Assessment and Significance of a World War II battle site: recording the USS Emmons using a High‐Resolution DEM combining Multibeam Bathymetry and SfM Photogrammetry

The USS Emmons, a 106m US Navy Gleaves‐class destroyer minesweeper that sank in 40m of water off Okinawa Island, Japan after kamikaze attack in 1945, is used as a case study for examining the history, multivocal significance, and heritage management of a World War II naval battle site. A baseline record of the site was made using an innovative method incorporating precise control points obtained from high‐resolution multibeam echosounding bathymetry to generate 3D models using structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry. The 3D models produced can be used for sharing information about this underwater cultural heritage and for future in situ monitoring of the archaeological remains.     

Asymmetry of power and attention in alliance politics: the US–Republic of Korea case

While power asymmetry typically defines security relationships between allies, there exist other forms of asymmetry that influence alliance politics. In order to illustrate how they can shape policy outcomes that cannot be explained solely through the lens of power capabilities, the authors examine the role of relative attention that each side pays to the alliance. It is their central argument that since the client state has a greater vested interest in the alliance and given that attention depends on interest/need, the client state can leverage attention to get its way. By analysing two specific cases, the 2002 South Korean schoolgirls tragedy and the 2008 beef protests—instances where the South Koreans succeeded in compelling US concessions—the authors show that because the alliance was more central to the client state's agendas, there existed an asymmetry of attention that offered leveraging opportunities for the weaker ally. In this study, the authors emphasise the role of media attention as a key variable, and seek to contribute to debates on weaker party leverage in asymmetrical alliances.     

Detection of parasite eggs from a moat encircling the royal palace of Silla, the ancient Korean Kingdom

We conducted a paleo-parasitological study on soil samples from the ancient moat ruins of Weolseong palace, of the Silla Dynasty (BC 57–AD 935) of Korea. Based on the cultural remains found in the mud-soil layer, the layer was precipitated onto the floor of a moat between the 5th and 8th centuries AD. We found Trichuris trichiura eggs only in that mud-soil layer, whereas no parasite eggs were identified in the other archaeological strata of the ruins. As T. trichiura eggs are shed only in human feces, we speculated that palace toilet contents were continually drained into the moat; therefore, at a certain point in time after construction, the moat finally became a ditch around the palace. Structures in the stone embankments of the moat, possibly designed to make the water flow continuously in one direction, might reflect the Silla people's efforts to alleviate the ever-increasing problems inherent in a moat.     

Investigation of the temporal change of the sources of Aeolian dust delivered to East Asia using electron spin resonance signals in quartz

The temporal change in the number of oxygen vacancies in quartz was investigated by ob-serving the E1’ center in the atmospheric depositions collected at two cities in Japan in the recent past. The depositions collected at Fukuoka in March show the ESR intensities being correlated with the sum of the number of the days, in the month, on which Kosa was observed while no such correlation was found in the deposition those collected at Akita but a trend of decrease with time. The present results suggest that the number of oxygen vacancies in quartz might be useful to estimate quantitatively the contribution of the dust originated from China to the atmospheric deposition in Japan.     

Bioarchaeological Investigation of Possible Gunshot Wounds in 18th Century Human Skeletons from Korea

Notwithstanding the relative abundance of bioarchaeological evidence of pre‐20th century gunshot wounds discovered at European and American archaeological sites, similar findings in East Asian countries have been very rare. In this study, we report evidence of possible gunshot wounds sustained by two individuals buried in Joseon tombs of Korea. The shapes of the trauma seemed to indicate low‐velocity projectiles, most likely musket balls. To our knowledge, this is the first bioarchaeological report specifically concerning possible gunshot‐wound evidence in East Asian skeletons recovered from archaeological fields. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Amplification and sequencing of Trichuris trichiura ancient DNA extracted from archaeological sediments

Despite high prevalence of Trichuris trichiura infection, PCR-based analysis on T. trichiura from archaeological samples has not been established so far. In the present study, we sought to perform PCR-based amplification of T. trichiura aDNA using the sediments from medieval tomb of Korea. The presence of Trichuris eggs were first detected by microscopic observation; then confirmed by PCR-based aDNA analysis. Obtained sequence showed 100% homology to that of the small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSUrRNA) gene of T. trichiura but distinct from that of other Trichuris species. PCR-based aDNA analysis in this study can serve as effective method to confirm the presence of T. trichiura eggs in the soils or coprolites collected from archaeological sites.     

The E<Subscript>1</Subscript>’ center in natural quartz: Its formation and applications to dating and provenance researches

Quartz is one of the minerals useful for electron spin resonance (ESR) dating. The E₁′ center is one of well-known paramagnetic defects in crystalline quartz. This center has a unique feature; its intensity increases on heating. An electronic process to explain this increase was found to be controlled not only by the number of oxygen vacancies, which are the precursors, but also by the number of Al hole centers, which depend on the previous radiation dose and on the Al concentration.     

Conservative Journalists’ Myth Making in South Korea: Use of the Past in News Coverage of the 2008 Korean Candlelight Vigil

This article explores the role of three conservative newspapers in South Korea as storytellers that create and maintain the collective memory of Korean conservatives through textual analysis of news stories on one particular recent event, the 2008 Korean Candlelight Vigil. Several protests since the 1980s in which the democratic-progressives were a leading force have been used as a source of historical analogies that have helped conservative journalists to interpret contemporary events and issues, including the 2008 vigil. These past protests were framed as anti-American, pro-North Korean leftist actions in the news stories. Some aspects of these past events were omitted – for example, former democratic-progressive activists’ contribution to the democratisation process – while other aspects were emphasised, notably the violent nature of the earlier generation of activists. In addition, conservative journalists constructed a revisionist version of one particular past protest, the 2002 Korean Candlelight Vigil, and used it to serve present political purposes, conflating the rhetoric and language of the earlier protests into their reporting of the current protest. These discourse strategies helped to incorporate the current protest into a larger discourse of “the threat posed by the leftists”, which is embedded in the collective memory of Korean conservatives.