By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
A group of Koreans and members of a "patriots' group" rallied Thursday against a recent decision by Tokyo to claim Dokdo, Korea's easternmost islets, as part of its territory in school textbooks, condemning Japan for indoctrinating its students with false historical claims.
In the demonstration held in front of the Japanese Embassy in downtown Seoul, Cho Young-soon, the head of the Seoul Young Korean Academy (YKA), said that Japan should withdraw its approval of elementary school textbooks describing Dokdo as its territory. The group was founded by an independence movement leader during the Japanese colonial period.
"Japan is trying, without reflecting on its shameful past, to justify its false history systematically and its pillaging of a neighboring nation's territorial sovereignty under a rightist movement. We worry where Japan might be heading when educating about its infringement of another country's sovereignty," she said.
On Tuesday, Japan approved five social studies textbooks for use in elementary school courses marking Dokdo in the East Sea, as its territory. The textbooks will be used for fifth graders from 2011. One of the approved textbooks claims that South Korea "illegally occupies" the islets. Other than elementary school textbooks, four out of 21 middle school texts describe Dokdo as Japanese territory as do 12 of 112 high school books.
The YKA said Japan is trying to indoctrinate its students ㅡ from elementary to high school ㅡ with false facts.
"They are trying to justify their imperialism and colonial rule of Korea by teaching their children an inaccurate version of history," Cho said.
It also asked the Korean government to deal with Japan's unreasonable behavior in a more enthusiastic way.
After the YKA protest, a group of students staged a separate protest on the same issue.
Lee Dong-jun of Kwangwoon University said Japan should stop claiming Dokdo as its territory in textbooks. "Recant the approval of textbooks with false history," he said.
The Dokdo islets, located some 90 kilometers east of Ulleung Island in the East Sea, are the easternmost point of Korean territory. Korea has stationed a coast guard unit there since 1954, but Japan has consistently claimed sovereignty over it.
The territorial dispute on Dokdo has been a longtime diplomatic conflict between Korea and Japan. Korean activists ran a 30-second advertisement titled "Dokdo is a Part of Korea" on a billboard in Times Square, New York City, earlier this month.
Other than the Dokdo issue, the Japanese Embassy in Seoul is a place of protest by former comfort women. A group of the women forced by Japan into prostitution during World War II has been holding rallies requesting an official apology every Wednesday.
Started in 1992, the ongoing demonstration marked its 911th protest Wednesday. The Japanese government has yet to respond.