뉴스레터

This year marks 120 years since the Korean Empire declared Dokdo as our territory under Edict 41, and it is the 10th year since the private sector enacted Dokdo Day and held a commemorative event.

Korea has strengthened its will to protect Dokdo through education on Dokdo whenever Japan provokes Dokdo. In the early days, the education on Dokdo was strengthened according to how to describe Dokdo in elementary and junior high school geography textbooks. However, in recent years, education on Dokdo has been diversified through experiences, activities, practices, exhibition halls, etc. in addition to the contents of social studies textbooks.

Order 41 of the Korean Imperial Register No. 1716 (inside the red border)

collection of kukjanggak institute of korea studies of Seoul National University

Humans live in their own areas, solve their prey, and pursue rest and peace. When an outsider enters this space, a sensitive territorial behavior and territoriality appear. The attribution point is 'human territoriality', which expresses highly intentional behavior unlike the instinctive action of the animal. Dokdo is a small island located in the Far East, but it is the first sacrifice that occurred after the Japanese Empire invaded Joseon, and it is very important because it symbolizes the independence of the Republic of Korea.

From the past, various territorialities surrounding Dokdo have been expressed through literature in Korea and Japan. In particular, Korea has firmly united its will to protect Dokdo in the face of provocative events such as the illegal incorporation of Dokdo in Japan during the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Treaty of San Francisco in 1951, and the Takeshima Day in Shimane Prefecture in Japan in 2005. As such, Dokdo has been a national issue since the beginning of modern geography education in geography textbooks and atlas. The reason is that there is no better way to recognize and preserve the territoriality than geography education regardless of past and present.

Modern Korea began publishing geography textbooks, the Decree for Korean Elementary School in 1895. Hak-Bu, the government office in charge of education at the time, and private textbook writers described Dokdo and Ulleungdo as belonging to Gangwon Province.

As part of the resistance nationalism, the private sector published the textbooks ‘Daehan-Gygi(大韓地誌)’, written by Jang Ji-yeon and Cho Jong-man for patriotic private schools and the people, in June 1907 and September 1908. The textbook states that "in February 1905, despite the Japanese Empire robbing Dokdo of the Korean Empire, there is an Usando(the old name of Dokdo) in the southeast of Ulleungdo." And the map ‘Daehan Jeondo(大韓全圖)’ in the textbook marked the sea between the Korean Empire and Japan as 'Korea Sea'. Kim Gun-jung translated a Japanese book that Dokdo described as belonging to Uldo-gun, Gangwon-do and published it as a geography textbook in September 1907. Thus, Korea's territorial Dokdo was able to live in the hearts of Koreans until the Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty.

In Japan, geography textbooks and atlas were published in 1868 from the year after the Meiji Restoration. However, Dokdo and Ulleungdo appear only on a small number of maps. These two islands are described as 'the territory of Joseon' in the text of the textbook, and sometimes appear only when describing the geography of the Oki(隠岐) region. And there are some maps painted in the same color as the Japanese territory, but many of them do not color Joseon, Ulleungdo, and Dokdo in the sense that they are irrelevant to the Japanese territory. This confusion means that Japan lacks consistency in the ‘Dokdo sovereignty’ claimed by Japan.

From the Edo period, the Japanese government's political decision on Ulleungdo and Dokdo influenced the compilation of books on geography or the production of maps, which became a reference material for the publication of geography textbooks and atlas. For example, when Japanese fishes between Ulleungdo and Dokdo, the Edo Shogunate judged that these islands were outside Japan's territory. So he issued a sailing and fishing permit(渡海免許) to the Japanese people, and this fact is in the Japanese geography textbook.

It is a map recorded in the 「Japanese Geography and Travel」 published in 1872,

and the name of the new administrative unit of Japan is listed.

In connection with the post-war treatment of the Allies, the tragedy occurred on September 8, 1951, when the phrase surrounding the reversion of Dokdo was omitted in the Treaty of San Francisco. Then, in January 1952, President Rhee declared the "Peace Line" to protect the fishing industry of the Republic of Korea and protect Dokdo. With this declaration, the dispute between Korea and Japan over Dokdo became full-scale, and furthermore, it actively reflected the sovereignty of Dokdo in the Korean elementary and junior high school geography textbooks.

In Korea after liberation, Noh Do-yang who served in the Ministry of Education in 1947, the name ‘Dokdo’ was used for the first time in Atlas for Middle and High School(中等國土地理附圖) and Dokdo was represented as Korean territory. From then on, the textbooks of the Elementary and junior high school began to express Dokdo as Korean territory. And the geography textbooks of elementary and secondary schools published in 1955 after President Rhee's declaration of peace line made Dokdo recognize as Korean territory by using a lot of amount.

Junior high school geography textbooks frequently used hostile terms such as 'the Japanese invaders, pillage, ploy, infiltration, invasion, penetration, Red purge, illegal invasion, re-invasion, vigilance, ambition, robber, maneuver' when expressing Japanese provocation. So, through these terms, students were angry about Japan and described it as an enemy to be defeated.

