Modern Japanese are descendants of migrants who crossed from the Korean Peninsula around 400 BC.

 Japanese people do not want to admit that the current Japanese are descendants of migrants from Korea. However, it is interesting that an American physiologist made this argument.

He is Jared Diamond, a professor at California State University (UCLA), the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, who has also become a bestseller in Korea. In a separate paper, "Where are the Japanese from?" he argued, "The current Japanese are descendants of migrants from the Korean Peninsula, and the current Japanese language is rooted in Goguryeo and Baekje."

 

Summarize Professor Diamond's argument.

▲ Professor Jared Diamond.

The current Japanese are descendants of migrants from the Korean Peninsula around 400 BC. Migrants farming rice replaced the Ainu, the natives of the archipelago. It is a similar process as the Anglo-Saxons moved from mainland Europe to England around the 6th century and became British today.

Prior to the 19th century, the current Japanese lived mainly in Kyushu, Shikoku, and Honshu, and the Ainu lived in Hokkaido and northern Honshu for hunting. The Japanese are similar in appearance to northern China, eastern Siberia, and especially Koreans. In contrast, the Ainu belong to the Caucasus race (white people) who settled in Japan across the Eurasian continent, considering various genetic traits such as fingerprints and earbuds. Japanese is included in the Tungus language of eastern Turkey, Mongolia, and Siberia among the Altair people in Asia, and Korean is also generally a member of this language family.

 

The Jomon culture created by the ancestors of the Ainu tribe.

At the end of the ice age, the Japanese archipelago had a bridge connecting the Korean Peninsula in the Kyusu region, and there was also a bridge connecting Hokkaido and Sakhalin. Looking at the relics of the Stone Age, it is similar to stoneware from northern Japan to Siberia and northern China, and the south is similar to those from southern Korea and China.

The Japanese Stone Age is called "Jomon Culture." The Jomons used earthenware. Jomon earthenware was excavated from Kyusu 10,000 years ago, and then spread northward, reaching Tokyo in 9,500 and Hokkaido in the Bokdan in 7,000 years.

The staple food of the Jomons was nuts. They are chestnuts, walnuts, acorns, and coniferous tropical fruits. In the fall, nuts were harvested in large quantities, dug the ground, and stored underground. In addition, berries, fruits, seeds, herbs, bulbs, and sprouts were eaten, and according to a survey by archaeologists, there are 64 kinds of edible plants identified in the waste pile of the Jomon period. The Jomons also consumed seafood. Dolphins were caught with clubs or harpoons, and seals and salmon were also harvested from the coast or river. They used fishing nets or cut bones to use fishing needles. Wild boars, deer, and goats were also hunted. The Jomonians changed their lifestyle from a nomadic culture of hunting and gathering to a settlement culture by using large and heavy earthenware measuring 1m.

 

Migrants on the Korean Peninsula led this culture.

In 400 BC, the pattern of ancient Japanese culture changed rapidly. A new lifestyle begins to appear on the northern coast of Kyushu. It is a place facing the Korean Peninsula over the Korean Strait.

 

The new style is that iron is used and agricultural culture is firmly established. Rice cultivation began by watering the rice paddies, and waterways, dams, levees, and rice paddies were equipped. Relics of rice were also excavated.

The Japanese named a new culture completely different from the lifestyle of the Jomons as the Yayoi culture. Earthenware from the Yayoi period is completely similar to those excavated from Korea. It's definitely Korean.

Rice was the most important crop in the Yayoi era, but 27 kinds of grains were newly introduced. They raised pigs, too. The Yayoi cultivated rice paddies with water in summer, and in winter, when the land dried up, millet, barley, wheat, etc. were cultivated to grow two crops. Yayoi people's yields increased due to intensive farming methods, and their population increased rapidly.

Yayoi agricultural culture was rapidly transmitted from Kyushu to Shikoku and Honshu. It spread from Kyushu to Tokyo for 200 years and to the northernmost part of Honshu for the first time in 100 years. He has iron and excellent farming skills.These people kicked out or absorbed the Jomons. Yayoi Ironware was initially imported mainly from Korea (Gaya) in huge quantities, and it took centuries to produce its own from the archipelago. In the early 300 AD, the descendants of Yayoiin politically unified the Japanese archipelago. In Japanese history, the so-called "Obedient Age" will be held.

