We didn't see this. It's a photo in
the library. We just thought it was cool that people
covered the former City Hall with Korean flags. Christo
with a theme.
One of the first things one sees when one enters the library is
a globe in clear display case. A sign says that the globe
was by the only globe maker that labels what we know as the Sea
of Japan, the East Sea. This trivial
naming dispute is a big deal in Korea -- we saw it
mentioned (along with "Dokdo
Island") in several displays.
At first I thought, "politicians must be really silly in Korea
to even make this an issue." But then I thought of some of
the silly things that politicians use in the U.S. to get their
constituents stirred up, and realized that this sort of
pandering to nationalism, no matter how trivial and silly the
issue, seems to work everywhere.
