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With October being the month of Dokdo in Korea, the Northeast Asian History Foundation jointly hosted an academic conference on October 20, 2017 with Yeungnam University's Dokdo Institute, the Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology's Oceans Law & Legal Regime Research Section, and the Korea Maritime Institute's Dokdo Research Center. The conference's theme was "A Historical and International Legal Review of Modern Korean and Japanese Material and Maps Related to Dokdo."

Since Japan revised its elementary and junior high school curriculum guidelines and commentaries for such guidelines in February 2017, it has become mandatory for all elementary and junior high school social studies textbooks to include the description that "Dokdo is an inherent territory of Japan." And Japan's provocations pertaining to the island have continued with explicit claims of territorial sovereignty over Dokdo made not only by the country's prime minister, but displayed on websites of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cabinet Secretariat's Office of Policy Planning and Coordination on Territory and Sovereignty.

These circumstances gave purpose for Korean institutes researching Dokdo issues to jointly review material and maps related to the island so as to examine historical truths about Dokdo and its international legal status. The following offers an outline of the six papers presented at the conference.

Historical, Geographical Expert Views on Dokdo

The first to present at the conference's first session was Professor Han Cheol-ho of Dongguk University who discussed the "Exclusion of Dokdo from Shimane Prefecture's Jurisdiction Prior to February 1905 and its Significance." Han pointed out that prior to February 1905, Dokdo was not mentioned in editions of "Statistics of Shimane Prefecture" (島根縣統計書), particularly in sections that cover the prefecture's geographical details describing the history of the prefecture's jurisdiction, islands within it, and the longitude and latitude of the jurisdiction's furthest point. In the first volume of Statistics of Shimane Prefecture's 1904 edition, Takeshima (竹島) appears in the complete map of the prefecture (島根縣全圖), but there is no mention of the island anywhere else in the edition. That is because the publication was edited and published more than a year and a half after the island was "incorporated" and proves the edition is not a true reflection of the prefecture's circumstances as of 1904. It also suggests that the publication had up until then remained faithful to the Dajokan order by excluding Dokdo from Shimane Prefecture's jurisdiction.

Through his presentation on "Modern Names of Ulleungdo and Dokdo in Korea and Japan," Director Kim Young-soo of the NAHF Institute of Dokdo Research discussed "Changes in Fishing at Takeshima," a collection of oral statements documented by the Asian Affairs Bureau's second division under the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the collection is a testimony from July 11, 1953 given by a then 43 year old Japanese fisherman named Okumura Akira (奧村亮) who once lived on the Korean island Ulleungdo, and in that testimony is the word "Dokuson" (トクソン) transcribed next to the name Dokdo. Based on this inscription, Kim suggested that since "Dokuson" is a Japanese way of transcribing the Korean name "Dokseom," it supports the Korean argument that the name Dokdo phonologically originated from the island's alternate Korean names Dolseom and Dokseom. Kim also highlighted the significance of the testimony the Japanese government took by juxtaposing it against a June 13, 1948 article titled "Our Island Dokdo, Originally Called Dolseom (石島)" published in the Korean newspaper Hanseong Ilbo launched soon after Korea's liberation.

Research fellow Yoon So-young of the Korean Independence Movement History Research Institute gave a presentation on "Understanding of Dokdo Through Japanese Geographical Appendices During the Japanese Colonial Rule." Yoon suggested that Shiba Kazumori's (芝葛盛) understanding of Takeshima (Dokdo) as Joseon territory in "The Japanese Historical Atlas" is a reflection of how the Japanese territory was understood and introduced through "The New Historical Maps of the Japanese Empire" authored by the "master of place names" Yoshida Togo. The same territorial understanding can also be found in works solely authored by Fujita Akira (藤田明), which shows that Shiba Kazumori's understanding of Japan's territory had been common in geographical education at the time and that Dokdo had been considered as an annex of Ulleungdo in 1905 when Japan incorporated Dokdo.

International Legal, Political Views on Sovereignty Over Dokdo

Professor Lee Sung-hwan of Keimyung University was the first to present at the conference's second session. His presentation on "Joseon-Japan, Korea-Japan Boundary Treaty Scheme and Dokdo" assumed the Japanese government ban on traveling overseas and the Dajokan order were tantamount to a boundary treaty scheme and applied that assumption in examining the validity of the Japanese Cabinet decision to incorporate Dokdo and Shimane Prefecture's public notice of the incorporation. Although the Dajokan order's succession of the 1699 ban on traveling overseas was a change in domestic law, overruling the order through the Cabinet decision and Shimane Prefecture's public notice not only counts as a violation of a higher law, but as abrogation of a boundary treaty. Failing to notify the Joseon government about the incorporation of Dokdo can therefore be considered as a violation of the treaty-based duty to notify, taking the legality and legitimacy away from Japan's 1905 incorporation of Dokdo.

Through his presentation "An International Legal Review of Japan's Cabinet Decision to Incorporate Dokdo," Professor Choi Cheol-young of Daegu University considered the international legal issues associated with how the Japanese government had been aware that its plan to incorporate Dokdo into its own territory would be marred if it were to be officially known by the Empire of Korea. By then, the Empire of Korea had already promulgated Imperial Edict no. 41 through its official gazette, which stipulated that the island belongs under the jurisdiction of Uldo-gun. So, the Japanese government proceeded with the incorporation by having the Cabinet approve it so that the decision wouldn't be required to be officially announced through the central government gazette. The order to incorporate the island was arranged to be made through an administrative directive of Shimane Prefecture and announced within the prefecture to secure domestic legal grounds to take administrative measures toward Dokdo.

Finally, NAHF Research Fellow Doh See-hwan gave a presentation on "An International Legal Review of Japan's Colonial Responsibility and Sovereignty Over Dokdo." The presentation provided an analysis of issues with treaties between Korea and Japan as a typical case of abusing international law to cover up the true nature of the series of provocations carried out by Japan since the 1868 Meiji Restoration, which led to the incorporation of Dokdo in 1905 and wars of aggression. Doh's presentation also covered a review of Japanese trends in researching Japan's colonial responsibility and sovereignty over Dokdo. Japan argues that Dokdo's incorporation was a lawful act according to international law that has nothing to do with its responsibility for its colonial past, but it did violate international law over the process of invading and colonizing Korea, including the treaties it concluded with Korea. Doh pointed out that although recent Japanese studies acknowledge Japan's colonial responsibility, their consideration of Japan's national interests is problematic.

This academic conference served as an occasion for experts from multiple institutes to jointly shed light on the historical, international legal implications of Korean and Japanese material related to Dokdo, seek ways for Korea to respond to Japan's provocations over Dokdo, and further advance one another's expertise through in-depth discussions. Such occasions should hopefully develop into an intimate network for the NAHF Institute of Dokdo Research to communicate with relevant institutes and researchers so that it may jointly perform academic reviews in response to Japan's historical distortions and illegal arguments concerning the Korean island Dokdo.