▲ Representative of the forward and backward ancient tombs, the Mandeok Cheonhwangneung.

Around this time, an ancient tomb of a huge pile of soil that looks like a keyhole is formed in Honshu's in-flight region. Japanese historians call this an anterior and posterior tomb. (This type of tomb is also being excavated in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. /Editor often)

The in-flight area is Japan's most fertile agricultural area, and today's most expensive Kobe beef is produced. Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka, which were the capital cities before the capital was moved to Tokyo in 1868, are located.

 

DNA investigation revealed that Japanese immigrants to the Korean Peninsula.

Then he kicked out the Jomonians and founded Japan today.Who are the ancestors of Yi In, that is, Japanese? There are three theories.

① Jomonin is getting older.The theory that it evolves into foreigners and is a distant ancestor of modern Japanese. It is a persuasive argument for modern Japanese. This is because the Japanese cannot welcome the theory that Korean genes have been handed down.

② The theory that a huge number of Koreans migrated with agricultural technology, culture, and genes. It's from Jomon.Some argue that as many as 75,000 people migrated from the Korean Peninsula when switching to this.

③ The view that the evidence that migrants came from Korea is acknowledged, but it is not a huge scale. The explanation is that the number of migrants has increased rapidly, overwhelming the native Jomon people. For example, if 5,000 people came, it is argued that after 700 years, the number of migrants reached 5 million, and because they had iron, they could overpower the Jomon people.

Jared Diamond saw that the first theory was groundless and that the second or third theory was valid. He supported the claim that there is only a difference between the majority and the minority, and that the descendants of migrants from one island are the ancestors of today's Japanese.

Professor Diamond cited two grounds. One is DNA irradiation, and the second is linguistic analysis.

Geneticists have conducted experiments in recent years to extract DNA from ancient human remains and compare it with modern and contemporary Japanese. In the experiment, Jomonin and I...It has been confirmed that this person is easily distinguished. The Jomons are short, have relatively long arms, and short legs. The face is round, far between the eyes, and the eyelids rise. By comparison, it's...Lee In was 3 to 5cm larger on average than Jo Mon In, has a long and narrow face, distant eyes, and flat eyelids and nose.

It was concluded that the skull of Jomonin was different from that of modern Japanese and similar to that of modern Ainuin. On the other hand, Yayoi-in's skull resembles modern Japanese and Koreans. When investigating the DNA composition ratio, modern Japanese dominate the Korean-Ya factor side. In conclusion, the current Japanese are influenced by migrants from Korea.

 

Korean comes from Silla and Japanese comes from Goguryeo.

According to studies by linguists, there is little connection between modern Japanese and Ainu. There are similarities between Japanese and Korean, but there are also clear differences.

Professor Diamond interpreted it like this. Ancient Korea was divided by the three kingdoms of Silla, Baekje, and Goguryeo, and the three kingdoms spoke different languages. Modern Korean originated from Silla after Silla achieved political unification in 676. Silla did not have a close relationship with Japan. The languages of Goguryeo and Baekje, which were subjugated to Silla, were rarely passed down to future generations. Some Goguryeo words are more similar to old Japanese than modern Korean.

By 400 BC, when ancient Koreans migrated to Japan, the language of the Korean Peninsula would have had more diverse characteristics. The language of the Korean Peninsula, which originated from modern Japanese, would have been different from the language of Silla, which originated from Korean. Therefore, Korean and Japanese look alike in appearance, but there is a marked difference in language, Professor Diamond explained.

Professor Diamond shared the same blood between Koreans and Japanese, as in the case of Arabs and Jews, but has long been antagonizing with each other. Professor Diamond pointed out, "Since Koreans and Japanese are twin brothers who spent their growth period together, the political future of the two countries depends on whether they successfully rediscover the ties they built in ancient times."