this was rejected by the Korean government. [2] However, the Masan council replied that it would not retract its claim, stating that Tsushima was never formally handed to Japan. This proclamation stirred up some public support for the idea of Tsushima as Korean territory. The Japanese and South Korean government has not made any comment on this claim.