Chapter VI Reconfirmation of Ullngdo and Tokdo by the Meiji Government

1. Reconfirmation by the Japanese Foreign Ministry and the Council of State

In the course of the controversy on Tokdo that has continued since 1952, the Japanese government once asserted that there was an instance in the early days of the Meiji government, in which leading officials of the Japanese Foreign Ministry perceived Tokdo as Japanese territory.

But this is not true. The early Meiji government was well cognizant of Tokdo as Korean territory and reconfirmed the fact several times.

The Meiji government, which came into being after the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, sent a study team of high-ranking Foreign Ministry officials including Sada Hakubo, Moriyama Shigeru, and Saito Sakae to Pusan to investigate the situation in Korea in 1869 (6th year of Kojong, 2nd year of Meiji). The items of study drafted by the Foreign Ministry and sanctioned by the Dajokan (Council of State), the highest government organ, included the territorial question of Ullngdo and Tokdo.

The report by the study mission is entitled "Report on the Confidential Inquiry into the Particulars of Korean Foreign Relations (Chosenkoku kosaishimatsu naitansho) made in 1870 (3rd year of the Meiji period).

In the report is found the following passage that confirms Ullngdo and Tokdo as Korean territory:

Circumstances under which Takeshima and Matsushima have become Korean possession:

Regarding this case, Matsushima is an island adjacent to Takeshima and there has been made no document on it to date; concerning Takeshima, Korea sent people to settle there for a while after the Genroku period. Then the island became uninhabited as before. Bamboo and ditch reed, which is thicker than bamboo and ginseng are found there. Besides, the island is said to be fit for fishing....

The items of study instructed by the Japanese Foreign Ministry, having been sanctioned by the Council of State (Dajokan), included the question of Ullngdo-Tokdo and the report by the study mission are evidence that the Japanese government recognized Tokdo as a dependency of Ullngdo. This record is included in the Japanese Diplomatic Documents (Nihon gaiko bunsho).

This document reveals:

(1) In the early days of the Meiji period, the Japanese Foreign Ministry knew that Ullngdo and Tokdo were Korean territory, but instructed the study mission to examine them.

(2) Japan recognizes Tokdo's proximity to Ullngdo and regards the former as a dependency of the latter.

(3) There exist no documents that describe how Tokdo became Korean territory.

(4) Records are extant which show how Ullngdo became Korean territory and that the island was uninhabited at that time.

(5) The resources on Ullngdo were surveyed and reported.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry and the Council of State as the highest government organ in Japan at that time clearly knew in the early Meiji period that ? Ullngdo and Tokdo were Korean territory; ? they were not islands whose ownership could be disputed; ? Tokdo was adjacent to Ullngdo and was its dependency; ? Both Tokdo and Ullngdo were not Japanese territory.

These facts are documented in the Japanese Diplomatic Documents.

2. Reconfirmation by the Japanese Home Ministry

Another decisive material shows that the Japanese Home Ministry and the Council of State made it clear in 1877 (10th year of the Meiji period) that Tokdo was Korean territory and Japan had nothing to do with the island.

In the process of conducting a land survey throughout Japan and making maps in 1876, the Japanese Home Ministry received an inquiry dated October 16, 1876 from Shimane prefecture about whether or not Ullngdo and Tokdo were to be included in the project.

Then the ministry thoroughly examined for five months not only the attached documents submitted by the prefecture, but also the official letters exchanged between Korea and Japan at the end of the 17th century (the period of King Sukchong in Korea and the Genroku era in Japan) and drew the conclusion that Ullngdo and Tokdo were Korean territory and had nothing to do with Japan.

However, "the acquisition or dereliction of a territory being a matter of great importance" the ministry, on March 17, 1877, referred the matter to the Council of State for deliberation and decision as follows:

Inquiry regarding the compilation of the land register for Takeshima and another island in the Sea of Japan:

Shimane prefecture sent us an inquiry for judgment on the jurisdiction of Takeshima as per attachments and this ministry has examined the matter: Regarding the islands in question, they are known to have nothing to do with our country as per attached documents (in excerpts) prepared in the first month of the 9th year of the Genroku [1896] after the entry of the Koreans [An Yong-bok et al.] into the island, i. e., (No. 1) the significance of the deliberation by the former government, (No. 2) notification to the official interpreter-translator, (No. 3) the official letter from the country involved, (No. 4) our country's reply and note verbale. In other words, by the 12th year of the Genroku, the exchange of instruments had been completed. However, the acquisition or dereliction of a territory being a matter of great importance, we request your instruction with the papers attached hereto.

March 17, 10th year of Meiji.

Acting for the Minister of Home Affairs Okubo Toshimichi, Vice Minister of Home Affairs Maejima Hisoka.

To His Excellency Minister of the Right Iwakura Tonomi In the inquiry, the Japanese Home Ministry mentioned the name of Ullngdo, but referred to Tokdo as "another island,"

but in the papers attached thereto it explains "another island' as follows: "There is another island called Matsushima. Its area is about 30 chongbo [about 74 acres] and is located almost in the same latitude as Ullngdo."

From this, another island clearly refers to Tokdo.

