Dokdo (Takeshima)/Debate Guide

(PD) Image: Chunbum Park
A pro-Japanese sockpuppet (Sharodin95) in Wikipedia plays the ignorant and overly nationalistic Korean "POV." The admin refuses to recognize Sharodin95 as a foiled attempt at mimicry of KPOV.

The territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan over Dokdo is an issue that can be easily misunderstood without an extensive survey of the arguments presented in academic setting. For the layman who is new to the dispute, understanding the Dokdo-Takeshima dispute is made trickier by the fact that his or her primary source of information and dialogue on the dispute would be the internet. Because the news outlets outside Korea and Japan are primarily interested in the new developments in the dispute, they will avoid dealing with the issue of historical correctness. With only generalized knowledge from trusted sources, the layman can only speculate that both parties involved are equally right, or, even worse, that the side with weaker claims has aggressively escalated and prolonged the dispute (i.e. by taking control of the disputed territory).

Evaluating the dispute then largely rests on the imagery of the two countries and the opinions of other netizens, who are usually biased towards Japan and may have corresponding anti-Korean sentiments. This is mainly due to the fact that Japan is a technological and cultural powerhouse, with a large fan base forming communities on the web. These pro-Japanese netizens tend to engage in what is loosely termed as "Korea bashing," while defending Japan from antagonistic relations with Korea that is rooted in Japan's militaristic past. In the discourse of -bashing, the images of North Korea are conjured up to depict (South) Koreans as unreasonable, aggressive, and yet immature and weak, and the Japanese, as reasonable, passive, mature, and technologically and culturally superior - reminiscent of the western construct of the totalitarian portrait of the Orient during the colonial era. The territorial dispute becomes relevant to the netizens, only to the point

A relevant example of Wikipedia, where a combination of favoritism by admins and well-played out sock-puppetry (or the attempt to manipulate discussions by assuming multiple personalities) have led to a situation in which the article on "Liancourt Rocks" deliberately denies the de facto sovereignty of a country over the territory by its neutral naming. The article instead imposes on the reader a description of its own choice (neither South Koreans nor Japanese call the islets "Liancourt Rocks"), thereby prescribing a position, or the Neutral Point of View, that the status quo is genuinely disputable. This is problematic because the very act of disputing does not somehow make equal all sides of a dispute, and the neutral naming perpetuates passive aggression on part of the Japanese side by suggesting that South Korea would be "illegally" occupying the islets, since its territorial rights are under question, but not Japan's act of disputing. It should be noted that Wikipedia's NPOV and the media's neutrality are distinctly different, since the latter usually does not designate a neutral third alternative to the "Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese." In that sense, Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View is ironically a point of view, unlike neutrality of the media, but the layman is unable to distinguish between them. Once s/he is exposed to Wikipedia's neutral designation s/he believes the Neutral Point of View and its underlying implications to be the conventional understanding of the dispute.

On the other hand, the academics are able to determine which side has a stronger case by examining the intricacies of the arguments and their supporting evidence. Consequently, there is a huge perception gap regarding the dispute between the concerned academic experts and the journalists as well as their laymen readership.

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The Dokdo-Takeshima dispute can be divided into two main sets of arguments, which are the issues of historical ownership and the international law. Historical evidence dating back hundreds of years may provide moral weight to the case and is also the basis for some of the legal aspects of the dispute, but the more important is the international law and what happened since 1905, when Japan issued Shimane Prefecture Notice No. 40 that incorporated Dokdo as a Japanese territory under the claim of terra nullius.

Within the academic realm, the Dokdo-Takeshima dispute is mostly considered a concluded matter that will have absolutely zero impact on the Korean sovereignty over Dokdo for an indefinite period of time. The academic consensus is that South Korea has much stronger claims both historically and under the international law, and Japan will not risk war to challenge the occupation in the status quo. In fact the real priorities of South Korea and Japan currently lie in forging a new military and economic alliance to counterbalance the rise of China, and the various movements seen on the both sides of the aisle marking the 100th anniversary of the Japanese annexation of Korea were indicative of such intentions. Then the Dokdo-Takeshima dispute lives on only through the continued renewal of Japan's claims in its defense white papers and K-12 textbook guidelines, which are largely enabled by the considerable influences of the Japanese Hard Right and the serious risk of political backlash in disowning the islets.

International law

notes

Korea claims territorial sovereignty over Dokdo based on historical control of Dokdo beginning with the conquest of Ulleungdo by Shilla in 512 A.D. and subsequent de facto control based on visibility from Ulleungdo, which is the nearest historically inhabited Korean island from Dokdo. Japan claims territorial sovereignty based on activities including fishing and felling of bamboo groves at Dokdo from mid-17th century on. Korea claims that prohibition of seafaring to this area since 1696 by the Japanese government applied only to Ulleungdo, while Korea maintains that the ban applied Ulleungdo and appurtenant islands including Dokdo. Many maps, both Korean and Japanese, before 1905 show Dokdo as a Korea territory. On January 28, 1905 during the Russo-Japanese war, . The Korean government was not notified until March 29, 1906, well after Japan defeated Russia and concluded, on November 17, 1905, the Eulsa treaty that made Korea a protectorate of Japan amd prevented Korea from lodging any protest against the Japanese action over Dokdo.