“The Old Japanese Map Doesn’t Include Dokdo”

A book of about 90 maps made by Europeans and Japanese between the 13th century and the 19th century was simultaneously published in New York, U.S., and Tokyo, Japan in 1983.

The “Japanese nationwide map” in 1291 and the “Japanese map of border areas” in 1305 only include Daemado (Tsushima Island), and not Dokdo.

Other maps also don’t include Dokdo, and even if Dokdo was marked on some maps, Dokdo was indicated in different colors in order to emphasize that Dokdo didn’t belong to Japan.

In addition, a complete map of Japan presumed to have been made in the early 17th century details the Japanese topography and geographical names, but it does not have Dokdo on it.

The omission of Dokdo in Japanese maps continued to those produced in the 19th century.

Hugh Cortazzi, who served as British ambassador to Japan from 1980 to 1984, began collecting old Japanese maps in the mid-1960s.

Professor Kim said that the book of maps was highly reliable because a person from a third country not concerned with Korean and Japanese territorial issue made and collected them, and that as shown in Japanese maps, Japan didn’t recognize Dokdo as part of its territory for hundreds of years.

Professor Kim added that Meiji University only selected the old maps containing Dokdo and made the map book in the early 1990s, but Japan made most of the maps in the book for the purpose of including Dokdo to its territorial claim around 1905.

Professor Kim said that he purchased the map book during his stay in Frankfurt, Germany in the early 1990s.

Soo-Jung Shin crystal@donga.com