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|---|---|
| Korean Name | |
| Revised Romanization | Gando |
| McCune-Reischauer | Kando |
| Hangul | 간도 |
| Hanja | 間島 |
Gando is a Korean name refers to parts of Manchuria that contains Korean settlements. The region corresponds roughly to Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin province, China. The Japanese equivalent is Kantou, and the Chinese equivalent is Jiandao.
Location and origin
Kantou is the name Japanese use to refer to the parts of Manchuria (Northeastern China) which contained large Korean minority settlements who were fleeing harsh coditions in Korea since 1860s. The name was created by Japanese who at the beginning of the 20th century were trying to annex Northeastern China. The Kantou issue became one of many pretexts Japanese used to start their military expansion on Continental Asia. The area refered by so called Kantou is in southern Jilin province. The name literally means "An Island in between".
Setting the boundary
In 1712, Joseon of Korea and Qing of China agree to set the boundaries of the two countries at Yalu and Tumen Rivers. The Yalu (鴨綠) / Amnok (압록) River boundary is of little dispute, but the interpretation of the Tumen causes problems. On the original document, Tumen is written as 土門 (토문). Korean irredentists claim that this refers to a small river that joins the Songhua (松花) / Songhwa (송화) River. However, Qing officials claimed that Tumen (豆滿) / Duman (두만) River is the boundary on record. This confusion is brought up as the two names sound identical, and neither name is actually of Chinese origin (only using Chinese homophones). The two rivers can be seen in the following picture.
Between 1931 to 1945, Manchuria was under the control of Manchukuo, a Japanese client state. Kantou (間島省) was a province of Manchukuo. The area reverted to Chinese control after the end of World War 2. This area is now the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin province. The province containing Kantou has been highlighted on this map of Manchukuo's administrative divisions.
Settling the area
For years, Qing officials did not allow people to move to Manchuria, as it always believed that should a Han majority government rise again in China, the Manchu royalty can flee to this area and retain a strong base to recover control in China. Joseon officials also did not allow its subjects to move to Manchuria. These governmental regulations with the general marshy nature of the area left Gando undeveloped and sparsely inhabited for long time. However, by late 19th century, significant amount of Koreans were moving into Manchuria, and even more arrived as Korea became a colony of Japan in 1910. After World War II and the liberation of Korea, many Korean expatriates moved back, but a significant majority still remained in Manchuria; descendants of these people form the Korean ethnic minority in China today.
Japanese annexation
In 1905, Joseon (at this time as the Korean Empire) becomes a protectorate of Japan, effectively losing diplomatic rights. On 18 April 1906, a team of Japanese military invaded Gando and declared ownership over the region. In 1909, Japan affirmed territorial rights of Qing over Gando after the Chinese foreign ministry issued a thirteen-point refutation statement regarding its rightful ownership. Despite these changes, there were large Koreans settlements and the area remained under significant Japanese influence.
Korean position regarding Jian Dao/Gando
After liberation of Korea in 1945, many Koreans believed that Gando should be returned to Korean rule, but the military control by United States of America in the south and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the north hindered any unified Korean claim to the territory. The following chaos of the Korean War and the geopolitical situation of the Cold War effectively diminished any public outcry for Koreans to make so called Gando issue meaningful. In 1962, North Korea signed a boundary treaty with People's Republic of China setting the Korean boundary at Yalu and Tumen, effectively foregoing territorial rights to Gando. South Korea also recognizes this as the boundary between Korea and China.
Current situation
It has been claimed that since Japan ceded all territories outside Japan after the end of World War II, some in South Korea viewed Gando as Korean territory. However, none of the governments involved (North Korea, South Korea, People's Republic of China, or Japan) make such a claim. (However, in 2004 the South Korean government issued a statement to the effect that it believed that the Gando Convention was null and void. The resultant controversy and strong negative reaction from the PRC led to a retraction of the statement, along with an explanation that its issuance was an "administrative error.") In addition, there is very little enthusiasm for irredentism among the Korean minority in China. Although there are occasional arguments over historical interpretation, this issue arouses very little emotion or official interest on the part of any of the parties, and relations between China and both Koreas remain warm.
A small number of South Korean activists believe that under a unified Korea, the treaties signed by North Korea can be deemed null, allowing the unified Korea to actively seek regress for Gando. However, the current political situation make this a faint possibility at best.
Some scholars claims that China's efforts to incorporate the history of Goguryeo and Barhae into Chinese history is an effectively pre-emptive move to squash any territorial disputes that might rise regarding Gando before a unified Korea can claim such or the Korean ethnic minority in the Manchuria region claim to become part of Korea.
Military Airport on Gran Canaria, Spain
Gando is also a military airport on Gran Canaria, Spain at 27°55′N 15°19′W / 27.917°N 15.317°W / 27.917; -15.317.
From Gando the Spanish satellite Minisat01 was launched. Therefore a plane of the type L-1011 was started with a Pegasus-rocket. This rocket was dropped at 27°00′N 15°30′W / 27.000°N 15.500°W / 27.000; -15.500 over the atlantic ocean and ignited.
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