S. Korea-Japan Tensions in Small Town USA

The quirky spectacle of Virginia's state legislature debating matters of East Asian international relations proved too much for journalists around the world to ignore. But it also marked one of the most successful efforts in a quiet series of ongoing attempts by Korean-Americans around the country to take longstanding historical disputes with Japan to places where they can win them. Not Washington or the United Nations, but to communities in northern Virginia, California, and New York, where Koreans have enough political clout to counter Japanese objections. "We cannot influence the foreign policy of the State Department, we cannot influence the" International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) which gives official designations to bodies of water, said Peter Y. Kim, a northern Virginia businessman who helped lead the textbook fight. "But locally, I have a right to raise my voice."