Foreign Scholars to Discuss Japan’s Colonial Rule
By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter
After almost a century of what Koreans call a shameful treaty that left Korea under Japanese rule for 35 years, Korea is taking a closer look at the validity of the 1910 Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty.
The Northeast Asian History Foundation in Seoul announced Wednesday that it is initiating a series of international conferences to discuss the historic background of the treaty ahead of its 100th anniversary.
The institute held a two-day conference starting Thursday in the United States in conjunction with the school of Pacific and Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii.
``Next year marks the 100th year of Japan's annexation of Korea. We have been conducting long-term research on the subject, especially to promote an understanding of the very root of the modern historical conflicts between the two countries," Kim Yong-deok, president of the foundation, said in a statement.
Participants at the Hawaii conference debated the procedural legality of various treaties between the years 1904 and 1910 that gave Japan the legal mandate to take over Korea's sovereignty.
They also compared these treaties to similar ones signed between other countries and discussed legal and historical circumstances surrounding the treaties.
Many Korean scholars have questioned the legality of the 1910 treaty, maintaining that the Korean representatives were coerced into the pact which led to the complete accession of Korea's sovereignty to the Japanese emperor.
The Provisional Government, established in 1919 in Shanghai, also did not recognize the validity of the treaty and considered itself the governing body of what was then a part of the Japanese empire.
The foundation plans to hold international conferences over the next three years and publish their findings for distribution to relevant experts worldwide.
At the foundation's initiative, scholars from Korea, Taiwan and Japan will gather in Seoul in June and conclude their discussions in August 2010.