Northeast Asian History Network

The lyrics to verse five of the song Our Land, Dokdo are as follows:
Events transpired as the lyrics describe. According to the section on "Military Administration" in the Mangi yoram of 1808, "Ulleungdo and Dokdo are the sovereign territory of Usan-guk." (During the era of the Three Kingdoms on the Korean Peninsula, Usan-guk was a country located on present-day Ulleungdo. It was destoryed by Silla in 512.) The Russo-Japanese War, however, provided Japan with an opportunity to seize Dokdo, which Japan had been greedily eyeing for strategic military purposes.
The plan to invade Joseon was first proposed by Yoshida Shōin in the 1850s. Afterwards, Kido Takayoshi, Saigō Takamori, and others belonging to the “Conquer Korea Advocates”(seikanronsha)^{[note 001]} followed in his footsteps.
Japan actualized its plan to invade Joseon [Korea] in 1894, around the time of the Sino-Japanese War. It had been planning this invasion for a long time, and took advantage of the Revolutionary Uprising of the Donghak Peasant Army of 1894 to deploy troops to occupy the royal palace and other strategic places in Seoul, and in Busan, Incheon, and Wonsan. Japan converted the buildings of central government offices such as the Sayeok-won (the Bureau of Interpreters) and the Jangakwon (the Bureau of Music) into military barracks, installed military telegraph lines stretching across the entire country from Seoul to Busan and from Seoul to Incheon, and laid railroad tracks to use all these for the war against China. The Japanese battled the Chinese from the open sea of Pungdo off Asan Harbor to Pyeongyang and the Yellow Sea, devastating Joseon’s land and seas in the process.
Japan prevailed over China and gained influence not only over Joseon but also possession of the Liaodong Peninsula. However, Russia, France, and Germany intervened and left Japan with no choice but to pull back. Russia’s expanding influence in Joseon at this time was particularly irksome to Japan.
Japan knew that if it did not expel Russia from Korea, it would not be able to achieve its objective of using the peninsula as a military base. Therefore, Japan spared no efforts in ridding Korea of Russian influence. Japan, concerned by the increasing pro-Russian sentiment among the Joseon elite, ended up assassinating Empress Myeongseong (also known as Queen Min), who was behind the pro-Russian policy.
Japan, having undergone the humiliation of having to return the Liaodong Peninsula to Qing China due to the Triple Intervention, took the long-awaited opportunity on February 8, 1904, to launch a surprise attack against two Russian warships in Lushun Harbor. This marked the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. On the same day, the Japanese army ignored the Joseon government’s declaration of neutrality and began penetrating the peninsula through Incheon, Namyang, Gunsan, and Wonsan. The Kikoshi Brigade, the advance party of the Japanese army, entered Seoul on February 9. They were followed by the main force, the Twelfth Army Division led by Inoue Hikaru. Japan planned much more meticulously this time to transform Korea into a military base, which it had failed to do ten years earlier during the Sino-Japanese War.
On February 23, 1904, the Japanese army surrounded the royal palace, threatened the royal household and government, and forced the signing of the Korea-Japan Protocol Agreement^{[note 002]}. Based on this document, Japan expanded its authority to occupy or expropriate areas deemed necessary for the stationing of troops or ones with strategic military value. Japan’s efforts to annex Joseon had become even more conspicuous.
In April 1904, Japan set up the command post for the imperial soldiers stationed in the Great Han [Korean] Empire and deployed soldiers to all areas of the peninsula. When the Russo-Japanese War peaked in July 1904, the Japanese commander stationed in the Korean Empire - having no legal authority to do so - installed a military government in Hamgyeong-do, in the northeast. By January 1905, the gendarmerie attached to the Japanese army even went so far as to assume police authority in Seoul and the adjoining areas. The Japanese promulgated severe martial rule so as to protect the military telegraph lines and railroads it had installed to aid the war effort. Anyone who damaged these military facilities or hindered the war effort was to be punished or even executed.
The Japanese also established fortresses in Yeonghung Bay and Jinhae, proclaimed martial law in those places, and seized the land these fortresses had occupied. By the end of July 1905, the Japanese tried to force Joseon into handing over as much as 9,750,000 pyeong (38,547,500 square yards) of land for military use in Yongsan, Pyeongyang, and Uiju.
With the situation being what it was, there was absolutely no way Ulleungdo and Dokdo, which were places of strategic importance to the Japanese in the war against Russia, could escape the seizure by Japan. Since the early stages of the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese Army had become well aware of the strategic value of these islands. Ulleungdo and Dokdo formed the strategic axis where the southward-bound Russian Vladivostok Fleet and the combined Japanese fleet collided. The Russian fleet threatened Japan’s control of the seas, and on the days around May 15, 1904, the Japanese navy had already lost a third of its forces.
The Japanese forces, fighting for their very existence, had no choice but to devise the best strategy possible to break out of this crisis. Constructing new warships would have taken too much time, the Japanese took account of the strained war situation, and formulated a plan to use their remaining warships to effectively prosecute the war. It involved an expansion of naval bases and the installation of watchtowers to track the enemy’s movement.
