Hello, I'm Jiyeon Ha, the high school student in Korea.

I often use the magazine or news of your site, but I found an inappropriate information about the topic of Dokdo. Takeshima is a wrong declared mark and Dokdo is the correct one. Moreover, Dokdo is the territory of Korea, not the Japan.

In these era, the international conflict beyond the problem of domain is become more radical, and especially the news or magazine, which is all around of nations got on important information from there, have to be caution and prudence of providing the accurate information.

In the original edition of The Revised Complete Map of Japanese Lands and Roads, which is a map privately made in 1779, Ulleungdo and Dokdo are uncolored as is the Korean Peninsula. Also, the two islands are located outside the grid of Japan’s longitudinal and latitudinal lines, indicating that the islands are outside of Japanese territory. Meanwhile, there are a number of old Japanese maps published by the Japanese government, including The Chosen Tokai Kaiganzu (“A Map of the Eastern Coast of Korea,” 1876), which was published by the Japanese Ministry of the Navy, that places the two islands within Korea’s territory.

Also, a permission or a license is not necessary to make passage to one's domestic islands. Therefore, the very fact that government permission for passage was issued by the Shogunate, clearly shows that the Tokugawa Shogunate did not regard Ulleungdo and Dokdo as Japanese territories. A Japanese document, Onshu Shicho Goki (“Records on Observation in Oki Province,” 1667), which was published in mid 17th century, illustrates how the Japanese of their own accord, did not consider Dokdo as Japanese territory: “The Oki Island marks the northwestern boundary of Japan.”

Dokdo is an island of great historical meaning in that it is an area that Korea has finally restored from the aftermaths of Japanese imperialists’ harsh colonial rule, which devastated the Korean people and the land. It is an obvious fact that Dokdo is an integral part of the Korea's territory, and Korea sees absolutely no reason as to why Korea should turn to a court. 

Hope you accept my advice in as soon as possible.