One hundred years ago, Japan´s annexed Korea, and, in marking this date, the Northeast Asian History Foundation will hold an international symposium for 3 years starting from 2009 in an effort to identify the root cause of the historical conflict between Korea and Japan and search for ways to overcome this issue. The Foundation will also publish and distribute the results of the research that will come out of this work.

On this year, which marks the beginning of the events, international symposiums will be held both at home and abroad. Firstly, on April 23 (Thursday) and 24 (Friday) local time, a joint symposium will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii, together with the University of Hawaii´s School of Pacific and Asian Studies, under the theme of "Personality and Politics in Japan´s Annexation of Korea." On June 22 (Monday), the Foundation will host a symposium on Japanese annexation of Korea in its Grand Conference Room.

This symposium will be attended by scholars from Korea, Japan, and the U.S., and it will review the form and procedural problems of the treaties Japan concluded to confiscate Korea´s sovereign rights, from the Japan-Korea Protocol of 1905 signed in February to the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty signed in August of 1910, from the different perspectives of history, comparative history, and international law.

Since 2001, over 9 symposiums were held to discuss Japan´s annexation of Korea, and some publications were printed in both Korean and Japanese. At this symposium, it can be expected that an objective and rightful review of Japan´s annexation of Korea can be completed, with the help of previous research.

 Presenters and Discussants

• Thursday, April 23, 2009
  Panel 1: International Events
  Moderator: Jeongmin Seo
  -Choi Doek-Kyu (Northeast Asian History Foundation):
   “Russo-Korean Relations During and After the Russo-Japanese War”
  -Kim Seung-il (Kookmin University): “The Historical Significance of Dispatching Secret Envoys
   to the Paris Peace Conference The Last Attempt of Emperor Gojong for the Independence
    of Korea”
  -Yi Taejin (Seoul National University):
   “President Wilson’s Fourteen-Point Program and the Poisoning of Emperor Gojong”
  
  Panel 2: New Perspectives
  Moderator: Lonny Carlile
  - Arai Shinichi (Ibaraki University and Surugadai University):
   “Japan’s Forced Annexation of Korea: Left Over Issues”
  - Kang Seongeun (Choson University): “Japan’s Annexation
    of Korea”
  - Hugh Kang (University of Hawai´i at Mānoa): “General Staff of Meiji Japan and Korea”
  
  
• Friday, April 24, 2009
  Panel 3: Legal Aspects
  Moderator: Jon VanDyke
  - Sasagawa Norikatsu (Meiji University):
   “The So-Called Seikanron (the Japanese political opinions of the conquest of Korea in the early
   Meiji regime) and Chinese and Western International Law Systems”
  - Lee Sang-Chan (Seoul National University):
   “The Question of Form Relating to the 1910 Treaty of Korean Annexation as a Treaty Ceding
   National Sovereignty”
  - Jung Sangsu (Myongji University):
   “The German ‘Welt-Politick’ and the Japanese Annexation of Korea—1904–1910”
  
  Concluding Session: Future Directions
  -Yi Taejin (Seoul National University)
  -Hugh Kang (University of Hawaii at Mānoa)
  -Sasagawa Norikatsu (Meiji University)