Dokdo Evidence

[Anchor Lead]

The Japanese government holds to its territorial claim over the Dokdo Islets, using the Japanese name of "Takeshima." A KBS investigative reporting team has discovered an important document that refutes the Japanese term for Dokdo. Here’s more.

[Pkg]

This is a classified Dokdo-related document written in Japan's Shimane Prefecture in 1953. This report transcribed in detail a testimony made by a Shimane Prefecture public employee in charge of the prefecture's adminitrative zoning at the time. The most noticeable feature of the document is the name "Dokdo." It is written that in November, 1945, immediately after Japan surrendered, the name "Dokdo" was written in the sole official document when Dokdo was handed over to Shimane Prefecture from the Japanese Navy. This classified document was discovered recently by a Korean scholar at the archive of Shimane Prefecture in Japan.

[Soundbite] Kim Moon-gil(Dir., Korean-Japanese Cultural Center) : "There was even a price for Dokdo when the Japanese Naval Command handed Dokdo over to Shimane Prefecture after Korea's liberation. There's the name "Dokdo" too."

Similar distinction was discovered in a report about state-owned properties written by the Japanese government at the time. The document titled "Changes in the Fishing Industry of Dokdo" clearly shows the name "Dokdo."

[Soundbite] Prof. Yuji Hosaka(Dir., Dokdo Research Institute, Sejong Univ.) : "After Japan lost the war in 1945, Japan must have predicted that Dokdo would naturally be returned to Korea, because it was originally taken from Korea."

But when U.S. military rule on the Korean Peninsula ended, Japan changed its attitude and redacted the parts marked with "Dokdo" in its official papers. Japan's claim of dominium over Dokdo was once again found groundless as the newly discovered official document showed that Shimane Prefecture, which had established the Day of Takeshima, had historically called Dokdo by its Korean name.