Dokdo is also called Liancourt Rocks after the French whaling ship, Le Liancourt, which rediscovered Dokdo on January 27, 1849. The Japanese name for Dokdo used to be Matsushima (松島) until 1905, at which time it was renamed as Takeshima (竹島) along with a Japanese territorial claim .
Dokdo has been under the control of South Korean since August 15, 1948, on which the Korea-based U.S. XXIV Corps transferred Dokdo to the newly born Republic of Korea.
Dokdo is actually composed of two islands -- east and west -- and surrounded by around 90 rock formations.
The two islands lie around 150 m apart. According to the maritime police guarding Dokdo, the water separating the two is very shallow -- it never dips below 2.0 m -- and traversable on foot, but the narrow channel is usually crossed by boat for safety reasons.
The South Korean government asserts that Korea has owned Dokdo all along since the beginning of known history. For this you can find at http://www.korea.net.
Dokdo and Ulleungdo are visible from each other. Anyone living in Ulleungdo for long enough knows that Dokdo is out there, at present people feel more connection and protecting Doko. Over many years Ulleungdo people are promoting Dokdo and sending messages to the mainlands and the people who comes to visit the island.
Tracing back from the past : Korean people lived in Ulleungdo since prehistoric times. Three Korean style dolmens (고인돌; goindol) attributable to a period between about 300 B.C. to about 1 A.D. have been located in Ulleungdo. Dolmens are ancient tombs of the bronze age and the early iron age. The Korean peninsula contains about 40 % of all dolmens in the world. The majority of the rest of the dolmens are within Manchuria, which was within the territory of the ancient Korean kingdom of Gojoseon ( ~ 2333 B.C to 108 B.C.). The dolmens prove that Koreans lived in Ulleungdo at that time.
Check out at http://blog.dokdo.korea.com/?page=2 for further archeological details.
Photo above: An example of a Korean dolmen.
The rock carvings at Bangudae (반구대), Ulsan in Korea, shows images of whaling ships that accommodate about 20 sailors. If the ancient Koreans could sail to Ulleungdo to live there even if they cannot see Ulleungdo from the Korean mainland, surely they must have sailed to Dokdo that they could see from Ulleungdo.
Photo to the left:
Scholars believe that the rock carvings at Bangudae were made between the neolithic age and early iron age over a period of time.
Shilla, a Korean kingdom, conquered and annexed the local kingdom of Usan-guk in 512 A.D.
The first written reference to Dokdo appears in a Korean history book titled "Samguk Sagi" (삼국사기, 三國史記; meaning "History of Three Kingdoms") which was compiled in 1145 A.D. According to Samguk Sagi, Isabu, a general of Shilla, conquered and annexed "Usan-guk," which refer to Ulleungdo and Dokdo collectively.
Dokdo is included in Usan-guk.
Usan-guk includes the two islands of Mulleung and Usan, according to old Korean records such as "Sejong Shillok Jiriji," a publication in 1454 A.D. According to this record, the two islands are separated far enough so that they can be seen from each other only on a clear day. Only the pair of Ulleungdo and Dokdo satisfies this condition in the East Sea.
The [Korean] Ministry has developed an auxiliary textbook called “Getting to Know Dokdo” (독도바로알기) for all sixth grade students nationwide beginning the middle of this month. The textbook has over 60 pages of information about Dokdo’s natural environment and geography.
The textbook will be given the second-year middle school students and first-year high school students later this year, for a total of 60,000 to 70,000 copies. When students begin school they will use the textbook to begin learning about Dokdo’s history, geography, and international law in order to learn about Korean sovereignty. Gwon Yeong-min, head of the northeast Asia history research team in the Ministry, said that “this textbook was developed so that Dokdo education will be included in all ethics, social studies, and history courses… teachers may use the textbook in their regular classes or use it for original physical activities or other school events.”
The Ministry is expanding the number of “Dokdo Base Schools”. Beyond the current 62 participating schools, another 5 overseas Korean schools will be added this month. These schools will have clubs called “Protecting Dokdo Group” and “Loving Dokdo Group”, and have meetings on Dokdo research, lectures by visiting experts, and exhibitions. The schools will receive support from the Ministry.
There is also the online program “Dokdo Cyberclassroom” for teachers. The program teaches about the incidents in the history of Dokdo and Japanese incursions onto dokdo, and by this year had been viewed by 2,100 teachers. The Ministry also has the nationwide touring program “Dokdo Exhibition” which has been attended by 95,000 ordinary citizens.
Though the Ministry has strengthened Dokdo education in the style of a department store, many believe that regular classes need to be changed to show real effectiveness. This is because there are limits to Dokdo education carried out outside of regular classes, such as original experiences or school events.
Currently Dokdo-related materials are taught in elementary, middle, and high schools in ethics, social studies, and history classes. Elementary schools mainly begin by having Dokdo pictures in third and fourth grade textbooks, and middle schools teach that “Dokdo is within our borders and is therefore a part of the history of our territory.” In high school students learn in history class that Dokdo has been a part of our territory since the Three Kingdoms period and in geography class they see ancient maps and documents and learn that Dokdo is our territory. The Ministry plans to increase Dokdo understanding in textbooks and other materials in social studies and ethics classes.
Even before the distortions in Japanese textbooks there were strong voices for proper Dokdo education in our textbooks. The Ministry announced in May that it would correct minor errors regarding Dokdo in middle and high school textbooks. The materials in question were four pages in a social studies book, three pages in society, and one page each in history and Korean. The erroneous textbooks had errors regarding Dokdo’s longitude, latitude, and surface area and its unofficial designation.
Depending on weather conditions, visitors are usually only granted access to Dokdo for about 50 days each year. That means many are forced to turn back without ever setting foot on the islands.
Dokdo, Korea's eastern most territory, is open to both Koreans and foreigners, but the latter must go through a routine application process to gain admittance.
Although many foreign tourist visit Dokdo through Ulleungdo to see the glimpse of twin sister.
Please do visit Korea's Dokdo Island , as I find solace and lucky to be there with my other friends through Misnistry Of Korea Tourism who fecilitate to take us there. One of my precious and unforgettble moment which I am still cherishing and sharing to you all with some of my knowledge about Dokdo Island.
No comments:
Post a Comment