Japan seized Dokdo for military purposes
.jpg?w=728)
Russian and Japanese delegations attend the Portsmouth Conference in the United States in 1905.
This is the third of a five-part series on lingering major issues between Korea and Japan regarding Tokyo’s claims on Korea’s easternmost island of Dokdo. ― ED.
By Chung Ah-young
Dmitrii Donskoi assigned to the cruiser force of the Russian Baltic Fleet (Second Pacific Squadron) reached the Korea Strait on May 27, 1905. While approaching the sea, the vessel was intercepted by the Japanese fleet in the biggest naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War. The ship was scuttled off Ulleungdo after taking severe damage from the Japanese combined fleet near Korea’s easternmost island of Dokdo. The first great war in the 20th century transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in Japan’ s regional dominance.
The demise of the Russian cruiser shows how strategically significant Dokdo and Ulleungdo were around that time for the Russo-Japanese war to dominate the region. Through the war, Dokdo became the first of Japan’s forcible seizures on and around the Korean peninsula.
A sketch of the naval battle during the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
After the war broke out in 1904, the Japanese Navy seemed dominant against Russia but the situation abruptly turned just a month later.
Following the loss of its naval supremacy, Japan needed to detect the movement of Russian naval vessels sailing in the area.
At a Cabinet meeting, Japan had already decided that “Korea must be brought under our control under threat of force.” It laid the foundation for the use of Korean land under the Korea-Japan Protocol which was forcefully signed on Feb. 23, 1904. The protocol stipulates Japan would occupy areas of strategic military importance as is needed.
A Japan’s monument celebrating the victory of the Russo-Japanese War in Geojedo, South Gyeongsang Province.
Ulleungdo and Dokdo were designated as strategic points between which the southward-bound Russian Pacific Fleet based in Vladivostok and the combined Japanese fleet collided. The Russian fleet threatened Japan’s control of the seas while Japan had already lost a third of its forces around May 15, 1904, according to a thesis titled “Russo-Japanese War and Japan’s Annexation of Korea” written by Choi Mun-hyung, an emeritus professor at Hanyang University.
“Japan had no choice but to install watchtowers to track the enemy’s movement and set up more military bases. It was imperative for Japan to use Ulleungdo and Dokdo to block the Russian Navy,” the thesis states.
Hong Seong-keun, a researcher at the Northeast Asian History Foundation, said that the
Japanese forces, which had decimated the Russian Baltic Fleet in seas near Ulleungdo and Dokdo, only grew more keenly aware of the strategic value of these islands.
“Japanese forces installed an additional watchtower on the northern part of Ulleungdo as well as another one on Dokdo, which had a view of Ulleungdo,” he said.
Japan incorporated Dokdo into the Shimane Prefecture in 1905 to use it as a military base.
“For Japan, Dokdo was nothing more than a spot holding military significance, closely related to the occupation of various parts of Korea at that time,” he said.
Although Japan had thought the war would last much longer, the Portsmouth Treaty was concluded on Sept. 5 in 1905 _ much earlier than expected. The watchtower on Dokdo had lost its raison d’ etre and was demolished on Oct. 24.
However, the Japanese forces installed a submarine cable between Ulleungdo and Dokdo on Oct. 8, and another between Dokdo and Matsue in Japan on Nov. 9. Although the war was over, Japanese forces continued to proceed from the installation of facilities on Dokdo to the annexation of Korea.
Immediately after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese press took photographs of Dokdo and introduced it as a famous place where the Japanese fleet had won a complete victory over Russia’s naval forces. To the Japanese, Dokdo was a place to memorialize their complete victory in the war, prior to invading the Korean peninsula.
Some 33 years after Dokdo and other Korean territories had fallen prey to the Japanese colonial forces, the Cairo Conference took place in Egypt on Nov. 20, 1943. The allies adopted the declaration containing major clauses which would affect the fate of the Korean peninsula.
It includes “all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadors, shall be restored to the Republic of China … Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed” and “in due course Korea shall become free and independent.”
Also, one year and eight months later, the Potsdam Declaration announced in 1945 supported that the terms of the Cairo Declaration would be carried out, saying “Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine.”
However, the declarations were not legally binding as they were adopted by the allies but Japan accepted them on Aug. 15 in 1945. On Sept. 2, the Instrument of the Surrender of Japan was announced, marking the end of World War II. The announcement meant the acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.
“The lawful seizure of the land should be peaceful and public but the seizure of Dokdo was forcible and covert. Japan used parts of the Korean territories as they wanted under the forcible atmosphere,” Hong said.