竹島問題の歴史

16.6.07

Yonhap News says Dokdo was annexed in 1910

This June 15 Yonhap News article, "Seoul, Tokyo to hold EEZ talks next week," says that Dokdo (Liancourt Rocks ) was annexed by Japan in 1910, but it was actually annexed in 1905, and the Korean government was told about it in 1906. (Yonhap is a Korean news service.)

Here is the relevant section of the article:
The Korean islets were annexed by Japan along with the Korean Peninsula in 1910, but Tokyo claims its territorial rights to the islets were declared five years before the start of Japanese colonial rule. Historians, however, say Korea had already been under effective control of Japan well before the start of the 20th century.

The Japanese told Korea in 1906 that they had annexed "Takeshima" (Dokdo), so I do not understand why the Yonhap article is saying that Japan annexed the islets in 1910, unless it is to try to give the impression that "Dokdo" was somehow forcibly annexed along with the rest of Korea, which was not the case.

These days it seems that Korea's Dokdo advocates have realized that they can no longer fool people into believing that a small neighboring island of Ulleungdo on old Korean maps was "Dokdo," which is why I think you do not see much about Korean maps anymore in the Korean media and on Korea's Web sites. Their propaganda seems to have shifted to focusing on trying to make people believe that Dokdo's annexation and Korea's annexation was one and the same. They seem to have realized that foreigners can easily look at a Korean map and say, "Hey, that doesn't look like Dokdo," but it is not as easy for the foreigners to check the facts in old Korean and Japanese documents.

Again, why would Yonhap News make the erroneous claim that Japan annexed "Dokdo" in 1910 when even Korean historical documents show that Korea was told about the annexation in 1906?

1 comment:

  1. The news articles Gerry introduced here are proofs of the incorporation in 1905.

    BTW, they seem to like to use a word "annexation", but in my opinion Liancourt rocks were not annexed (併合), it was incorporated (編入). I think there is a slight difference in the two words.

    They may use the word intentionally the same words "annexation" which took place in 1910.

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