In those days, the Japanese Home Ministry was concerned mostly with Ullngdo. Apparently, they thought Tokdo was not worth mentioning by name as it consists of small rocky islets unfit for human habitation, and listed it simply as "another island."

3. Reconfirmation by the Council of State

Minister of the Right lwakura Tonomi of the Council of State (Dajokan: the highest government organ comparable to the cabinet and consisting of the triumvirate of the Prime Minister [Dajodaijin] and the Ministers of the Right and the Left) had examined the inquiry, and drafted and sanctioned an instruction on the "significance of the inquiry about Takeshima and another island" as follows:

March 20, the 10th year of Meiji (seal of Minister lwakura Tonomi affixed)

Re: the compilation of the land register for Takeshima and another island in the Sea of Japan as per Home Ministry inquiry. Knowing that our country has nothing to do [with the islands] as the result of the exchange of notes between our former government and the country involved after the entry into the island by the Koreans [An Yong-bok et al.] in the fifth year of the Genroku, and having examined the view stated in the inquiry, the following draft instruction has been prepared for your deliberation and sanction.

Draft Instruction

Re: Takeshima and another island, it is to be understood that our country has nothing do do with them. This draft was signed and approved by Minister of the Right lwakura Tonomi, Vice Ministers Okuma Shigenobu, Terajima Munenori and Oki Takato. On March 27, 1877, the Council of State sent the instruction to the Home Ministry, which in turn copied the instruction of the Council of State at the end of the inquiry submitted to the Dajokan: "It is understood that the subject of inquiry on Takeshima and another island has nothing to do with Japan," and setting the date of March 29, the twentieth year of Meiji thereon. Thus the case was closed. The Home Ministry sent this instruction to Shimane prefecture on April 9, 1877 and the matter was settled there too.

To Sum up:

The Japanese Council of State, the highest Japanese government organ, and the Home Ministry reconfirmed in 1877 that Ullngdo and Tokdo were Korea's territory, not Japan's.

Before the decision was made, the reference materials submitted by Shimane prefecture, the diplomatic notes exchanged between the Tokugawa shogunate and the Korean government at the close of the 17th century, and the other information and documents the Ministry had collected on its own were all examined closely for five months.

The decision of the Council of State of 1877 and the Report on the Confidential Inquiry into the Particulars of Korea's Foreign Relations, a Japanese diplomatic document, ascertain that Ullngdo and Tokdo are Korean territory, not Japan's.

4. Reconfirmation by the Ministries of the Army and the Navy

The Japanese military naturally knew that Ullngdo and Tokdo were owned by Korea. The Ministry of the Army reconfirmed this fact in 1875, on the Map of Korea it compiled and published by the General Staff Office of the Ministry in 1875 (8th year of the Meiji). It shows Ullngdo and Tokdo in the enlarged box at the right end. Had the Ministry considered Tokdo to be its territory, it would not have purposely shown the island in the enlarged box.

The Japanese Ministry of the Navy, too, reconfirmed Tokdo as Korea's territory in 1876. Its Hydrographic Burean made the Map of the Eastern Coast of Korea in 1876 based on the surveys conducted by Russian and British warships. This map not only placed Tokdo within the territory of Korea, but carried at the mid-right side one drawing of Tokdo done 3.5 nautical miles north of the island by a Russian warship, a second one done 5 nautical miles off in the direction of 10 degrees northwest, and a third one from 14 nautical miles away in the direction of 61 degrees north. They have a photographic accuracy and clearness.

If the Ministry of the Navy had regarded Tokdo as Japanese territory, not Korea's, the island might have not been shown in the middle of the East Sea (Sea of Japan) or its drawings would not have been inserted in the mid-East Sea. It was most probable in that case that Tokdo would have been shown in the sea northwest of Honshu, Japan. It was reprinted in 1887 and many times thereafter, showing Tokdo as Korean territory, until 1905.

All things considered, it is clear that at the beginning of the Meiji government, the Japanese Council of State, the Foreign Ministry, the Home Ministry, the Ministries of the Army and the Navy reconfirmed Tokdo as Korean territory as shown in the documentary records and maps cited so far.

In this connection, we should pay attention to the change of the name of Tokdo from Matsushima to Liancourt Island in Japan.

In 1876, a Japanese named Muto Hirataka caused excitement when he said he had discovered a large island, not Ullngdo, with rich marine resources. He filed an application to the Foreign Ministry for development of Matsushima. The ministry asked the Ministry of the Navy to carry out an exploration of the island. The Navy sent the warship Amagi to survey the island in September 1880, but it turned out to be Ullngdo, and Muto's application was turned down, while the result of the survey was published in the Sketch of the Eastern Coast of Korea (Chosen tokaigan ryakki).

Since then, the Ministry of the Navy became somewhat particular about the designation of "Matsushima", as they had first surveyed it and suddenly began to call Ullngdo "Matsushima," and Tokdo, which they had called "Matsushima", "Liancourt Island". This began to spread among the fishermen and Ullngdo became "Matsushima" and Tokdo "Liankuruto" Japanizing the French name.

Yet, the Japanese Ministry of the Navy and the Japanese fishermen all knew Tokdo was Korean territory.