NORTHEAST ASIAN HISTORY FOUNDATION 04/2022
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Hong Seong-geun, Researcher, Dokdo Research Institute
Meeting Kim Yeon-deok, Who Participated in the Academic Research of Dokdo in 1953
When I meet someone these days, 'Visitor,' a poem by Jeong Hyeon-jong, comes to mind. As the poet puts it, meeting someone is truly an 'enormous event.' It is because it is like meeting that person's past, present, and future, that person's life. It is even more so when I meet people from history I know. I became excited to see the history of that time altogether. With that in mind, I met Professor Kim Yeon-deok, who participated in the Academic Research of Dokdo in 1953, in Sinsa-dong, Seoul, on January 13. He was born in 1931 and turned 92 this year. The story of his visit to Dokdo Island is published in the second edition of ‘Laterne’ (December 1953) under the title ‘Pilgrimage to Dokdo.’
‘Laterne’ is the name of the newsletter of the Gyeonggi High School Alumni Mountaineering Club, created in 1952 by Seoul National University College of Engineering students, including Kim Yeon-deok. The newsletter was issued once a year until the ninth issue in 1960. ‘Laterne’ is the German word for ‘lantern’ that climbers carry on the mountain. I asked, ‘Why did you name it in German?’, to which he answered that he wanted to make it look more stylish. ‘Laterne’ was the name of the newsletter and the name of the mountaineering club.
When people were scattered after the Korean War and unsure who survived and died, students tried to find other surviving students. They established the “Laterne” Association in Busan, a place of refuge. They decided to meet regularly under the “Lantern” to regain strength and find their way through the darkness.
In the journal written in September of that year, which was the first issue published in 1952, Jeong Myeong-sik, a member of the Laterne Association, decided to participate in the Ulleungdo and Dokdo Academic Research Team hosted by the Corean Alpine Club but was unable to attend. On September 22 and 24 of that year, whenever a boat carrying an academic research team tried to approach Dokdo Island, an airplane suddenly appeared and dropped a bomb on Dokdo. In the end, the research team could not investigate Dokdo Island that year, but only Ulleungdo Island. The second edition of Laterne (1953) briefly describes the situation of 1952; they could only take a picture of the panoramic view of Dokdo Island 1 km away from it due to bombings by an airplane of unknown nationality.
‘Pilgrimage to Dokdo’ by Kim Yeon-deok was featured in the second edition of Laterne. The article describes the 15-day trip of Kim Yeon-deok and his fellow researchers who left Seoul Station on October 3, surveyed Dokdo Island on October 15-16, and returned to Busan Port on October 17, in the form of a diary. It also inserted illustrations, such as a panoramic view of Dokdo Island, in the middle of the text. Kim Yeon-deok, a junior in college at the time, participated as a member of the mountaineering club and as one of the youngest members in the group. He did whatever he was asked to do, from carrying luggage to preparing rice and painting the surveying poles.
The overall story of the Academic Research of Ulleungdo and Dokdo Islands in 1953, in which Kim Yeon-deok participated, is well documented in the articles written by Hong Jong-in, the head of the research group at the time, for the Chosun Ilbo, four times since October 22, 1953. However, in 'Pilgrimage to Dokdo' by Kim Yeon-deok, there are things missing in Hong Jong-in's contribution. The missing content is as follows roughly.
① Ten or more people left Seoul Station at 8:30 p.m. on October 3 and arrived at Busan at 8:30 a.m. on October 4. We stayed in Busan for a week. We had to wait for the boat that take us. Meanwhile, some people returned home because they had other plans.
② At 6 a.m on October 15, we arrived at Mongdol Beach in Dongdo (East Isle) of Dokdo Island. Soon, the crew climbed the top of Dongdo's Cheoncheongul Cave, which took about two hours. In the afternoon, we climbed the southern peak of Dongdo. There was a field of wild chrysanthemums, reminiscent of the Alps, and an anti-aircraft monitoring station built by the Japanese before liberation. It was dug like a bomb shelter without a roof, and there were traces of using concrete.
③ The research team arrived at Busan Port at 6 p.m. on October 17, and an American was there to meet us. It was unexpected. He said he was a member of a mountaineering club in America, and he wanted to contact the Corean Alpine Club. We promised to meet again and returned.
The interview with Kim Yeon-duk lasted about an hour. He did not remember that he had a campfire while staying there for a night on Dokdo Island, but he described what happened on that day relatively clearly. The most challenging part was the seasickness. On September 13, the research team could not enter Dokdo Island due to a storm. While returning to Ulleungdo Island, they encountered a Japanese patrol boat. Even in that tense moment, he could only stay lying down on the bottom of the boat because of seasickness. He also told stories that were not in the ‘Pilgrimage to Dokdo.’ One of them was that Japan put a signpost on Dokdo Island, claiming it is as Japanese territory. The research team was told they should not pull the post out, so Ulleungdo Island's two police officers who accompanied the research team removed it.
Kim said they held an exhibition at Seoul National University College of Engineering with photos taken during the academic research on Ulleungdo and Dokdo Islands. This might be the first photo exhibition of Dokdo island held by students. The surveying poles that Kim Yeon-deok and his fellow climbers put in while climbing here and there on Dokdo Island were used to make Korea's first survey map of Dokdo.
After liberation, the Corean Alpine Club conducted academic research on Ulleungdo and Dokdo Islands in response to the Japanese provocations of the island in 1947 and 1952, and 1953. Based on three academic investigations on Ulleungdo and Dokdo Islands, the Corean Alpine Club promoted the ‘Student Marine Training’ project, which started in Incheon in the summer of 1956 and continued to Ulleungdo and Dokdo Islands. It was a large-scale event with 197 participants, including 90 high school students and 50 college students from the Seoul area. At that time, Laterne's member Hong Soon-il also participated, and his “Trip to Dokdo and Ulleungdo” was published in the fifth edition of “Laterne” (1956).
After liberation, the lantern held up by the Corean Alpine Club to shine a light on the academic investigation of Ulleungdo and Dokdo Islands became a ‘Laterne’ for succeeding generations. Soon enough, the generations that needed 'Laterne' during the dark times became the 'Laterne' for many people.
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