DOKDO ISLAND IS KOREA'S TERRITORY!

Can you believe this? The Japanese is claiming property of Korea's Dokdo island which is 90 kilometers east of South Korea's Ullung Island. Hello? That's Korea's land!! Did you know that the Japanese, in a strategic ploy to steal Dokdo away from Korea is planning to declare a national holiday in their calendar of Dokdo(Takeshima) island?? The nerve! This year was to mark and celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan. The governments wanted to emphasize their strong economic links and warming cultural ties. But the goodwill has been swept aside in a furious Korean reaction to renewed Japanese claims to the disputed islands.

Both Japan and Korea lay claim to Dokdo, and both claim a long historical and geographical connection with the islets.


You know, if the territory disputes goes to the UN, which it may, it¡¯s so sad because I fear I know what the final conclusion is going to be. Who has the international prestige, the influence, the money?? It¡¯s Japan. Korea still lacks in international power because Korea still needs to grow economically. Korean-American, we have to become hardworking, honest, influential, rich members in society to raise the bar.


Originally posted on 27th March 2005 - 05:40 PM in the Resource forum.
Territorial Dispute Over Dokdo
South Korea versus Japan

The Japanese assert that they had incorporated Dokdo, an island that they considered to be a terra nullius, into the Japanese Empire on February 22, 1905 when the Govenor of Shimane prefecture proclaimed the islets to be under the jurisdiction of the Oki Islands branch office of the Shimane prefectural government under the name "Takeshima."

*And do you know why 1905 is significant? That's when Japan colonized Korea in the forced signing of the Protectorate Treaty of 1905 when Korea's King Kojong succumb to the power of Ito Hirobumi who was the Residency General in Korea.

Also, in September 1904, a Japanese fisherman from Okinoshima (Oki Island) named Yozaburo Nakai requested to be given exclusive rights to fish and hunt sealions in the area of Dokdo (Nakai later recounted that he initially believed the island to be Korean territory, and attempted to submit a request to the Government of Korea, but was dissuaded of this idea by the Japanese Fisheries Bureau Director, Maki Bokushin. The fisherman also asked that he be given a ten-year lease of the island for sea lion hunting. Officials in the Japanese Government took Nakai¢¥s request one step further and appealed to the government for the formal incorporation of the island. After having declared Dokdo (Takeshima) as a part of Imperial Japan in February 1905, Japanese officials entered the island¢¥s name in the State Land Register for Okinokuni, District 4 on May 17th of that year.

The Koreans, however, lay their claim to Dokdo based on earlier and more numerous precedents than Japan. They point to the document that named it as a territory that was first incorporated into the Korean Shilla Dynasty in 512 AD. They also point to various land surveys and maps that were drawn in later centuries that do, in fact, show Dokdo (in its accurate geographic position) to be Korean territory.

Some of these documents were even published in Japan: Japanese cartographer Dabuchi Tomohiko cited Dokdo as Korean territory in "Kankoku Shinchishi (New Geography of Korea), Teikoku Encyclopedia Number 134", published in September 1905; six months after the islets were "incorporated" into Shimane Prefecture. In a survey of Korea that was requested by the Colonial Government, Ihohara Fumiichi referred to Dokdo as belonging to Korea. In a 1930 article, Japanese scholar Hibata Sekko mentioned that Dokdo belonged to Kangwon Province, Korea. The Japanese Navy had also cited Dokdo as an appended island to Ullungdo, and Korean territory, in its 1923 publication, "Chosen Engan Suiroshi" (Korean Coastal Straits).

*Okay, I'm gonna give it to you straight, Japan took advantage of Korea's political weakness in 1905, when the islets were registered as a part of Shimane prefecture, Japan. Koreans were not able to protest the Japanese action at the time because Japan had already taken control of all the foreign affairs of Korea as defined under the Protectorate Treaty of 1905 that allows the Korean King to have no authority in foreign, internationally affairs and limits him to conduct only internal affairs!"


I feel like Japan thinks that she can do whatever she wants in regards to Korea because of the past colonization of Korea from 1905-1945. Why is it that Japan bows her head to White/European countries but has condescending eyes to the Koreans? It's true, Japan was powerful and once swalllowed all of Korea, China, and other neighboring countries, but that does not give her the right to take and steal from a politically weaker country because Japan is more economically powerful. That is not right. It was not right to rape the Korean women who were taken from their homes to engage in sexual activities with the Japanese soldiers during WW2-- Korean Comfort Women-- you exploited our Korean grandmas, are you gonna take this island too?
All evidence points to Dokto being rightfully Korea's. I mean, even this Japanese postcard in 1911 shows Dodko as part of Korea!!!