Ulleungdo and Dokdo were absolutely vital to Japan’s battle plans. On May 18, 1904, Japan tried to force the Korean Empire into depriving Russia of the timber-felling rights to Ulleungdo which it had gained from the Empire, and then eliminated all Russian influence from the island by blockading it. On September 1, Japanese forces constructed two watchtowers each for the east and west sides of Ulleungdo. Next, in order to install one watchtower on Dokdo as well, the Japanese dispatched the warship Nitaka-maru to survey the island. The Nitaka-maru departed on September 24, five days before a man named Nakai Yosaburō submitted a written application to the Japanese government for the incorporation of Dokdo into Japan.
Nakai Yosaburō was a commercial fisherman who plied his trade along foreign coastlines in a diving suit, and had been scheming to secure a monopoly over the numerous sea lions^{[note 003]} that inhabited Dokdo. When he first hatched his scheme, he knew that Dokdo was Korean territory and sought to submit a temporary-lease petition for the island to Joseon through the Japanese government. However, Kimotsuki Kaneyuki, Director of the Hydrographic Office in the Ministry of the navy, incited Nakai to submit a petition to the Japanese government on September 29 to incorporate Dokdo into the national territory.
When Nakai submitted “A Request for the Incorporation of the Liancourt Islands into Japan’s National Territory and for its Lease”(Riyankotō Ryōdo hennyū narabi Kashisage negai), a director named Inoue of the Home Ministry protested.
Upon having his petition rejected by the Home Ministry, Nakai turned to the Bureau of Political Affairs in the Foreign Ministry. Bureau Head Yamaza Enjirō had been deeply involved in the Russo-Japanese War from beginning to end, and was known for having drafted the declaration of war against Russia. His reaction to the petition was completely different from that of the Home Ministry.
The Bureau head’s assertion of the merits of installing watchtowers and submarine cables to track enemy warships became a reality. In November 1904, the Japanese Navy again deployed a warship, the Tsushima-maru, to Dokdo for the purpose of surveying suitable locations for the construction of surveillance towers and communications facilities. However, the building of such towers on Dokdo was delayed due to the harsh winter weather and the difficulties presented by the ongoing war.
On January 1, 1905, the Japanese takeover of Lushun from the Russians marked a turning point in the war. Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, supreme commander of the Japanese combined fleet, ordered all Japanese warships to gather in the Korea Strait to crush the Russian Baltic Fleet coming through the Indian Ocean. After having surrendered Lushun to the Japanese, it was obvious the Russian Baltic Fleet would have to pass through the straits to sail towards Vladivostok.
During this critical juncture, the Japanese wartime cabinet initiated concrete plans to seize Dokdo. On January 10, Home Minister Yoshikawa Akimasa sent a secret message to Prime Minister Katsura Tarō, entitled “The Case Regarding the Uninhabited Island”(Munintō shozoku ni kansuru ken), which requested the opening of a cabinet meeting to incorporate Dokdo. On January 28, the prime minister, navy minister, and eleven cabinet members made the decision to add Dokdo to Japan.
The Japanese government, approving the application of Nakai, a fisherman, moved to seize Dokdo by force at lightning speed. On February 22, 1905, the prefectural governor of Shimane announced “Shimane Prefectural Notice No. 40,” which placed Dokdo under the jurisdiction of the Oki Islands Branch Office of Shimane Prefecture. This proclamation is the most important one backing current Japanese claims to Dokdo.
Since the Russian Baltic Fleet had already taken seven months to finally reach the Korea Strait on May 27, 1905, the condition of the fleet was at its worst. The sailors of the Baltic Fleet were worn out beyond exhaustion, and right after they encountered the Japanese combined fleet - which had been prepared in every regard - their ships were sunk one after the other. Admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhdestvenski, supreme commander of the wounded Baltic Fleet, was captured as a prisoner of war in the seas near Ulleungdo. Rear Admiral Nikolai Ivanovich Nebogatov replaced the admiral as supreme commander and fled the Japanese fleet all night long, but was captured as a prisoner of war on the morning of May 28 in the seas near Dokdo. This was the moment in which the Russian Baltic Fleet was completely destroyed by the Japanese combined fleet.
The Japanese forces, which had decimated the Russian Baltic Fleet in the seas near Ulleungdo and Dokdo, only grew more keenly aware of the strategic value of these islands. Russia still retained extraordinary military power, and since Japan did not know when she might have to war with Russia again, 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. The Japanese Navy deployed the Hashidate-maru in June to conduct another survey of Dokdo. They began construction on the observation tower on July 25 and finished on August 19.
Although Japan had thought the war would last much longer, the Portsmouth Treaty^{[note 004]} was concluded on September 5, much earlier than expected. The watchtower on Dokdo had lost its reason for being and was demolished on October 24.
The Japanese forces installed a submarine cable between Ulleungdo and Dokdo on October 8, and another between Dokdo and Matsue in Japan on November 9. Although the war was over, the Japanese forces did not hide their ambition 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 large photos of Dokdo and introduced it as the famous place where the Japanese fleet had won a complete victory over the Russian fleet. To the Japanese, Dokdo was a place to memorize their complete victory in the war to invade the Korean Peninsula.
Immediately after the war with Russia, Japan forced the signing of the Korea-Japan Protocol Agreement in February, 1904, the Korea-Japan Agreement in August, 1904, the Treaty of 1905 (also known as Protectorate Treaty), The Korea-Japan New Agreement in July 1907, and the Treaty of Annexation in August 1910, concluding Japan’s plans to absorb the Korean Peninsula.
In the final analysis, the first target of Japanese imperialism in its plan to annex Korea was the seizure of Dokdo.