Does Japan intend to invade the Korean Islets, Dokdo?

Japanese  government is making trouble insisting again that the Dokdo islets belong to Japan.  The Japanese government announced on July 2008 that they would put words in the teaching handbook(guidelines) of social studies for middle school students that there are different arguments of the ownership on the Dokdo islets(Japanese call it Takesima) between Korea and Japan. Dokdo islets are also called Liancourt Rocks.

Japanese middle school students will be taught with the revised handbook.  The previous editions of the same handbook did not mention any territorial dispute over Dokdo islets.

 A bird’s eye view of the Dokdo islets. [JoongAng Ilbo]

Dokdo islets are located in the East Sea of Korea, 88km away from Ulleungdo Island of Korea  while 158 km away from Oki islands of Japan.  Dokdo islets are much closer to Ulleungdo Island of Korea in which 10 thousands of inhabitants live. We can see the Dokdo islets from Ulleungdo Island when the weather is clear. Japanese scholars are insisting against it, since it is too far to see the islets.

A photographer recently took a picture of the Dokdo islets at the Ulleungdo Island, as seen in the next photo.

Because the Dokdo islets can be seen at the Ulleungdo Island and there are abundant fishes around the islets, Korean fishermen in the Ulleungdo Island  often had sailed to the islets from old times for fishing and stayed on the islets.

  A photo of Dokdo islets taken at Ulleungdo Island, provided by Choi Su Muyn, the director of international Korea research and published by JungAng Daily

There are many records about governing the islets by Korea, among them a document in the year of 1697 in which Korean government(Chosun Dynasty) made a regular round patrol around the Dokdo islets.

Dokdo closer to Korea,  documents of Korea territory

Even Japanese maps, Chosenkokuchirizu(Geological map of Korea) in 1592, Sangokusetsujozu(Map of three adjoining countries) in 1785 show that the Dokdo islets are  a territory of  Korea.

And in 1900 Korea(Chosun Dynasty) announced an Imperial decree No. 41 published in Official Gazette No. 1716, which states that Ulleungdo, Jukdo, and Sokto  belong to the Ulleungdo county. The island Sokto was another name of  the Dokdo.

However Japan argues that there is no evidence to identify the Sokto with the Dokdo. It is not true.  In Korean language Dok(of Dokdo) and Sok(of Sokto) mean a stone. Dok is a dialect of Dol(stone) in Cholla province of Korea. Sok means also a stone, which was originated from Chinese letter 石, pronounced  sok in Korean term.

Japanese call the Dokdo(Sokto) Takesima which means bamboo island. But there are no bamboo in Dokdo islets.

Judging from the etymology of the Dokdo(Sokto),  Dokdo or Sokdo is identified with the Liancourt Rocks.

The only basis on which Japanese insists is the Japanese cabinet decision made in 1905, in which Japan absorbed the Dokdo islets as a part of Shimane Prefecture.

However the decision was made in the course of Japanese annexation of Korea. After Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War in 1945 Japan surrendered every right and claim to Korean Peninsula, Jejudo Island, Ulleungdo Island, which includes the Dokdo islets by the order of the Allied Powers. The order was SCAP(the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) instruction  #677 in January 29, 1946. 

Korea built a lighthouse and has started to guard the Dokdo islets since 1954.  Three lighthouse-keepers and 37 guards reside in Dokdo islets.  And three inhabitants are registered in Dokdo islets. Kim Sung Do family, Kim himself, his wife and his father in-law, had lived the islets since 1965. Kim Sung Do family left the islets in 1996 due to his fishing boat and house being smashed by the typhoon.  And Kim sung Do and his wife  came back to the Dokdo islets in 2006. And a poet, Cho Jong Duk was registered as a tenant of Kim Sung Do.

A photo of Dokdo islets  provided by the Culture and Sightseeing Department of Korea

 Japanese Nostalgia for the Imperialism

With all the above facts there are no question about the Dokdo islets belonging to Korea.  Then why does Japan insist against it?

The reason is likely because Japanese have a nostalgia for the imperialism.

Japan before Meiji regime beginning in 1867 had been controlled by the shogun(military general)and samurai(warrior). There were kings in Japan in those time but they were puppets. Military powers overrode the authority of the kings. Those day of Japan was an era of ‘might is right’ governing the nation by the feudal military dictatorship. Living under the regime of those shoguns for hundreds of years in the deep mind of Japanese people were engraved  the common notion of  ‘might is right’.

Japanese imperialism had invaded and cruelly governed Korea, China and other Asian countries driving sex slaves and killing 200 thousand Chinese in Nanjing massacre.  However most Japanese do not think that the imperialism committed a crime because their common notion is ‘might is right’. The good example is that from time to time many ministers of Japan denied and justified the wrong doing of Japanese imperialism.

Youngsters all over the world are becoming globalized through free communication of the internet. They seek for the friendship with youngsters of other countries, understanding each culture, happiness and freedom.

However Japanese politicians are trying to put the spirit of samurai, ‘might is right’, into their youngsters’ mind teaching them the wrong information of Japanese imperialism.

Japanese politicians are misleading their youngsters as Japanese politicians under the imperialism had misled their people into a big war, as a result of that Japan was atom-bombed in Hiroshima, Nagasaki.

Kim John Seijoong   

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