It is that time of year again: the anniver-sary of the end of the second world war in North-East Asia, when wound-opening patriots take the sticking-plaster laid over historical grievances and give it a hard tug. This year the top prize goes to the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak. On August 10th Mr Lee visited Dokdo, a group of islets in the Sea of Japan. Here the welfare of fragile marine and bird life comes second to nationalist sensitivities in the face of a rival claim to the rocks by Japan, which relinquished control of Korea after its defeat in 1945. The islets' two permanent residents, an octopus fisherman and his wife, are joined by a supporting cast of coastguards, installers of mobile-phone masts, South Korean tourists and planters of exotic trees-which for the purposes of territorial claims help distinguish an island from a mere rock.
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