Award Winning Works of 4th Int’l Essay Contest on Dokdo Silver Prize

What the world needs to know

Silver Prize Marie Alexis Suller Miravite The writer is a student of multimedia studies at the University of the Philippines Open University.

On Dec. 7, 2010, then Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan apologizedfor his country’s barbarous annexation of Korea in the early 20th century, and for the atrocities committed against the Korean people during this tumultuous and painful period. In theory, this apology (and the other ones that came before it) should have marked a new phase in the relationship between these two countries – one that is grounded onmutual respect, honesty, civility and openness.

But everything is not what it seems. These apologies were issued to project an image of Japan as a virtuous, modern country brave enough to face up to its past wrongdoings. Unfortunately the country’s actions say otherwise. In the case of Korea, Japan’s insistence on claiming Dokdo, a group of islets in the East Sea long established as Korean territory, is enough proof that its apologies were nothing more than mere lip service. This is clearly an affront to Korea’s sovereignty, and a damning insult to the Korean people’s hard struggle for their right to independence.

This situation should be corrected and the truth be set free.

There is a wealth of historical evidence that proves that Dokdo has long been a part of Korea. And these historical documents are dated way earlier than the ones provided by the Japanese government. For example, the first mention of Dokdo in Korean documents was in the Annals of King Sejongwhich was written in 1454. On the other hand, Japanese texts only made mention of the islands in Saito Toyonobu’s Records on Observations in Oki Province, which was written in 1667, more than 200 years after the Annals.

The Japanese, themselves, have conceded that Dokdo is Korea’s.

Official Japanese documents, reports and maps that are dated before 1905 (the year of the Japan – Korea Protectorate Treaty) have listed that Dokdo was in fact part of Korean territory. In a Meiji-era map drawn by Mori Kinseki, Dokdo and the nearby Ulleungdo is shown clearly inside Korea’s territory (Joseon) and demarcated from Japan’s.

Some modern Japanese scholars have even formed a group that supports Korea’s territorial rights to the islands. Professors Kuboi Norimo, Yoshihiro Kuroda and Sakamoto Koishi have all expressed their opposition to Japan’s claims of Dokdo in a press conference this year.

The terra nullius argument is invalid.

Korea has already provided supporting documents, some of which date back to the 6th century, that clearly show Dokdo as under the administra-tion of the Korean government long before the Japanese recognized the islands’ existence. It was only in 1905 that the Japanese used the conceptof terra nullius (no man’s land) to legitimize their claim over Dokdo, but after recognizing that this action would mean that Japan had no previous administrative control over the islands, they abandoned this argument altogether.

The San Francisco Peace Treaty is a questionable document

One of the few documents that Japan uses as a basis for its claims is the San Francisco Peace treaty (signed by Japan and the Allied Powers in 1951 at the end of World War II). The first few drafts specified Dokdo as Korean territory, while the later versions completely left out the islands. The Japanese government took this omission as a sign that the Allies were effectively giving it control over Dokdo.

The omission of Dokdo in the final draft of the San Francisco Peace Treaty was a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Japan.

Because of the islands’ strategic position in the East Sea, Dokdo has been considered a prime area for military uses. Japan then offered Dokdo to the U.S. for the latter to use as a base for a radar and weather station. South Korea was completely left in the dark and was not invited to any of thetreaty’s proceedings.

This was not the first time that Korea was not informed about Japan’s actions.

In its annexation of Korea in 1905, Japan announced that Dokdo was part of the Shimane prefecture. No notice was given to the Korean people, and the only known published proclamation of this announcement was in Sanin Shimbun, a local Japanese newspaper.

Going to the ICJ (International Court of Justice) will not help settle thedispute.

Japan has been constantly pushing for the arbitration of the ICJ in theDokdo issue. If Koreans will agree to this act, it would mean that they are considering Japan’s claims as legitimate.

The Japanese government is known to distort facts to prove that their claim over Dokdo is legitimate and sound.

These incorrect information are then incorporated into textbooks, thereby educating another generation of Japanese schoolchildren with wrong ideas regarding their country’s history and territorial claims.

The Korean people will never stop fighting for what is rightfully theirs.

The only way that Korea will stop its fight is when Japan finally realizesthat it has no legal claims over Dokdo. Until then, the Korean people will keep on fighting for the recognition of their sovereignty. To prove its honesty in apologizing for its transgressions, Japan should abandon its misguidedclaims on the Dokdo islands.

Dokdo is more than a group of islands.

It is a national symbol of pride and perseverance. It shows everything that is great about the Korean people, whose independence was once marred in the clutches of a foreign colonial power. Dokdo is, and will always be, Korea’s.