When Japanese invaded our oceans and Dokdo, the textbooks used decisive and tough terms such as arrest, severe punishment, lifeline, blockade, limiting behavior, prevention in advance, completing the destruction, desperate defense, and guard. So, students were given the recognition and attitude that Dokdo must be protected.

In postwar Japan, many elementary and junior high school geography textbooks were published, but these textbooks did not deal with Dokdo. In addition, Ulleungdo and Dokdo are marked on the map of Japan and surrounding areas in atlas, but the border line is not displayed around Dokdo, so the belonging of Dokdo is unclear. However, the geography textbooks of elementary and junior high schools published in the mid-1950s began to describe and express Dokdo differently from before.

In the textbooks of the Japanese elementary school social studies published at this time, there is no labeled ‘Dokdo’, but the maps in a few middle and high school geography textbooks are listed as Dokdo. In 1955, some of atlas that expressed Dokdo as Japanese territory by marking the border appeared. In Japan, the time when Dokdo appears in elementary and junior high school geography textbooks is slower than in Korea, and the contents and technical expressions of the text are passive. This difference seems to be due to the primitive instincts of the area.

A Map of Ulleungdo and its Nearby in Atlas for Middle and High School(中等國土地理附圖, 1947) by Noh Do-yang

Shimane Prefecture, Japan, has celebrated the anniversary of the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of Dokdo every year since the establishment of Takeshima Day in March 2005. The Japanese government has launched Dokdo provocations in radical, continuous and diverse forms. Especially in the 21st century, it was Dokdo education in elementary and junior high schools that received strong opposition from Korea.

Since the Ministry of Education of Japan stated Dokdo in the social section of the middle school learning guidance manual in July 2008, the revised edition also made Dokdo a territory of Japan. Most textbooks published based on these guidelines describe Dokdo as Japan's territory, Korea illegally occupying Dokdo, and Korea's rejection of the International Court of Justice to solve the Dokdo issue. In addition, the Oki Islands and Shimane Prefecture, which are closest to Dokdo, develop Dokdo education system to strengthen the sovereignty of Dokdo, and produce and distribute video DVDs, data CDs, and guidebooks.

The Ministry of Education of Korea set Dokdo as the subject of pan-curricular learning in the curriculum revised in 2015. In addition, Dokdo education was further strengthened by expanding contents not only to elementary and junior high schools but also high school geography, history, and technology textbooks.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Education of Korea has been promoting various practical projects to protect the sovereignty of Dokdo. For example, the Northeast Asian History Foundation under the Ministry of Education has been developing and distributing Dokdo textbooks for elementary and junior high school students and teachers for the improvement of Dokdo education since 2012 and the selection and support of ‘Dokdo guard schools’ since 2008. In addition, Holding a national competition to know the Dokdo of middle and high school students, Operation of the Dokdo Educational Practice Research Association, Selection and operation of Dokdo Education Week, The Dokdo exhibition is being held.

Furthermore, The Dokdo Exhibition Hall was constructed in each area as a place to provide Dokdo education contents to students and citizens. The Dokdo Exhibition Hall was opened for the first time in Seoul in 2012.It is currently operating in Chungbuk, Jeonbuk, Gyeongnam in 2014, Jeonnam, Gyeonggi, Daejeon, Incheon in 2015, Daegu, Gwangju in 2016, Sejong, Gyeongbuk in 2017, and Chungnam in 2018.

On February 28, the Northeast Asian Historical Foundation opened Gwanghwamun Dokdo Exhibition Hall in the underground space of Gwanghwamun Station. Since the opening of the Dokdo Experience Hall(at Seodaemun, Seoul), a variety of complex experience spaces for understanding the nature and history of Dokdo through various activities, the Foundation has provided various knowledge and experiences about Dokdo to more than 270,000 visitors from home and abroad. Based on these operational experiences, the Foundation has opened the Dokdo Exhibition Hall reflecting the opinions of related experts and citizens. Gwanghwamun is located in the center of Seoul, and it has high accessibility and a large number of domestic and foreign floating population.

In Gwanghwamun Dokdo Exhibition Hall, you can meet the history of Dokdo from the Silla period to the present day, and you can understand Dokdo in a new dimension through Dokdo-related figures. It can be said that it is a suitable space to promote Dokdo to the world because it can enhance the effectiveness of education and realize the beautiful land Dokdo of Korea with a multilingual explanation to foreigners. In addition, it has the advantage of promoting citizens' consciousness of Dokdo in terms of life learning and taking charge of deepening communication with society.

In order for Gwanghwamun Dokdo Exhibition Hall to develop into a more meaningful place in the future, efforts should be made to construct differentiated data and develop various programs from other Dokdo exhibition halls. As part of that, if the Dokdo-related session is newly organized on another theme every month, Gwanghwamun Dokdo Exhibition Hall will be reborn as a dynamic figure.