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Virginia legislature adopts use of ‘East Sea’ in textbooks

January 31, 2014

The legislature of the U.S. state of Virginia has approved the mandatory simultaneous use of the term “East Sea” along with the “Sea of Japan in school textbooks.

A bill to the effect was approved 5-4 in a vote at the House of Delegates Wednesday following last week’s passage through the Senate.

A previous vote Tuesday ended in a stalemate after one of the nine delegates walked away without offering his decision and a revote had to be arranged.

The sensitive motion to recognize the waters between Korea and Japan as East Sea was lobbied and protest against by representatives of the two countries.

At one point, an expected problem arose when Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe hinted that he may not sign the bill even if it is passed against his previous promise.

Even the Japanese ambassador to the United States Kenichiro Sasae met with Gov. McAuliffe in an effort to call off the bill but the legislature stood its ground, thus bringing about the approval Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the legislature of the state of Georgia also approved the motion to recognize the Sea of Japan as being East Sea as well.

The affair in Virginia is by no mean fully completed since there is still the final signing by Gov. McAuliffe following which the mandatory simultaneous identification will go into effect July 1.

Peter Kim, chairman of the Korean coalition in Virginia, said there are still minor legal details that have to be worked out in addition to getting McAuliffe’s signature on the bill.

“This is a matter of providing American students with correct information. It is not about proclaiming our right to the East Sea,” he said.