|
Japan claimed sovereignty over the Dokdo Islets in the 1620s and 1880s only to admit on both occasions that the rocks were Korean, a century-old Japanese geography book reveals. After the sovereignty issue flared up again, historian Park Byeong-shik, who specializes in the history of Koran-Japanese exchanges, on Friday drew attention to the eight-volume "Dai-nihon-chimei-jisho (Geographic Dictionary of Japan)" that devotes a special section to the topic.
The dictionary introduces Dokdo in a separate subsection in volume 3, where it says sovereignty disputes over the islets in the East Sea arose twice.
Compiled by Japanese historian Yoshira Tougo, the book was first printed in 1900, and its introduction claims that Japanese Cabinet members at the time sent a letter of praise to its publishers. Park's edition is a 1986 reprint.
The dictionary says a person by the name of Muragawa Masagatsu went to the Dokdo Islets in 1621 and after capturing two Koreans petitioned the Japanese shogun to allow travel between the Japanese mainland and the islets. The shogun, however, banned travel between Yonago (currently Tottori Prefecture) and the islets in 1623. It records that the Edo shoganate banned Japanese from traveling to the Dokdo Islets in 1699.
The book says the two nations once again squabbled over the uninhabited islets in the 1880s. The Korean king at the time is recorded to have stood up saying, "It is only too clear that those islets are part of Korea, considering documents and the distance between them and Korea. For Japan to claim sovereignty over them is clearly a misunderstanding." Japan later admitted he was right.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
