Dispute over Dokdo Island continues

Japan reignited fires concerning the dispute over ownership of Dokdo Island yesterday when they announced plans to dispatch a research ship to the island to conduct a hydrographical survey.

Chosun Ilbo Article

Dokdo Island (Takeshima in Japanese) has been always been a hot territorial issue between Japan and Korea for the last century. Dokdo consists of two tiny rock islets about 90km east of Korea's Ullung Islands and 157km northwest of Japan's Oki Island.

Dispute over Dokdo Island started when a Japanese fisherman named Yozaburo Nakai asked the Japanese government for permission to fish and hunt sea lions off the shores of Dokdo Island. This led to Dokdo's incorporation into Japanese territory which became official when Japan's annexation of Korea occurred in 1910.

However, with Japan's defeat in World War II, they were forced to return all conquered territory to Korea and in 1951, they signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty which spelled out what lands were to be returned to Korea. Dokdo was not specifically listed in that Treaty, but nearby Ullung Island was. Dokdo has always been understood to fall under the same territory of Ullung so its inclusion was implied. Also, the San Franciso Treaty only named the 3 major islands to be returned to Korea, and did not name the 3,000 other small islands to be included, due to the high number. Dokdo was understood to be a part of that deal.

Others claim that the reason why Dokdo was not specifically included in that Treaty is because the US knew what a hotly disputed land Dokdo was and didn't want the dispute over it to hold up signing of the Treaty.

However, maps dating all the way back to 512 AD in the Shilla Dynasty of Korea show Dokdo as Korean territory and even many Japanese maps show this to be true as well. All historical documents show Dokdo as Korean land and in 1697, Japan even issued a letter banning Japanese fisherman from going to Dokdo and acknowledged Dokdo as Korean.

Now, this dispute has been more or less dormant for the last 40 years with Korea running the island with little trouble until Japanese Ambassador Toshiyuki Takano reignited the feud in 2005 when he announced Dokdo as Japanese and even proclaimed February 22 as "Takeshima Day". Tensions have been heightened ever since as the Japanese governmnet included Dokdo in their textbooks and Koreans protested radically, even chopping off their fingers as a symbol of their patriotism.

With Japan's action yesterday regarding the research vessel, it seems that they are intent on pushing this event to the forefront again and most likely are seeking to take this issue to the International Court of Justice.

It should be a very interesting time from today forward. Japan and Korea have always had a touchy relationship and now with Korea's patriotism at an all time high due to their interaction with Japan at the World Baseball Classic (Ichiro Suzuki's comments, playing each other 3 times in 2 weeks), the upcoming World Cup, and now this, one would hope that things will play out peacefully and diplomatically.

Dokdo neun uli ddang!