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Editor's Note: The 5th Dokdo Awards ceremony was held on January 4, 2014. The Dokdo Love Award went to the late Doctor Lee Jong-hak, the first director of Dokdo Museum. His only daughter, Ms. Lee Sun-young, has contributed an essay in his memory to Northeast Asian History Foundation News.

On February 22, 2014, in the midst of growing tensions between Korea and Japan recently over historical issues, a so-called "Takeshima Day" ceremony was held in the city of Matsue in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. It was disconcerting for me to hear the news that this ceremony, with high-ranking officials of Japan in attendance, seemed as though it was an event hosted by the Japanese government. Perhaps this aspect of Japan is nothing new to us the Korean people, a kind of repeating incident so familiar and irritating that we may feel indifferent about it. But we are at war, a silent yet fierce war of history. Whenever such an incident happens, I once again remember and miss my late father.

My father loved his pen name Saun (史云), which meant 'cultivating history,' because it represented his belief that if history is a spiritual land to nourish our descendents for generations to come, it should be cultivated through fixing what's wrong and growing what's right so it can bear fruit. And he lived up to his pen name by devoting his whole life to collecting historical materials for teaching a correct history and defending our territory. Shamefully, however, I don't know much about history for a descendent of such a man. And I am afraid that I am not worthy to be a descendent of a man of such great efforts and achievements. Nevertheless, I write a few words about my father, as I remember his passion and lifetime commitment to teaching a correct history, hoping that they will help us figure out what we can do in the difficult situation we are in.

Lee Jong-hak, a Bibliographer

One of the baffling moments during my primary school years was when I was asked to find out what my father did for a living. My father told me that he was a bibliographer and wrote down the term for me. I didn't know what a bibliographer was, and simply assumed that it had something to do with the many books that were in the study in our house. But I didn't like in my childish mind that my father had become a bibliographer for those many books that I couldn't even show to others. I wondered what my friends would think about my father's profession. My teachers told me that I had such a great person for a father. But it took me quite a long time before I realized how important what my father did was.

In my memory, my father is always wearing a neat suit, old shoes, and carrying a heavy bag full of old books. While he was stingy on himself, he was generous with spending on discovering materials and publishing research results. And he was never hesitant to donate the materials he had painstakingly collected, saying that sending them where they needed to be was doing great service to them. Especially memorable is the Detail Map of Korea he donated to the Independence Hall of Korea. At first, this map was in an antique bookstore and supposed to be sent to the Naval Academy Museum. But when the owner of the bookstore showed it to my father, he insisted on donating it to the Independence Hall of Korea for all the people, rather than a small audience, to see. The owner agreed and handed it over to my father, who recounted this story to me with a sense of pride and a big smile. And sure enough, this map is housed in the Independence Hall of Korea, on display for many people to see.

Lee Jong-hak's Love of Dokdo

A particularly large portion of my father's collection of materials is related to Dokdo. Most of those materials are old maps issued by reputable organizations or the Japanese government, where Dokdo is marked as Korean territory, of course. Those old maps are important materials that clearly show that Dokdo is Korean territory. My father regarded them as valuable materials that spoke louder than any worlds that our claims were logical and persuasive. He attended seminars about the international law of the sea concerning not only Dokdo but the high seas around it, and pointed out the 'validity of maps marked with the Sea of Korea,' that is the 'invalidity of marking the Sea of Japan.' In 2002, he published The Forgotten 'Sea of Korea' and 'Strait of Korea' where he clearly asserted internally and externally that the original name of the East Sea was the Sea of Korea. He didn't overlook Japan's claims about Dokdo, either. He was the first in Korea to examine the stenographic records of the Japanese Diet and the Shimane Prefectural Council to look into the 'Shimane Prefecture Notification,' and on the basis of his findings, he published Sourcebook on Japan's Dokdo Policy, which revealed the meticulousness of their claims. He also presented a confidential document about Japan's occupation of Korea, titled "The Beginning and the End of the Annexation of Korea as Reported by the Japanese Government-General of Korea," to let the world know that Japan's invasion of Korea, even before the forced annexation, was an illegal and improper act of brutality, and it was committed under a carefully plotted scheme.

Although my father lived fully according to his beliefs, his life wasn't always recognized or encouraged. Despite criticism, he never faltered but stayed faithful to his beliefs. But that explains why he, as I recall, felt lonely and troubled more than anyone else while appearing determined and uncompromising on the outside. He was full of so much love for his country's land that he donated about 2,000 materials to the Academy of Social Sciences in North Korea for the "North and South Korea Joint Exhibition of Materials on the Illegal Nature of Imperialist Japan's Occupation of Korea" held in Pyeongyang in 2001. His donation was based on his belief that both the North and the South should be alike in defending the national territory.

As the saying goes, the ignorant cannot beat the knowledgeable, and the knowledgeable cannot beat the passionate. If we try with passion and all of our hearts to break free from the vicious cycle of history, I believe that we will achieve a wise victory in the silent yet fierce war of history. To this end, we should first gain a correct understanding of history, and then act accordingly by participating even in the smallest things. Japan will continue to provoke us, and as we deal with it, we should not panic but harness collective passion. We should keep it mind that in battlefield, giving up one little thing will lead to giving up everything. If we are complacent in our response, we might end up losing our territories and territorial waters. I pray that the passion my late father had for Dokdo will be rekindled in the hearts of many so that all the people will come to love and strive to defend Dokdo.

Doctor Lee Jong-hak visited Dokdo in 1981