Northeast Asian History Network

1 Background Information on The Imperial Ordinance No. 41 of the Great Han Empire

In 1899, Russia had legal logging rights in Ulleungdo. The Russian government submitted a written diplomatic protest to the government of the Great Han Empire after discovering illegal Japanese logging activity on the island. In May 1899, the Great Han Empire government prohibited illegal logging and dispatched Bae Gye-ju as mayor to Ulleungdo to oversee the Japanese colonists' activities.
Additionally, to eliminate the doubts of both the Russians and the Japanese, a foreign customs accountant working in Busan was assigned to accompany Bae Gye-ju to Ulleungdo to jointly investigate and report their findings. According to their report, hundreds of Japanese people had illegally formed a colony on Ulleungdo around May 1899, and they were conducting logging operations and shipping timber to Japan. Various agricultural commodities were also being harvested and transported.
Ulleungdo’s mayor Bae Gye-ju reported these findings to the Great Han Empire government and requested strong and decisive action from the government against the Japanese colonists. Upon receiving this report, the government contacted the Embassy of Japan and demanded that the illegal colonists return to Japan. In addition, demands were made for the punishment of these colonists for their transgressions in accordance with the Korea-Japan Trade Regulations of 1876.
However, to avoid responsibility, the Embassy of Japan responded by citing a rule from the Korea-Japan Trade Regulations which stated that the suspects must be transferred to Japanese control. In December 1899, after reconsidering the need for reactionary measures, the Great Han Empire government dispatched the Minister of Home Affairs Woo Yong-jung as part of an inspection committee to Ulleungdo to re-investigate the case. Woo Yong-jung, Japanese inspectors, and an unrelated third party formed the inspection committee.
Thus in 1900, Woo Yong-jung led the inspection committee to investigate. Members of the committee included Kim Myeon-su (Comptroller), E. Laporte (Busan customs tax accountant), Kim Sung-won, Akatsuka Seisuke (Vice-Consul gazette), and a police officer. The inspection committee arrived in Ulleungdo on May 31 and conducted investigations for five days in the presence of Laporte.
After the investigation, the Great Han Empire decided to minimize the need to establish defensive measures for Ulleungdo and Dokdo and instead to revise the administrative control of the area. On October 25, 1900, Imperial Ordinance No. 41 of the Great Han Empire declared that Ulleungdo be raised to Uldo County and raised the position of mayor of Ulleungdo to governor of Uldo County. Dokdo was placed under the administration of Uldo County governorship at this time.

2 Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Index Number 677 (SCAPIN)

The name of the document is Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Index Number 677. On August 15, 1945, Japan declared its unconditional surrender. The Japanese government made an official announcement to abide by the terms expressed in the Potsdam Declaration on September 9, 1945. After the Japanese Instrument of Surrender formalized the surrender of the Empire of Japan, the SCAP headquarters was installed in Tokyo to oversee the Allied occupation. To enforce the various provisions of the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration, SCAP began dismantling operations of the Empire of Japan. On January 29, 1946, SCAPIN 677 was issued, which had eight provisions. The purpose of the declaration was to define the scope of Japanese domain as the four main islands of Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku) and approximately 1,000 smaller adjacent islands. The third provision expressly excluded Ulleungdo, Dokdo, and Jejudo from Japanese territory. Ulleungdo, Dokdo, and Jejudo were expressly excluded from Japanese control and designated to be restored to the soon-to-be independent Korea. Dokdo was expressly excluded from the scope of Japan’s territorial, political, and administrative rights. Eventually, the Government of the Republic of Korea was established, and the contents of SCAPIN 677 remained intact until the United States military transferred control to the Korean government. The Government of the Republic of Korea received control over Dokdo as part of the Korean territory from the United States military.
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Index Number 677